The Catalyst Behind Comedy's Biggest Stars
Katz is universally known for helping launch the careers of some of the most extraordinary comedy artists in the business — including Dave Chappelle, Dane Cook, Brad Williams, Wanda Sykes, Bill Burr, Bert Kreischer, Whitney Cummings, Felipe Esparza, Louis C.K. and Tracy Morgan (pictured above), as well as Nick Swardson, Jim Gaffigan, Frank Caliendo, Jeff Dye, Marc Maron, Bill Bellamy, Judah Friedlander, Steve Byrne, Jeffrey Ross, Neil Brennan, and former SNL stars Darrell Hammond, Jay Mohr, Melissa Villasenor, Jim Breuer, and Morgan. Additionally, he has represented other iconic artists like Ken Jeong, Cheri Oteri, Harland Williams, Andy Dick, Hasan Minhaj, Mike Epps, and the late Louie Anderson and gave the first quality stage time in New York City and Boston to Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Sarah Silverman, Anthony Clark, Dave Attell, Bobcat Goldthwait, Dana Gould, Timothy Olyphant, Denis Leary, and the late Patrice O’Neal.
The Annual Barry Katz Roast, The Boston Comedy Club 1992. From left to right: Dave Chappelle, Jay Mohr, Barry Katz, Louis C.K., Jon Stewart, and Jeffrey Ross.
From Half-Baked to Fully Baked
Katz started his involvement in the film business when he helped Chappelle and Neal Brennan (who eventually went on to create Chappelle’s Show) sell the cult classic Half Baked to Universal Studios and went on to produce several films after that, including Employee of the Month (starring Jessica Simpson and 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 in history to admit to killing Kennedy), Misery Loves Comedy (starring Tom Hanks, Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow, and Larry David), and most recently Max Dagan (starring Michael Madsen, Rob Morrow, Zach Gordon, Jay Mohr, Jeff Ross, and Kirk Fox) which won BEST PICTURE and BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS at the 2024 New York Soho International and the Boston Film Festivals respectively.
From left to right: Andrew Santino; Buddy Hackett; Brad Williams; Jeff Ross, Dave Chappelle, Jordan Rubin; Charlie Barnett, Martin Lawrence; Kenan Thompson; Adam Carolla; and NETFLIX President Ted Sarando.
Revolutionizing The Industry
Katz is the first manager to work with a comedy artist to use social media to accelerate their career, with Dane Cook. At the height of his popularity, he was able to press a button on his computer and sell out 2 shows in one night at Boston Garden and 2 shows in one night at Madison Square Garden for a total of 75,000 tickets sold in less than a week — which had never been done before. In the recording world, he has produced Grammy-nominated, multiple Gold, Platinum, and Double-Platinum albums, while becoming the only manager/producer to debut a comedy album in Billboard’s top 5 national charts – TWICE.
In other facets of the business, Katz was one of the driving forces and co-founders of Comedy Dynamics, which has become one of the largest independent comedy production and distribution companies in the world. Additionally, he was involved in the original sale of the Emmy-nominated Comedy Central Roasts to the network, which became one of the longest running, most profitable, annual specials franchises in the history of TV.
A few kind words.
