Leif Donnelly

### Romances

Joan Bennett (fling, unrequited love)Kaia (went out on one date with, used for networking)

### Affiliation

* SPRQ Point fourth floor
* SPRQ Point sixth floor (former)

## Series Information

### Lastappearance

Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas

**Leif Donnelly** is a main character on *Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist*. After being a recurring character in Season One, he was elevated to a series regular character in Season Two. He is one of Zoey's co-workers at SPRQ Point, working as a coder on the fourth floor and also briefly on the sixth floor. Leif started at SPRQ Point on the same day as Zoey and Max.

Leif took over the position of Manager of Engineering on in Zoey's absence. However, he took on the position permanently following Zoey's promotion to Executive Director of the fourth floor in "Zoey's Extraordinary Return."

He is portrayed by Michael Thomas Grant.

## Biography

* S1
* S2

### Pilot

After Zoey's interview with Joan, she tells Leif that Joan wants to see him next. When Leif asks her how the interview went and Tobin makes sexist remarks at Zoey, Leif defends her. Zoey and Leif both stay late at SPRQ Point to work on the bug in the SPRQ Point Watch. After seeing Zoey talk with Joan two days later, Leif asks her about whether Joan gave her a hint about the bug. He pretends to be on Zoey's side but then sings "All I Do Is Win" with the other coders. When Zoey comes to work on her first day as manager, Leif congratulates her.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Best Friend

Leif appears in Zoey's "I've Got The Music In Me" dream sequence. When Zoey gives her first speech as manager, Leif makes passive-aggressive comments. When Zoey reads from her journal from her first day of work at SPRQ Point, she says that Leif is a big genius and that she is intimidated to be in the same room as him.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Boss

When Max questions why Charlie's approval of the SPRQ Point Watch matters so much, Leif and Tobin ridicule him. Later, Leif and Tobin argue over who deserves to be the lead programmer for the watch demo. When Charlie arrives at SPRQ Point, Leif and the coders sing "Superstar" to him, holding him over their heads and rubbing the floor at his feet. Leif and Tobin are both starstruck when they approach Charlie.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Failure

When Joan calls in a confident Leif for his peer reviews, he is stunned to hear that his fellow coders think he is overly ambitious and self-righteous. Later, Zoey hears "Everybody Hurts" and opens up an isolation pod to find Leif languishing in his self-defeat. Zoey asks Leif if he's okay, but he dodges her attempts at reassurance and shuts himself inside the isolation pod. At one point, Leif draws a sad clown version of himself in his journal. Leif sings "Everybody Hurts" again at work, prompting Zoey to talk to Joan about the situation. Joan reveals she wrote Leif's peer review. Later, Zoey reads her own peer reviews to Leif, and Leif admits he wrote the one that said he deserved the promotion over Zoey. Zoey tries giving Leif constructive criticism, and he thanks Zoey for admitting she wrote the peer review. Zoey says he's missing the point.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Night Out

Tobin and Leif discuss the open bar at Simon's engagement party, and Zoey is surprised they are invited. When Zoey and Joan arrive at the party, Leif asks Zoey if she was pregaming with Joan and chastises her for trying to get ahead at work. Zoey makes a face at Leif and says he looks like Shaggy wearing Scooby-Doo. Later, as Joan sits and chats with Leif, they inadvertently come up with an idea for a device that could help people remember names in social situations. Later that night, they work on a plan for the device at SPRQ Point.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Confession

Joan announces that she and Leif came up with an idea and calls the coders into the conference room. Joan and Leif explain their idea, a Bluetooth device called the Chirp that uses a high-res camera and AI to search databases, filter results, and relay them back to the user. Joan insists that she and Leif are fine working alone on the Chirp for the moment. Later, Tobin approaches Leif and expresses pride in him but also disappointment that Leif didn't tell him about the project. Leif and Tobin discuss their Spell-iversary celebration. Tobin sings "Don't Speak" to Leif after he blows him off. He does not attend the Spell-iversary party, which hurts Tobin's feelings. Zoey tries to reconcile Tobin and Leif, but Tobin dejectedly says Leif is too busy. Later, Leif apologizes to Tobin and tells him he wants the two of them to run the place. That night, Zoey sees Joan and Leif talking. Leif starts singing "I Put A Spell On You" and then starts making out with Joan, which shocks Zoey.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Glitch

