Jeremy Stevens

Biography

Jeremy Stevens was an American writer and producer. Stevens earned a degree in theater at Brooklyn College before studying with acting coaches Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof. Several small off-Broadway roles led to his being added to the cast of the original Broadway production of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. While studying improvisational theatre, Stevens was offered his first opportunity to write for television on a variety show hosted by former Tonight Show bandleader Skitch Henderson. This led to more writing jobs in variety television, including Playboy After Dark, Saturday Night Live, and shows hosted by Mac Davis and Barbara Mandrell. Stevens won his first Emmy Award in 1972, as one of the founding writers of the children's television program The Electric Company for PBS. He would go on to write for such shows as Fernwood Tonight/America 2-Nite, The Richard Pryor Show, What's Happening?, Mork & Mindy, Dear John, and Coach. Stevens met writer Phil Rosenthal in the early 1990s, beginning a friendship that would lead to his joining the writing staff of Everybody Loves Raymond. He would remain for all nine seasons, serving as executive producer and earning two Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series. Stevens traveled back and forth to Russia, spending the better part of seven years supervising the successful Russian version of Everybody Loves Raymond ('Voroniny'). Stevens died October 27, 2020, in Northridge, California. He was 82.