Timothy "Speed" Levitch ( /ˈlɛvɪtʃ/ ; born July 9, 1970) is an American actor, tour guide, poet, speaker, philosopher, author and voice actor. The name "Speed" was given to him by a childhood friend in high school. Levitch has appeared in multiple films and has had his poetic and philosophical works published in books and periodicals.
Levitch was born July 9, 1970, in New York City. He mostly grew up in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, where he attended the Horace Mann School. [1] When he was 12, his parents bought a house in Westchester County, New York, and he was briefly a suburbanite. He longed to return to New York City and eventually did.
In 1992 he received his tour guide license from the Central Park Conservancy. He later took a position with Apple and Gray Line Tours as a tour bus guide. He soon attracted a cultlike following, due not only to his fast talking style, but also for his obvious love of portraying his native city in psychedelic terms and with passionate philosophical ideas. Levitch's cult spread beyond New York when he became the subject of the 1998 documentary The Cruise . In 2000 he was a citizen of the art project Quiet, We Live in Sane.
In 2012 Levitch premiered a new documentary video series, Up to Speed , on its own Hulu channel. Directed by Richard Linklater, the series takes viewers on virtual tours of American cities, conversing with inanimate objects like San Francisco's gold fire hydrant and Chicago's original Haymarket Riot memorial. [2]
Levitch is a member of The Ongoing Wow, a band in which he does spoken word over improvised music with Gals Panic and The Sinus Show member Jerm Pollet.
In 2007, Levitch moved to Kansas City and started a tour business called "Taste of KC."
The Bronx is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York City borough of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km2) and a population of 1,472,654 in the 2020 census. If each borough were ranked as a city, the Bronx would rank as the ninth-most-populous in the U.S. Of the five boroughs, it has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density. It is the only borough of New York City not primarily on an island. With a population that is 54.8% Hispanic as of 2020, it is the only majority-Hispanic county in the Northeastern United States and the fourth-most-populous nationwide.
Coy Luther "Luke" Perry III was an American actor. He became a teen idol for playing Dylan McKay on the Fox television series Beverly Hills, 90210 from 1990 to 1995, and again from 1998 to 2000. He also starred as Fred Andrews on the CW series Riverdale. He had guest roles on notable shows such as Criminal Minds, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Simpsons, and Will & Grace, as well as a recurring role as Rick Jones in The Incredible Hulk (1996-1997) from Marvel Comics, and also starred in several films, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), 8 Seconds (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), his final feature performance.
Waking Life is a 2001 American experimental adult animated film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, the meaning of life, free will, and existentialism. It is centered on a young man who wanders through a succession of dream-like realities wherein he encounters a series of individuals who engage in insightful philosophical discussions.
Riverdale is a residential neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of the Bronx. Riverdale, which had a population of 47,850 as of the 2000 United States Census, contains the city's northernmost point, at the College of Mount Saint Vincent. Riverdale's boundaries are disputed, but it is commonly agreed to be bordered by Yonkers to the north, Van Cortlandt Park and Broadway to the east, the Kingsbridge neighborhood to the southeast, either the Harlem River or the Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Riverdale Avenue is the primary north–south thoroughfare through Riverdale.
Horace Mann School is a private, independent college-preparatory school in the Bronx, founded in 1887. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from the New York metropolitan area from nursery school to the twelfth grade. The Upper, Middle, and Lower Divisions are located in Riverdale, a neighborhood of the Bronx, while the Nursery School is located in Manhattan. The John Dorr Nature Laboratory, a 275 acres (111 ha) campus in Washington Depot, Connecticut, serves as the school's outdoor and community education center. Tuition for the 2022–23 school year from pre-kindergarten through grade twelve is $59,800 per annum, not including some additional fees, one of which exceeds $1,000.
Josie and the Pussycats is a teen-humor comic book about a fictional rock band, created by Dan DeCarlo and published by Archie Comics. It was published from 1963 until 1982; since then, one-shot issues have appeared on an irregular basis. A second series, set in the New Riverdale universe, launched in September 2016.
