Sam Levinson

Sam Levinson is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and actor whose work includes the HBO dramas Euphoria and The Idol. He was born on January 8, 1985, in the United States, and is the son of filmmaker Barry Levinson and production designer Diana Rhodes. As a child actor, he appeared in Barry Levinson’s Toys (1992), alongside Robin Williams, and later had parts in Bandits (2001) and What Just Happened (2008).

Levinson made his feature directing debut with Another Happy Day (2011), a family drama centered on Lynn, played by Ellen Barkin, as her family gathers for her son’s wedding. The ensemble includes Ellen Burstyn, Kate Bosworth, Ezra Miller, Michael Nardelli, Thomas Haden Church, George Kennedy, and Demi Moore. Levinson won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival for its screenplay. His next feature, Assassination Nation (2018), follows four teenage friends in Salem, Massachusetts, after a mass data leak exposes residents’ private communications; it stars Odessa Young, Suki Waterhouse, Abra, Hari Nef, and Bill Skarsgård.

For HBO, Levinson created Euphoria, an American adaptation of the Israeli series of the same name. It premiered in June 2019 and follows Rue Bennett, a high-school student and recovering drug addict portrayed by Zendaya. The series also foregrounds Rue’s relationship with Jules Vaughn, played by Hunter Schafer, while its large ensemble includes Maude Apatow, Eric Dane, Alexa Demie, Jacob Elordi, Barbie Ferreira, Angus Cloud, and Sydney Sweeney. Zendaya won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for the role in 2020 and 2022, becoming the youngest two-time winner in that category.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Levinson wrote and directed Malcolm & Marie (2021), a two-character black-and-white film starring Zendaya and John David Washington as a couple arguing through one night after a movie premiere. Netflix released it after acquiring it from the filmmakers. In 2023, HBO aired The Idol, which Levinson co-created with Abel “the Weeknd” Tesfaye and Reza Fahim. The series stars Tesfaye as nightclub impresario Tedros and Lily-Rose Depp as pop singer Jocelyn; it ran for five episodes and was not renewed for a second season.

Levinson also wrote the HBO Euphoria special episodes released in 2020 and 2021, focusing respectively on Rue and Jules. The second regular season premiered in January 2022. His productions often use heightened stylization, but their stories repeatedly return to addiction, family conflict, and public exposure as central concerns.