Brad Leone

Brad Samuel Leone is a chef and YouTube personality. He is known for his appearances in videos produced by Bon Appétit for its YouTube channel, most notably as the host of "It's Alive with Brad" and its spinoff series "It's Alive: Goin' Places."

He has described his professional background as being "kind of all over the place," having worked a variety of jobs both in and outside the food service industry, including as a caterer, a kitchen chef for multiple restaurants, a glazier, and a carpenter. At 26, Leone moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he studied at the Institute of Culinary Education. Leone developed an interest in fermentation after being given a SCOBY.

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." He was later offered a full-time position at the magazine, eventually working his way up to Test Kitchen Manager.

"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. "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." 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 and were described by Forbes as having "changed the way Condé Nast approaches online video."