A graduate of Boston University with a degree specializing in working with the disabled, Katz originally started his career with aspirations of being a stand-up comedian in Beantown, and it was there ...Show More
A graduate of Boston University with a degree specializing in working with the disabled, Katz originally started his career with aspirations of being a stand-up comedian in Beantown, and it was there that he performed with such established artists as Denis Leary, Bob Goldthwait, and Steven Wright; while also managing various comedy clubs in the New England area for over a decade.In the late 80's and early 90's, he decided to quit performing and move to New York City, opening up the Boston Comedy Club in the heart of Greenwich Village. Simultaneously, he started his own management company and immediately landed 4 clients on Saturday Night Live. This gave him the confidence to expand his operation to Los Angeles where he soon after signed a 4 year overall executive producer deal with Disney to develop television shows.After 15 successful years at the helm of his own company, in 2003 Katz merged his business with New Wave Entertainment and over the next 8 years, helped build it into a respected full service talent management, digital distribution, and TV/film production company with over 25 managers, producers, and development executives. At the end of 2011, Katz left NWE to go back to running his own company again, this time under the banner of Barry Katz Entertainment.Katz is universally known for introducing Hollywood to some of the most extraordinary comedy artists in the business-including Dave Chappelle, Jay Mohr, Anthony Clark, Bill Burr, Wanda Sykes, Nick Swardson, Dane Cook, Tracy Morgan, Frank Caliendo, Darrell Hammond, Whitney Cummings, and Louie CK.In the television world, he has brokered an unprecedented 100 TV development deals during his career while creating three television shows of his own (ABC's The Next Best Thing, NESN'S Comedy All-Stars, and the FOX sketch pilot Naked But Funny). Additionally, he has executive produced over 50 different TV stand-up specials, documentaries, reality & scripted series including NBC'S Whitney, Fox's Action, HBO's Tourgasm, Showtime's Brad Williams: Fun Size and Daddy Issues, History Channel's Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery, Comedy Central's Christopher Titus: Neverlution, TBS's Frank TV, the syndicated Bill Bellamy/Tim Meadows/Jon Lovitz/Vivica Fox sitcom Mr. Box Office, and 7 seasons of the Emmy nominated NBC series Last Comic Standing.Katz started his involvement in the film business when he helped Chappelle and Neal Brennan (who eventually went on to create Chappelle Show) sell Half Baked to Universal Studios in 1997 and went on to produce several films including Employee of the Month (Starring Jessica Simpson), Good Luck Chuck (starring Jessica Alba), and My Best Friend's Girl (Starring Kate Hudson and Alec Baldwin).In the recording business, Katz was nominated for a Grammy Award for producing Jay Mohr's last album Happy. And A Lot and also produced multiple comedy albums, including all of Cook's library which have gone gold, platinum, and double platinum, while becoming the only artist to debut a comedy album in the top 5 of Billboards national charts-twice.Most recently, Katz' newest venture, Industry Standard, premiering # 3 in the world on ITunes, is a one-of-a-kind weekly inspirational podcast that features an insiders look at Hollywood from a totally different perspective, featuring "behind the scenes" A-list players who candidly reveal the risky decisions they made that led to the most groundbreaking television, radio, music, internet, and film content in the world. Some of Barry's guests (many who have never done a podcast before) have included Doug Herzog (President of Viacom Entertainment), Eric Tannenbaum (former President of Columbia-Tri-Star TV and executive producer of Two and a Half Men), Warren Littlefield (Former Chairman of NBC/Executive Producer of Fargo), Mike Farah (President of Production for Funny or Die), Mario Kassar (producer of Terminator 2, Rambo, Basic Instinct), Norman Lear (All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons), Susanne Daniels (former President of MTV, the WB, and Lifetime), Sandy Grushow (former President of Fox Broadcasting Company), Tom Werner (producer of Roseanne, 3rd Rock from the Sun, That 70's Show) Peter Engel (Creator of Saved by the Bell), Reggie Hudlin (Former President of BET & producer of Django Unchained), Steve Levitan (creator of Modern Family), Garry Marshall (Creator of Happy Days/Laverne and Shirley & director/producer of Runaway Bride/Pretty Woman), Chris Albrecht (former CEO of HBO and current CEO of Starz), Dr Phil (# 1 daytime talk show host in syndication), and Judd Apatow (Producer of 40 Year Old Virgin, Trainwreck, Bridesmaids). Hide
