His internationally syndicated column is Savage Love. Its tone is humorous, profane, and on occasion hostile to conservative opponents, as in the Santorum affair.
He has written three books: a collection of letters from his column; another relating how he and his boyfriend adopted a baby boy; and another describing his exploration of the seven deadly sins, entitled Skipping Towards Gomorrah.
Savage is also editor of the Seattle weekly The Stranger and a contributor to This American Life, an hour long radio show on Chicago's WBEZ, which is often featured on NPR. From at least September 1994 until 1997, he had a weekly 2-hour call-in show called Savage Love Live on Seattle's KCMU (now KEXP). From 1998 to 2000, he ran the bi-weekly advice column Dear Dan on the news website abcnews.com.
After growing up in Chicago, he studied theater and history. His political bent is leftist/libertarian/liberal, but he does not shy away from defending unexpected positions: he disapproves of the gay pride theme, blamed Ralph Nader for the election of George W. Bush for president, and supports the sending of more American troops to Iraq in order to improve the situation of civilians there.
As a writer and director for theater, in the mid-1990s Savage (working under the name Keenan Hollahan) was founder of Seattle's Greek Active Theater which mainly staged queer re-contextualizations of classic works, such as a tragi-comic Macbeth with both the titular character and Lady Macbeth played by performers of the opposite gender. More recently, in March 2001 he directed his own "Egguus", a parody of Peter Shaffer's 1973 play Equus, undercutting its stodginess by substituting a fixation on chickens for a fixation on horses.