When comedian Nate Bargatze started his career, he dreamed of one day selling out Bridgestone Arena in his hometown of Nashville.
“Not that I even knew it would happen,” he says. “But it would be a daydream to keep you going through the not-fun times.”
It wasn’t a short journey to the top. It took Bargatze more than 20 years of work at his craft, comprising thousands of performances, to achieve his goal of reaching stand-up’s upper echelons. But in April 2023, after making his way up from clubs to theaters to arenas, he got there, setting an attendance record in front of a crowd of 19,365.
A dreamer from the start, Bargatze realized in this moment that he could dream far bigger than he ever had before, wielding his influence to conquer new areas far flung from the stage, while sticking to his core ethos of bringing others along for the ride. Six months later, he lay the foundation for his next chapter with the launch of Nateland Entertainment, a media company through which he says he intends to build “a world” of his own.
Through Nateland, Bargatze has his sights on conquering film and television, proving that the theatrical age of comedy is far from over. First up on his slate of new projects is The Breadwinner, a family comedy he toplines for TriStar, which he co-wrote and is producing alongside Dan Lagana. As he climbs the next rung on his own career ladder, he’s helping rising comics to do the same, as the producer and financier of a weekly comedy showcase at The Lab at Zanies in Nashville, as well as an array of new specials. A third major component of the vision in 2025 is building on the Tennessee capital’s influence in areas like music and sports to help it become the next great destination for both the production and consumption of entertainment.
And now, after coming in as last year’s top touring comedian, with more tickets sold than Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, and Sebastian Maniscalco combined, Bargatze is well on his way.
A Complete Anomaly
Robbie Praw, Netflix’s Vice President of Stand-Up and Comedy Formats, has known Bargatze since 2006 — back when he was programming preeminent comedy festival Just for Laughs in Montreal. Even then, he saw in Bargatze the makings of a star — the right combination of work ethic and undeniable talent. But what he also possessed, says Praw, which has made him “this complete anomaly” in comedy, is the ability to stand in front of any kind of crowd, in a venue of any size, and kill.
From Praw’s perspective, what makes Bargatze resonate so widely is that “it’s easy to see yourself in him.” By way of example, he says, “My wife stares at me during his sets, feeling like he’s a heat-seeking missile talking about our life and marriage. And millions of people around the world feel the same way.”
In many respects, Bargatze’s approach to his career has been far from typical. While others have catered to audiences on the coasts, he’s been more focused on bringing into the fold everyone in between who’s been forgotten. Observational, low-key, and meticulously PG, his material is intentionally set apart from the NSFW crowd, as something you can share with family and co-workers alike. He broke through not with one viral video, or a set of controversial takes, but with a kind of throwback wholesomeness.
Jason Heyman, a partner and film packaging agent at UTA who has worked with Bargatze for around five years, believes a key to his stratospheric rise has been that he “knows his brand and audience inside and out,” and “doesn’t stray” from it. When it comes to Nate, you shouldn’t expect the heavy, political or profane, but rather, a single-minded focus on putting smiles on people’s faces. In working with his team, Heyman explains, Bargatze “gives very strict guidelines” as to what’s a fit for Nateland and what isn’t, defining and protecting his brand with a “singularity of vision.”
To Dusty Slay, Bargatze’s co-host on The Nateland Podcast, who’s known him for a little over a decade, there’s something quietly radical about his focus on clean, family-friendly content in this day and age.
“Personally,” he says, “I think that there was a time when everything was kind of clean, and then edgy became [more prominent]. I think you’re allowed to say anything you want on so many platforms that when somebody actually dials it in and pulls back a little bit, but is also able to be very funny, that’s a unique thing.”
Coming Clean
For Bargatze, this approach is partly a reflection of his Southern roots, and his upbringing in a devoutly religious household. But more than that, it’s an expression of his values as a performer — a reflection of his belief in the creativity that comes in working within restrictions.
