Prior to studying theater, he was a music major, played the saxophone, and was a jazz and rock-and-roll musician.
He made his debut as a professional stage director in 1980 at the One Act Theatre Company in San Francisco, where he focused on the development of new work, directing many of the plays of Michael Lynch, among others, and at the Magic Theatre, directing the plays of Lynne Kaufman, among others.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and joined the staff of the Fountain Theatre in 1993.
He has taught playwriting at UCLA Writer's Extension and Chapman University, been a site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council, and is a member of numerous theater and humanitarian organizations, including the Dramatists Guild, Society for Directors and Choreographers, and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.
Levy is the recipient of numerous directing and producing awards, including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's Milton Katselas Career Achievement Award in Directing.