(JTA) — Dan Levy, a star and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated show “Schitt’s Creek,” will be honored by GLAAD at their annual gala in San Francisco in September.
Levy, the son of fellow star Eugene Levy, will receive the Davidson/Valentini Award, named after the organization’s first executive director, Craig Davidson, and his partner, Michael Valentini.
The Levys, who created “Schitt’s Creek” together, play father and son on the show, and their interfaith family mirrors their real life.
Dan Levy, who identifies as gay, plays a pansexual character on “Schitt’s Creek.” He made a conscious decision to make the world in “Schitt’s Creek” a world without homophobia, explaining to the Advocate: “I have made a very strong point to not ever show bigotry, homophobia, or intolerance on our show because to me, it’s a celebration of love.”
“Through his work on-screen and behind the scenes of ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ Dan Levy moves LGBTQ visibility on television forward in humorous, compelling, and necessary ways,” Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, told Deadline on Tuesday. “By featuring and celebrating a pansexual character, Dan and ‘Schitt’s Creek’ are expanding representation of the spectrum of identities within the LGBTQ community in a way that other content creators should model.”
Previous recipients of this award include CNN anchor Don Lemon, Jewish musician Adam Lambert, and comedian Hannah Hart.
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