Joan and Leif flirt while Joan tells Zoey to make a timeline for the Chirp. Later, when Zoey presents them the timeline, Joan and Leif continue flirting and joking around. Zoey starts singing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," which baffles the other two. Later, Leif opens an isolation pod and finds Zoey inside, prompting her about the song she sang to him and Joan. Zoey blurts out that she saw Joan and Leif making out, and Leif triumphantly says that he knew and denies that he's up to something. After Zoey and Max perform "Pressure" at the Chirp presentation, Leif tells them that Joan wants to see them in her office and implies that they might get fired. When Zoey confronts Joan about her and Leif's relationship, Joan assures her that it is casual.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Outburst

Zoey mentions to Joan that she noticed Leif called in sick the same days that Joan was gone. Joan downplays her relationship with Leif as light and casual. Later, when Tobin wonders if Max slept with Ava to get his promotion, Leif stammers that sleeping with the boss is disadvantageous. When Joan starts yelling at the coders, Leif sings "Let's Stay Together" to her. After this, Zoey tells Joan that Leif is madly in love with her, flustering Joan. When Leif asks to go up to the sixth floor with Joan to get Max's Chirp files, Joan avoids him and gives Leif her access card. Leif brings Tobin up to the sixth floor with him. When they try to get Max's files, Ava starts a bake-off instead. Later, Leif comes into Joan's office and flirts with her, but Joan puts an end to their relationship, leaving Leif crushed. At the end of the episode, Leif leaves the fourth floor to go work on the sixth floor.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Mother

At SPRQ Point, Max and Leif get on the elevator behind Zoey, but when it reaches the fourth floor, Max reveals that Leif has moved up to the sixth floor. When Zoey confronts Joan about this, she says she couldn't say no to Leif transferring after everything that happened between them. On the sixth floor, Max walks up to Leif's desk, and Leif compliments his managerial skills. Max sees a heartbroken drawing of Joan and Leif on his desk, and they discuss his relationship with Joan. Max asks Leif if he wants to get a beer after work. When Max and Leif walk into the bar after work, they see Zoey and Joan there. Leif wants to avoid them, but Max says they have to project confidence. Leif awkwardly talks to Joan before Max leads him away from the women. Leif asks Max how he got over Zoey, and then his name is called for karaoke. He sings "All Out Of Love" sadly while looking at Joan. The next day, Joan discovers that Leif has been leaking Chirp code to Tobin and confronts him. Leif says he wants Joan to win the bake-off, but Joan shuts him down. When Ava fires Max, she claims it is his fault for letting Leif onto the sixth floor's team.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Dad

When Zoey walks into work, she notices that Leif is back on the fourth floor. Leif walks up to Zoey's desk and asks how Max is doing. When Zoey seems unfazed by this question, Leif is surprised that she hasn't heard that Max was fired.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Return

Leif joins the other employees of SPRQ Point's fourth floor in singing "Hello, Dolly!" upon Zoey's return. Afterward, he lets Zoey know that he took over her job in her absence, brought in standing desks and dogs, and hired George to replace Max. He also informs Zoey that SPRQ Point has been going through budget cuts. On a different day, Leif pressures Zoey to consider his co-manager concept. However, the following day, Zoey announces to him that she will be taking over the entire fourth floor and that he will be Manager of Engineering by himself. Though he was complicit in Tobin's hazing of George, Leif later plays foosball with Tobin and George.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Distraction

After an issue with the SPRQPoint watches burning people's wrists, Zoey has the programming team work on the issue. During a floor-wide meeting, Leif is asked if it's because of the new software update, to which he deflects. Zoey later chews him out when she sees the rest of the Brogrammers making a game out of the issue, called Fire Wrist. Zoey assures Simon a fix for the issue is going to happen soon when Leif starts singing "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing". Zoey calls him aside. After some coaxing, he finally admits to Zoey that he is the reason the watches are overheating due to his trouble getting the rest of the Brogrammers to work, taking on the project himself and skipping the safety check in order to meet the deadline. He has the whole team pull an all-nighter and they manage to fix the watch issue. He compares working with the Brogrammers to a frat house. After Zoey's epiphany, he joins her in announcing that Mackenzie, Cass, and Yasmeen will be switching with Jared, Gabe, and Kevin.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Dreams

