Levitan worked as a
WKOW-TV on-air news reporter and morning anchorman in
Madison, Wisconsin, and as a copywriter at Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago. He moved to
Hollywood in 1989. As executive producer, Levitan won an
Emmy Award in 1996 for
Frasier in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. He was also nominated in that same year for Outstanding Writing in Comedy Series category for
The Larry Sanders Show. He was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series category for
Just Shoot Me! and two more as executive producer. Levitan won the
Humanitas Prize (for writers whose work best communicates and encourages human values) in 1996 for the
Frasier episode titled "Breaking the Ice". Levitan has also won a
CableACE Award and a Writers Guild nomination for
The Larry Sanders Show. He also garnered a Producers Guild Award and a Television Critics Association Award for
Frasier, a People's Choice Award for
Stark Raving Mad and a
Golden Globe nomination for
Just Shoot Me! His company,
Steven Levitan Productions, has produced the series
Just Shoot Me!,
Stark Raving Mad,
Greg the Bunny,
Oliver Beene and
Stacked. Levitan and television writer/producer
Christopher Lloyd joined as partners in 2006 and together created a production company named "Picture Day". It is under this company that they produced their co-creations
Back to You and
Modern Family. In 2010,
Modern Family won the
Emmy Award for
Outstanding Comedy Series, as well as two other Emmy Awards:
Outstanding Supporting Actor in Comedy Series for
Eric Stonestreet, and
Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Steven Levitan and
Christopher Lloyd. He has also earned
Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series nominations for
Modern Family episodes "
See You Next Fall" (2011) and "Baby on Board" (2012), winning the latter. On June 19, 2018, Levitan, along with
Seth MacFarlane and
Judd Apatow, announced he was considering leaving
20th Century Fox as protest of
Fox News's reporting of Donald Trump's
family separation policy which is at odds with
Modern Familys programming. ==Personal life==