Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Following his recent exit from New Wave Entertainment, veteran comedy talent manager Barry Katz is going solo again with the relaunch of Barry Katz Entertainment. All of Katz’s clients at New Wave will follow him to the new company including Jay Mohr, Christopher Titus, Bill Bellamy, Paul Rodriguez, Cheri Oteri, Nick DiPaolo and Faizon Love. Katz ran his original Barry Katz Entertainment for 15 years before selling it to New Wave at the end of 2003. Over the past eight years, he was involved in New Wave’s transformation into a full-service talent management, digital distribution, and production company with over 25 managers, producers, and development executives. The two sides parted ways last month when Katz’s contract was up. “After being a part of creating a different kind of management company — one that combined representation and production — I wanted to get back to focus less on the issues of a large company, and more on working with my clients in a more personal way to help them achieve their goals,” Katz said.

Through the years, Katz has been involved in the careers of such actor-comedians as Mohr, DiPaolo, Dave Chappelle, Whitney Cummings, Tracy Morgan, Anthony Clark, Darrell Hammond, Dane Cook, and Louie C.K. He has produced several features, including Employee Of The Month, Good Luck Chuck and My Best Friend’s Girl, all starring his former long-time client Cook. In TV he has executive produced over 30 specials, documentaries, reality shows and scripted series, most recently NBC’s freshman comedy Whitney. He is credited as creator of ABC’s The Next Best Thing and NESN’s Comedy All-Stars.

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