When trying to relieve herself of unnecessary stress in hopes of stopping her nightmares, Zoey assigns the programmers additional projects to work on. She assigns Leif researching community service day options. After a game of indoor softball that results in a broken window of Zoey's office, Zoey asks Leif why he allowed this and he says that he thought a game was harmless and that they called him 'coach'. After Zoey blows up at all of them, he and the Brogrammers sing "It's The Hard Knock Life".

### Zoey's Extraordinary Employee

As soon as Zoey shows up to work, Leif informs her that she must fire 10% of the 4th floor that day. Zoey asks him to have someone run an algorithm to measure the programmers' work performance. Leif, assumingly jealous, says Yasmeen doesn't pull her weight. He later shows her the graph of work performance.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Reckoning

During the townhall about racism in the workplace, Leif suggests using a talisman to get conversation started. Mackenzie throws him a koosh ball. He tone-deafly explains his take on racism and his relationship with his Ugandan college roommate. Later, Max comes from a meeting and is looking for Gabe to answer a programming question about the app for MaxiMo. Leif offers their help instead, after apologizing for Max's firing, and Max hesitantly agrees. He seems surprised how good the app is. After fixing the issue, Max says all of the programmers on the fourth floor will get a discount as MaxiMo, except for Leif. After Tobin helps #BIPOCatSPRQPoint trend, Leif approaches him and apologizes, overcompensating. Tobin swears it's fine and the two of them leave together to grab a beer.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Memory

Leif overhears Zoey looking for someone to go to the Leodon's meteor shower with. After some discussion with Tobin about whether or not they should miss their axe throwing practice, they both decide to go. In the car, Leif tries to direct Zoey but she ignores him. He ignores a call from Kaia. Right as the meteor shower begins, he sings "Tainted Love", causing Zoey to miss it and informs her that there will be cloud coverage for the rest of the night. Zoey approaches him at work the next day and they talk about him ignoring Kaia's call, it ending in him agreeing to bring her to Maximo's. He gets mad at Zoey for encouraging him to go out with Kaia when Zoey tells him that Kaia is using him. He later realizes Kaia is in fact using him. He sits alone, but it joined by Mackenzie and Tobin. He rides in the car with Zoey, Max, and Simon to go stargazing and together they sing "Give a Little Bit". He encourages Zoey to look at the stars but she declines.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Birthday

Tobin mentions that Leif is at a birding conference for the entire week.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Mystery

During the MicroPhone versus MegaPhone battle, Leif is on the MegaPhone side. He and the other programmers sing "One", which was supposed to be Maggie's heart song. The programmers' heart song was supposed to be Anything You Can Do.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Double Date

To the rest of the programmers' surprise, Leif created a phone for the phone battle, called the DronePhone. Tobin later comes to talk with him and he apologizes for undermining him. Tobin instead thanks him for it being the reason he and Mackenzie got together. In celebration, they hold arms and jump up and down.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Session

Zoey hears Leif talking about his previous job at JPL and introducing herself. Tobin excitedly greets him, to which Leif gets mad that he hasn't been fully hired yet. Tobin assures him he can but insist Leif help Amber get a job as well. Zoey asks Leif to be her partner but he decides to go with Amber. Leif and Amber come in first place for the first challenge. During the second challenge, him and Max get into a duet battle of Thinking Out Loud. Leif and Amber finish the challenge right after Max and Zoey. His and Amber's prototype for the final challenge is a light board that indicates SPRQPoint's stock levels with red or green lights for negative or positive growth respectively. Danny Michael Davis chooses Max and Leif to fully hire.

### Zoey's Extraordinary Goodbye

At a meeting, Leif informs the group that there is another small tech company, SkyTalker with a similar idea to the DronePhone, to with Danny Michael Davis says they will take them to court. At Max and Rose's going away party, Zoey hear's everyone sing "Shake it Off". Leif informs Simon that SkyTalker is made up of young people of color and how taking the company to court doesn't seem to along with SPRQPoint's updated values. During toasts, Leif and Tobin let it slip to Zoey that she didn't get the job over Max.