“I don’t care if someone’s clean or dirty, whatever you want to do. But I do think the tool of knowing how to be clean is very needed in stand-up,” he muses. “When you go do these late-night shows, and if you have to do stand-up on TV, I believe you should be able to adjust. And if you want any big studio, big network to trust you, they have to be able to trust that you can be funny without saying just whatever.”
Whereas some comics seem allergic to the notion of catering to the masses, Bargatze can’t imagine wanting to do anything else. And while some have looked for shortcuts or overnight success, he boasts a level of insight into his business that comes with taking things slowly — something that will come in handy as he endeavors to segue from comedian to media mogul.
Julian McCullough, a friend and sounding board in Bargatze’s creative endeavors, who opens for him on the road, finds that “it’s rare to see someone so ambitious who’s willing to have the patience to get it done the hard way.”
Agrees Praw, “When you’ve been around for so long and you aren’t an overnight success, you really have a sense of what works and what doesn’t. You’ve seen it with your own eyes. He has seen it for 20 years, at every level.”
The Film & TV Transition
In recent months, Bargatze has continued to zig as others zag. It’s unheard of to pivot at the height of one’s powers as a comic. And yet as he continues to fill arenas, this is exactly what he’s done. In interviews, he’s been transparent about his desire to shift focus to acting and producing, with an emphasis on film in particular. At this point, he’s said, he may have only two specials and two big tours left in him.
In conversation with Deadline for the inaugural episode of our podcast Comedy Means Business, Bargatze admits that it’s been hard for his reps and fellow comics to process what he’s saying — as it must be, to an extent, for diehard fans of his comedy. But to clarify, he’s not retiring from stand-up, so much as stepping back soon from touring at the highest level. He knows “how much obsession” and focus have been required to get to where he is, so he feels it’s a necessity to free himself up, if he wants to achieve as great of success in all that comes next.
“Look, I have no idea. I’ll see what I feel whenever,” Bargatze says. “But right now, I’m pretty positive. I just know what you’ve got to do.”
In the building of Nateland, Bargatze has drawn inspiration from artists ranging from Charlie Chaplin with United Artists to Adam Sandler with Happy Madison — creatives with a strong perspective on their work who’ve stuck to their creative guns and built empires in the process. Helping him to make his vision a reality is Felix Verdigets, a former partner at preeminent consulting firm KPMG, who in the last year has gone from a neighbor and close friend of Bargatze’s to the CEO of his company.
Verdigets says he never expected to work in entertainment. But as a “lifelong learner,” he jumped at the chance to learn a new industry after becoming fast friends with Bargatze. Part of what made the prospect so exciting was that he wasn’t jumping into a startup, but rather a venture with “a very healthy revenue stream and a million and a half customers already bought in.”
The thrust of Verdigets’ early focus would be business fundamentals — building a holding structure for Nateland, assessing and fine-tuning the company’s revenue-cost ratio, and helping to define its five key verticals, including Touring, Digital, TV/Film, Experiences, and Products and Merchandise. (Digital comprises podcasts, talent showcases, and other extensions of a talent incubation system at Nateland; Experiences, meanwhile, covers efforts ranging from a 2026 Nateland voyage with Norwegian Cruise Line to a new Nashville theme park Bargatze intends to launch.)
Certainly, touring brings in the majority of Nateland’s revenue for now, but already, Bargatze is building out a robust slate in film and TV. According to Verdigets, he has another film close to greenlight for production in Q1 2026, as well as five to seven feature scripts in various stages of development. Numerous TV series are also being eyed, including a game show and several projects in animation.
In film, Heyman believes, Bargatze has the potential to reignite a once vital lane. “I think what Nate is doing that’s unique is he’s hitting a PG, family-friendly audience that kind of nobody else is anymore,” says the veteran agent. “Back in the day, you had Robin Williams and Steve Martin and people doing more wholesome family — Cheaper by the Dozen, or Mr. Mom. The studios largely aren’t making those movies anymore. They’re certainly not developing them, and they’re almost never buying them. So there is this starved audience across America of families with kids that want to go to the movies as a family.”
