Do we like Zachary Levi?
Our score: 4 out of 10. Real, ongoing charity work sits against vaccine claims about a late colleague and a loud political turn, so he lands in the middle.
Levi grew up in Ventura, California, and by his own account felt like an outsider as a kid. He found his people in the Buena High School drama department. The arc after that is Chuck, Flynn Rider in Tangled, Fandral in Thor, and a Broadway run in She Loves Me. He lost the Star-Lord role to Chris Pratt, then landed Shazam!.
The trouble started in January 2023, when Levi replied “Hardcore agree” to a tweet asking if Pfizer is a real danger to the world. He then linked a Justice Department release about a 2009 Pfizer settlement, saying it was one example of what he meant. Plenty of followers read it as anti-vaccine. AV Club noted at the time that he hadn't made specifically anti-vaccine statements. That was the early version of the story.
The bigger stoush came in October 2024. In an Instagram video after the death of his She Loves Me co-star Gavin Creel, Levi said he believed Creel would still be alive without the Covid vaccine. Comic Sands reported that his claims about vaccine side effects are not true, and The Daily Beast reported that the remarks horrified the Broadway community. Co-star Laura Benanti told a podcast she'd “never liked” him and accused him of using Creel's memory for his political agenda. TheWrap reported it got no response from Levi's team.
Politically, Levi endorsed Trump late in the 2024 campaign, after RFK Jr. joined Trump's side. He agreed to moderate a conversation with Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard. He told TheWrap that backing Trump was “more important than saving my career”. He's also said he wasn't “a fan of Trump's Trumpiness”, and that some people in the industry would rather not work with him now. Whether you read that as courage or a pity party depends on your politics.
On the harm check, the vaccine claims are the clear problem. Public health misinformation, especially about a dead friend, does real damage. On LGBTQ+ people I found no campaigning or harmful words of his own. The only item was a 2023 report that he followed an account called Gays Against Groomers, which the outlet described as alleged to be anti-LGBTQ+. He hadn't commented at the time. His recent work is faith-friendly films and Angel Studios, and nothing I checked there amounts to a pattern.
The good stuff is genuine. Through his nonprofit NerdHQ, Levi ran three nights of events at Utah's FanX convention in 2025 that raised more than $80,000. The money goes toward free therapy for people who can't afford it. That's practical help, not a photo op.