Today we’d like to introduce you to Louis Levanti.
Hi Louis, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I feel like a person’s story begins once they’re born, but for me the plot started to thicken once I entered college as a freshman. I attended Ithaca College where I studied Television and Digital Media and Integrated Marketing, neither of which I had any experience in. I thought I was going to go to school to become a doctor, but then I remembered I hate blood, so clearly that didn’t happen. Instead, I found myself immersed in media every single week until I graduated alongside some pretty amazing, and competitive peers. These people had media programs in their high schools, I had nothing of the sort, so I felt like I was at a disadvantage. Being the workhorse and determined Capricorn that I am I learned how to edit, use heavy-duty cameras, direct, produce and so much more. This helped me land internships at Good Morning America, Live with Kelly and Ryan and even Viacom (now Paramount). My school had a program where I spent a semester in LA, and once I came here I KNEW this was going to be my home, but how I was going to get here permanently was very up in the air.
While I was attending the LA the semester before my graduation I was frantically applying for jobs literally anywhere I could find and wasn’t having much luck until I messaged someone about a posting for a coordinator position at Viacom in NYC. Long story short, I interviewed before I even graduated and had a job before I even went back for the ceremony. From there I was working closely with digital execs in Times Square, learning the ins and outs of social media, content creation and helping to build some of the biggest brands like MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. TikTok started emerging at this point and I was one of those anti-TikTok people at first, but I would get bored around the office so I started just making silly little videos thinking nothing of it. This led me to help create TikTok content for the MTV EMA’s TikTok channel. Then the pandemic hit. I was indefinitely working from home and needed a creative outlet, so I decided to take a page out of the Comedy Central book and started posting Celebrity Roasts.
Overnight my first video had 5M+ views, and when I saw that, I refused to be a one-hit wonder. While working my regular corporate job, I was making Celebrity and Pop Culture TikToks that helped me build an audience and led to other opportunities. As we got further and further into the work from home world, I started to feel like I was doing myself a disservice by staying at my parents home on Long Island when I knew I belonged in Los Angeles. Fast forward to now, I’ve built an audience of over 3M+ followers/subscribers who tune in for my everyday content which has now adapted into being anything and everything. I currently work as a producer at Paramount. I’ve had the opportunity to interview influencers and celebrities, create meaningful content, attend some of the coolest events, and meet some of the most amazing people out there. I also found myself – I came out back in November of 2021, 2 months after I had moved to LA and for me, that was when I truly started living. It’s crazy to think I started out as someone who thought they’d be only working a corporate 9-5 for the rest of their life, and now I’m in LA where every day is magical.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road definitely wasn’t smooth.
I feel like when you have a career you expect it to be the best thing ever because at one point it was everything you wanted. When I started working my corporate job, I became so mindless – commuting back and forth, following a robotic routine just to do it all over again. I became so unsatisfied with life – I remember hysterical crying in my mom’s car before I got on my train to go to work – I was truly at my breaking point. I felt I had nothing to look forward to, I was unmotivated, I felt alone.
There’s a lot of comparison in this area of work and when I first started out, I was always comparing my content, myself and everything under the sun to other people. It was taxing on my mental health and definitely led me to fall into some of my deepest holes. Sometimes I felt I wasn’t good enough for what I was doing. But I’m not the type of person to give up on something as good as this.
Coming to terms with my sexuality was a bumpy road in itself, and with everything else piled on top it was definitely a struggle. For the longest time, I had been closeted because I was too afraid of what people would think, I didn’t want to prove my bullies right, I didn’t want to be subject to any harm. Once I arrived in LA, I got off the plane and in my heart, I knew it was my time to be myself. Once I came out to everyone, I felt such a huge weight lifted off of me that had been sitting on my shoulder for years upon years.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a Producer and Host for Paramount working on brands such as AwesomenessTV, Nickelodeon, MTV and more. My day to day consists of essentially doing what I do for my own personal brand, but for these acclaimed and decorated brands – pitching concepts, developing them, producing them and seeing them through all the way to publishing across social channels.
While producing, I also serve as a host for social segments and shows. I am currently the host of a show called Bed of Lies where we hook up influencers to a lie detector and they lay down in a bed with me (fully clothed) and I ask them questions to see if they lie or own up to allegations and juicy tea. It’s currently in its 2nd season and we are hearing a possibility of a third. I think Bed of Lies is one of my proudest moments. I had developed this concept for months trying to get it perfect and then had to pitch it to execs in hopes of it getting green-lit. On top of that, I knew I would be the perfect host for it so I had to sell that too, and I did. Another proud moment was that I hosted a bunch of interview segments at last year’s VidCon where I got to interact with creators from all different backgrounds, ask them questions and make for great social moments.
What you see is what you get with me and I think that is what truly sets me apart. The creator/influencer world tends to be super fabricated and a lot of the people you may meet may not seem as great as you thought. Sometimes when my boyfriend and I attend events, he’ll turn to me and say, “Thank God you’re not like any of these people.” For me, I want other people to know that they belong, that they are necessary and that they are talented because at one point I didn’t feel like I was. People remember the way you make them feel, so I take every opportunity to make people feel important. Having meaningful conversations is super important to me and can make the biggest impact. On a different note, my brand is very much your brutally honest best friend (honest does not equal mean). I pride myself in being able to use my voice and speak up when I feel it’s necessary. I’m not afraid to say what’s on my mind, tell it like it is and how it is and ultimately be a shoulder to lean on for others without cradling them and saying only what they want to hear. Lastly, being from New York now living in LA, I still have that fast-paced mentality and that definitely gives me an advantage here. I move efficiently and quickly, I get things done, and I attempt to do it flawlessly.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
There’s no such thing as being cringe or weird. Don’t let the thought of other people’s opinions stop you from following your dreams. If I had never posted my first viral video because of what I thought some random person I went to high school with would say, I would not be here right now. So, POST that video, APPLY for that job, ASK for that raise – do it all because you won’t know unless you try.
One of my favorite mottos is “I don’t compete where I don’t compare.” Once I wrapped my head around the fact that my goals, my future, my life, etc. is not identical to anyone else’s, I learned to stop comparing my successes or failures to others. Everyone operates on their own timeline, as long as you get to the finish line, then you’re a winner.
Another piece of advice I’ve recently been thinking about is: it’s okay to keep things to yourself. I think a lot of the time we are all obsessed with showing off our successes to the world that we get caught oversharing everything in our lives and it takes the sparkle out of life. Things aren’t special when everyone has access to them. My boyfriend and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary and the old version of myself was saying “ah we have to make videos for our 1 year and post,” but the new version of me said, “this is a special moment for US.” Why ruin it by making it revolve around social media?
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louislevanti/?hl=en
- Facebook: facebook.com/louislevanti1
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/louislevanti
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LouisLevanti1
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@louislevanti?lang=en