What Heyman and Verdigets have found is that the everyman appeal that’s won Bergatze a devoted fan base is something that crosses over to those working in the business. Says the former, “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a call from more representatives of big stars to collaborate with somebody in my life.”
Much more interesting, though, is the extent to which Bargatze appeals to big mainstream brands, and what that could mean for the bottom line, when it comes to his film and television efforts. Referred to by Verdigets as “a corporate dream,” the squeaky-clean comic has lined up 11 or 12 brand partners for The Breadwinner, including the likes of Walmart, General Mills, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Heyman recalls the film’s producer, former longtime Marvel exec Jeremy Latcham, telling him that he saw more incoming calls from brands “on this little family comedy with Nate Bargatze” than he’d seen on the likes of The Avengers.
“He touches that audience that few others do, and they all saw that,” Heyman says of the brands. “So we looked at that and said, okay, clearly there’s something going on here that is unique.”
The agent points out that an influx of cash from these kinds of brand partnerships can be meaningful at a time when film and TV budgets are shrinking and highly scrutinized, amid an industry contraction. “All of that,” he says, “can either offset the budget of the film or offset the P&A cost.”
While projects like The Breadwinner are being made through traditional channels, Bargatze is open to the prospect of self-financing and producing others to flip to studios and streamers, taking a page from the playbooks of everyone from Shane Gillis to M. Night Shyamalan, who has put their money where their mouth is, when it comes to their work. In contending with a studio system that no longer seems to demonstrate as much confidence in dealing with comedy, it may make sense to take more of the risk upon himself, and reap the rewards in success, in the process hopefully demonstrating that a hunger for comedy, both in film and TV, is there.
While feature comedies boomed from the 2000s through the mid 2010s, under the stewarding of Judd Apatow, Nick Stoller and the like, they’ve in recent years come to be seen as less than theatrical. But Heyman, for one, believes there’s still success to be had in today’s marketplace. “You just have to give [consumers] what they want,” he says. “I believe there’s just going to be one Hangover, one Anchorman or something that’s going to come back, and then all of a sudden, boom. And I think Nate is that guy.
“You know,” the agent admits, “I could be wrong. But I do think if anyone had a shot, he does.”
Revitalizing The Comedy Star System
But even as he tests the waters as a movie star, Bargatze realizes that revitalizing comedy in film and television will be a team effort. That’s part of why another of his major points of focus has been bolstering the next generation of comedy stars, at a time when there is no short supply of talent in stand-up.
Some of the comedians he’s platforming through his company are fairly green; others are much more experienced, but still looking for their big break after many years in the game. (Bargatze recently announced that new comedian additions to The Breadwinner cast including Slay, Aaron Weber, Derrick Stroup and Brian Bates, to name just a few.) What all of them have in common is the same kind of tenacity and appreciation of hard work that were instrumental to Bargatze’s rise.
Praw calls Bargatze “a phenomenal tastemaker for what could be coming next in comedy,” saying that “it’s an absolute meritocracy,” when it comes to who he decides to back. “It’s such a beautiful thing to see that people like him, the second they get that heat and that awareness in the industry, immediately try to support other friends,” he adds, “and get people that they love the platform that they earned.”
Bargatze believes that today, there’s less of an industry effort to cultivate new comedic stars, and that when left to their own devices, young comics are too often “going right for…social media followers,” rather than focusing on sharpening their joke writing. The business has changed to the point that resources that were available to him — like Comedy Central, back when it was a major talent incubator — are not necessarily available to today’s stand-up. So he’s stepping in to fill the void.
The only requirement he has for comics who want his support is that they, too, work clean. But he’s more than happy to get out of the way and let others benefit from the name he’s built, in sticking the Nateland name on their specials. “When I came up,” he explains, “I just remember I felt like I always got stuck behind a lot of people. A lot of people don’t move; they get to points and then kind of stay there. So I want to, I guess, lead by example.”
