Brad Leone

Leone was born on May 16, 1985[1] in northern New Jersey, near Mountain Creek.[3] He has described his professional background as being "kind of all over the place",[4] having worked a variety of jobs both in and outside the food service industry, including as a caterer, a delicatessen worker, a kitchen chef for multiple restaurants,[4] a glazier, and a carpenter.[5][6] At 26, Leone moved to Brooklyn, New York,[3] where he studied at the Institute of Culinary Education.[4] Leone developed an interest in fermentation after being given a SCOBY.[5]

After graduating, Leone was hired as an intern at Bon Appétit as a test kitchen assistant, a role which required him to perform "all the shopping, all the cleaning and certainly all the dishes", leading him to describe his position as "a glorified dishwashing job".[5] He was later offered a full-time position at the magazine,[5] eventually working his way up to Test Kitchen Manager.[7]

In 2016, amid an effort by Bon Appétit to increase its YouTube presence, creative director Alex Grossman conceived of a web series that would follow Leone in the magazine's test kitchen.[5] The first video, which followed Leone making kombucha, was shot and subsequently shelved for eight months before camera operator Vincent Cross convinced the magazine to post the video.[5] The video, which would become the first episode of It's Alive with Brad, debuted on October 21, 2016.[8]

It's Alive with Brad developed into a regular series that follows Leone as he creates food with microbial food cultures, though later episodes additionally focus on more general recipes and on-location activities.[9] The series stars Leone and is filmed, produced, and edited by Matt Hunziker. Cross previously filmed and produced the show until he left for Binging with Babish in February 2019.[3] It's Alive has been praised for its comedic editing and for Leone's laid-back cooking style, having been described as "part cooking show, part travel show, part Pop-Up Video and part continuous blooper reel".[3][10] The loose and personality-driven style of It's Alive, along with Gourmet Makes starring Claire Saffitz, are noted as contrasting the "curated [and] posh" brand of Bon Appétit[6] and were described by Forbes as having "changed the way Condé Nast approaches online video".[11]

In late 2018, Leone transitioned roles at Bon Appétit, moving out of his role as Test Kitchen Manager to focus exclusively on creating videos.[12] An It's Alive spin-off series, It's Alive: Goin' Places, was launched in 2019 on Bon Appétit's dedicated streaming channel;[13] the first season follows Leone in Central Texas, while the second season follows Leone in Hawaii.[14] That same year, Leone was nominated at the 11th Shorty Awards in the category "Best in Food" for his work on It's Alive.[15]

Leone resides in New Jersey with his partner, Peggy, and two sons, Callen and Griffin.[16][17]

• Brad Leone at IMDb