Biographie
Barry Katz is an Emmy and Grammy-nominated TV, film, and record producer, talent manager, and podcast host. He is widely recognized for representing legendary artists such as Louie Anderson, Ken Jeong, Andy Dick, Hasan Minhaj, and Mike Epps. Katz provided early high-quality stage opportunities in New York City and Boston for future stars including Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Sarah Silverman, Anthony Clark, Dave Attell, Bobcat Goldthwait, Dana Gould, Timothy Olyphant, Denis Leary, and the late Patrice O'Neal. He also played a key role in launching the careers of some of comedy’s most outstanding talents, including Dave Chappelle, Nick Swardson, Louis C.K., Felipe Esparza, Bill Burr, Frank Caliendo, Marc Maron, Whitney Cummings, Bill Bellamy, Judah Friedlander, Wanda Sykes, Bert Kreischer, Jeff Dye, Jim Gaffigan, Dane Cook, Steve Byrne, Jeffrey Ross, Neil Brennan, as well as former and current SNL stars Darrell Hammond, Jay Mohr, Melissa Villasenor, Jim Breuer, and Tracy Morgan.
Over the course of his career, Katz has sold 37 out of 38 stand-up comedy specials he produced, brokered an unprecedented 100 TV development deals, created three television shows, and executive produced more than 50 specials, documentaries, reality shows, and scripted series. His productions include the YouTube TV event Telethon for America (featuring Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Jennifer Lawrence, Pete Davidson, Alicia Keys, Charlize Theron, Ray Romano, Chelsea Handler, and Jane Fonda), NBC’s Whitney, Netflix’s The Road Trick, FOX’s Action, HBO’s Tourgasm, Showtime’s Jay Mohr: Happy. And A Lot, History Channel’s Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery, TBS’s Frank TV, Comedy Central’s Whitney Cummings: Money Shot, HBO’s Heidi Fleiss: The Would-be Madam of Crystal, the syndicated sitcom Mr. Box Office (starring Bill Bellamy, Tim Meadows, Jon Lovitz, and Vivica Fox), and seven seasons of the Emmy-nominated NBC series Last Comic Standing.
Katz entered the film industry by helping Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan sell the cult classic Half Baked to Universal Studios. He later produced several films including Employee of the Month (starring Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook), Good Luck Chuck (starring Jessica Alba), My Best Friend’s Girl (starring Kate Hudson and Alec Baldwin), I Killed JFK (about the only living person to admit killing Kennedy), and Misery Loves Comedy (featuring Tom Hanks, Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow, and Larry David).
He was the first manager to help a comedy artist harness social media to boost their career, working with Dane Cook. At the peak of Cook’s popularity, Katz was able to sell out two shows in one night at Boston Garden and two shows in one night at Madison Square Garden, totaling 75,000 tickets sold within a week—a feat never before accomplished. In the music industry, Katz has produced Grammy-nominated, multi-gold, platinum, and double platinum albums, becoming the only manager/producer to debut a comedy album twice in Billboard’s top five national charts.
Beyond these achievements, Katz was instrumental in launching Comedy Dynamics, now one of the world’s largest independent comedy production and distribution companies. He was also involved in the original sale of the Emmy-nominated Comedy Central Roasts to the network, which has grown into one of television’s longest-running and most profitable annual specials franchises.
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