Say the aforementioned Slay, “If he puts his stamp of approval on [a special], I think that people are going to go watch. And then it’s up to the comic at that point to make a fan out of them.”
What’s Next for Nashville
In addition to Nateland, which is Nashville-based, Bargatze’s hope is to turn the city itself into “a very welcoming place” for comics “that are serious” — helping it pop off the way Austin, Texas has in recent years and fostering community in the process.
“He’s extremely proud of where he grew up and wants to bring Nashville onto the national scene for comedy,” his opener McCullough says, noting that the traditional ‘comedy cities’ have historically been New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and now Austin. “There’s a lot of great comedy cities, but those are the places people have historically moved to develop and get noticed, and he wants Nashville to be that.”
Noting that Bargatze is “the favorite son” in Nashville, Verdigets points to a host of resources the comedian has that will help him to pull this off. After all, not many comics can claim to have top legislators in their corner — but Bargatze can. In addition to Governor Bill Lee, he has the ear of the heads of the State Senate and House of Representatives, as well as the Department of Transportation, for infrastructure concerns. Additionally, Nateland is working directly with a lobbyist to help make Tennessee more business-friendly for all entertainment, not just stand-up, including the production of film and television.
“We’re doing a lot of legwork there to get the state to understand we love Tennessee, and especially Middle Tennessee, just like they do,” says Verdigets. “And our interests can be aligned with the state’s interest from an economic development [standpoint].”
Already, the exec says, Tennessee can claim so many sought-after qualities, including natural beauty, accessibility, and no income tax. But “we’ve got to do our fair share in the state of Tennessee,” he says. “Otherwise, people are going to come south, but they’re going to land to our neighbors east and west” for business purposes.
For Aaron Weber, another rising comic co-host of The Nateland Podcast who just put out his debut special, Signature Dish, with Nateland, it’s been inspirational to see Bargatze challenge conventional thinking when it comes to the stand-up career, demonstrating that it’s possible to execute at the highest level of the business without abandoning your roots.
“What Nate has done is, he’s started to build this infrastructure in Nashville so that guys no longer think they have to move to be a working comic,” says Weber. “It’s fun to be a part of this little world that Nate’s been building.”
Buying In
Per McCullough, everything that Bargatze has accomplished is a testament to the versatility and ingenuity of the comedian, as a “wellspring” for all kinds of creativity — someone who is used to generating their own material and hustling for every last thing they have.
Says Bargatze on this point, “Comedians should be bought into more. They write, they have to perform it, you have to do everything, and you do it alone. They can do really kind of anything. You can trust if you hire comedians that they know what’s funny, and the ones that go travel in the country, they know what makes every city laugh. No one has their finger on the pulse more than a stand-up comedian that’s on the road, so you should use that.”
Undoubtedly, it’ll take time for Bargatze to fulfill the potential of Nateland; Rome wasn’t built in a day. But already, he’s having a major impact on the lives of comics he’s taken under his wing. Says Weber, “The [Nateland] podcast has been the single greatest driving force in my career. If anybody comes to see me, probably 85% of them know me from the podcast. So the effect it’s had on me and my career can’t be overstated.”
What’s been most meaningful to Weber is the fact that despite all that he has going on in his own life, Bargatze consistently takes the time out of his schedule to share his expertise, offering direct access to his process for the benefit of others.
To pull off everything on his Nateland bucket list, including the theme park, Bargatze will need to be well capitalized. But while he says he’s entertained discussions about external investment in his company, he’s also reluctant to give up ownership for no good reason.
“If you’ve just got thrown a ton of money, I think that’s when you lose your vision,” he says. “Because you’re like, ‘Oh, let’s just do it all and see what works.’ And you don’t need to do that.”
In any case, history suggests that a bet on Nate is a smart one.
“If he keeps on doing the way that he learned and grew in stand-up, I wouldn’t bet anything against him,” says Praw. “I think the sky’s the limit.”