Fieldston is a privately owned affluent neighborhood in the Riverdale section of the northwestern part of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is bounded by Manhattan College Parkway to the south, Henry Hudson Parkway to the west, 250th Street to the north, and Broadway to the east. It is noted for its rural atmosphere, large houses and abundance of trees. The majority of the neighborhood is included in the Fieldston Historic District, designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2006.
The Cruise is a 76-minute documentary released in 1998. It was the debut film of Bennett Miller, who became prominent after directing Capote (2005). The film records the worldview and personality of Timothy "Speed" Levitch, who was then a guide for bus tours of New York City. Levitch had become popular for his unconventional narrative about the city that he delivered at a frenetic pace.
Stroker & Hoop is an American adult animated television series created by Casper Kelly and Jeffrey G. Olsen for Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. The series is a parody of buddy cop films and television series such as Starsky & Hutch, and stars the voices of Jon Glaser as Stroker and Timothy "Speed" Levitch as Hoop. It contains the talking car element of the 1982 series Knight Rider, in "C.A.R.R.", voiced by Paul Christie. The names of the lead characters may be based on two Burt Reynolds characters, from Stroker Ace and Hooper.
Ned Eisenberg was an American actor known for his recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Roger Kressler.
Riverdale Country School is a co-educational, independent, college-preparatory day school in New York City serving pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is located on two campuses covering more than 27.5 acres (111,000 m2) in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York, United States. Started as a school for boys, Riverdale Country School became fully coeducational in 1972. It currently serves 1,140 students.
The Ivy Preparatory School League is a high school athletic conference of university-preparatory schools in New York City and its suburbs. The Ivy Preparatory School League has no affiliation with the Ivy League universities.
Timothy MacKenzie Gunn is an American author, academic, and television personality. He served on the faculty of Parsons School of Design from 1982 to 2007 and was chair of fashion design at the school from August 2000 to March 2007, after which he joined Liz Claiborne as its chief creative officer. Over 16 seasons, Gunn has become well known as the on-air mentor to designers on the reality television program Project Runway. Gunn's popularity on Project Runway led to two spin-off shows; Bravo's Tim Gunn's Guide to Style and Lifetime's Under the Gunn, as well as five books. In addition to being an executive producer, Gunn has served as mentor for the teen designers on Project Runway: Junior. He also provides the voice of Baileywick, the castle steward in the Disney Junior television show Sofia the First and narrated the sitcom Mixology.
Lance Taylor, also known as Afrika Bambaataa, is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing.
Benjamin Joseph Schwartz is an American actor and comedian. He has guest starred as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation and Clyde Oberholt on the Showtime series House of Lies; voiced Randy Cunningham in Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, Dewey Duck in DuckTales, and Leonardo in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; and appeared many times in the CollegeHumor web series Jake and Amir.
Mark Jake Johnson Weinberger is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred as Nick Miller in the Fox sitcom New Girl (2011–2018), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series in 2013. He has also voiced a version of Spider-Man in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and its 2023 sequel.
Up to Speed is a historical travel web series starring Timothy "Speed" Levitch and directed by Richard Linklater airing on Hulu.
The Barnard School for Boys was a college prep-school founded in 1886 by William Livingston Hazen.
Riverdale Avenue Books, located in Riverdale, Bronx, New York, is a publisher of e-books, print books on demand and audiobooks founded in 2012 by Lori Perkins. Riverdale is a member of the American Association of Publishers and publishes between 50 and 75 books a year.
The Battle of the Bronx is a college sports rivalry between Manhattan College and Fordham University, two NCAA Division I schools that play in The Bronx district of New York City. The rivalry dates back to the men's basketball teams playing in 1911 and has since grown into a multi-sport rivalry, and one of the largest intra-city college rivalries in New York City.
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