## Physical Appearance and Style

Leif has an affinity for cardigans, which he wears often. He also tends to wear slim-fitting pants, which both Joan and Zoey deride him for.

In  "Zoey's Extraordinary Session Leif is seen in a button down, vest and has long hair, which stays in a man bun for much of the episode.

## Personality

Leif is cutthroat and will do whatever it takes to get ahead in his career. Early on, Leif often acts performatively woke with Zoey; he tells Tobin off when he makes sexist remarks towards Zoey, but then sings "All I Do Is Win" and acts passive-aggressive towards Zoey while she gives her speech to the coders.

In "Zoey's Extraordinary Best Friend," when Leif remarks that he needs to sit down because his sciatica is acting up, Zoey reveals that he has been at a standing desk for years. When Leif acts as Manager of Engineering in Zoey's absence following the death of her father, he also makes the rest of the office use standing desks.

## Relationships

* Joan Bennett
* Tobin Batra
* Kaia

In "Zoey's Extraordinary Night Out," Leif and Joan start working on a new project called the Chirp. Soon after, Zoey hears Leif heart-singing "I Put A Spell On You" to Joan, which implies to Zoey that Leif is seducing Joan to advance his career at SPRQ Point. Even when Zoey confronts Joan with this information, Joan downplays her relationship with Leif as some harmless canoodling. However, by "Zoey's Extraordinary Outburst," Leif apparently has fallen hard for Joan, as evidenced by his heart song performance of "Let's Stay Together." When Zoey tells Joan that Leif is very into her, Joan freaks out and tells Leif that they can't be together.

Leif and Tobin are best friends. They have known each other since they both won the National Spelling Bee at age eleven, which they celebrate yearly with a "Spell-iversary" celebration.

In "Zoey's Extraordinary Memory," Leif ignores a call from Kaia. After Zoey sees him perform "Tainted Love," she asks Leif about her. Leif and Kaia met online and went out but Kaia left abruptly, claiming her grandmother died. Leif does not believe this. They end up going out to MaxiMo for a redo date that seems to be going well. Kaia is only networking but Leif does not believe this until Kaia asks him to introduce her to Zoey, after realizing Zoey is Leif's boss.

## Songs Performed

* S1
* S2
* Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas

### Heart Songs

* "All I Do Is Win" - DJ Khaled (S1E1)
* "Superstar" - Murray Head (S1E3)
* "Everybody Hurts" - R.E.M. (S1E5)
* "I Put A Spell On You" - Screamin' Jay Hawkins (S1E7)
* "Let's Stay Together" - Al Green (S1E10)

### Heart Songs

* "Hello, Dolly!" - Jerry Herman (S2E1)
* "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" - Chris Isaak (S2E2)
* "It's The Hard-Knock Life" - Charles Strouse (S2E3)
* "Tainted Love" - Soft Cell (S2E7)
* "One" - Three Dog Night (S2E9)
* "Sing" - Carpenters (S2E13)
* "Shake It Off" - Taylor Swift (S2E13)

### Other Songs

* "Thinking Out Loud" - Ed Sheeran (S2E12)

## Trivia

* Leif is a talented artist. He draws a picture of himself as a sad clown in "Zoey's Extraordinary Failure" and a sorrowful drawing of himself and Joan in "Zoey's Extraordinary Mother."
* He got a perfect score on the SAT.
* He won the National Spelling Bee at the age of eleven, as did Tobin.
* In "Zoey's Extraordinary Mother," Joan mentioned that Leif had been working on her team for seven years. However, in "Zoey's Extraordinary Session," Leif starts at SPRQ Point at the same day as Zoey and Max, who had been working there for just five years.
* In Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas, Leif was confirmed to be bisexual. Prior to this, though there was no verbal confirmation, Leif had a bi pride flag sticker on his bike helmet; showrunner Austin Winsberg allowed Michael Thomas Grant, who is himself bisexual, to add the sticker.

## Gallery

* "Zoey's Extraordinary Goodbye"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Session"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Memory"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Memory"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Best Friend"
* "Pilot"
* "Zoey's Extraordinary Glitch"
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