Kevin Coval is an American poet. Coval is a Chicago-based writer who is known for exploring topics such as race, hip-hop culture, Chicago history, and Jewish-American identity in his work. He is also known for his appearances in four seasons of the Peabody Award-winning television series Def Poetry Jam on HBO.

Coval attended Glenbrook North High School, graduating in 1993. After high school, Coval attended Ohio University, briefly studying abroad at Swansea University before he left to play semi-pro basketball in Wales.

In 1996, Coval returned to Chicago and began working different jobs to pay rent, including as a furniture delivery man, caterer, and waiter. He also began performing his poetry at open mics around the city.

In 1997, Coval became a regular at open mics at the Alt-X bookstore. He went on to perform at venues such as Mad Bar, Estelle’s, and the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge.

Coval was named artistic director of Young Chicago Authors, an organization that sends professional writers to schools to teach, in 1999.

In 2001, Coval co-founded the youth performance-poetry competition Louder Than a Bomb with Anna West. By 2017, the competition was considered the largest youth performance-poetry competition in the world.

Coval also appeared in an episode of the HBO series Def Poetry Jam that was broadcast in January 2002, in which he performed his poem "Family Feud". After the first airing of the episode, Coval was contacted by an agent and went on a college tour, becoming a full-time professional poet. He went on to appear in three more episodes of the series and eventually served as one of the show’s creative consultants, scouting for local poets to appear on the show.

Coval was interviewed by Trevor Noah on an episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah that aired in 2017.