Nathan James Barnatt (born February 2, 1981) is an American actor, comedian, dancer,

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

, stuntman and filmmaker. He is best known for his famous comical characters Keith Apicary and "Dad".

Early life

Nathan Barnatt was born on February 2, 1981. He graduated from Medway High School in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Barnatt worked as a

gravedigger A gravedigger is a cemetery worker who is responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service. Gravediggers have historically often been members of the church, though in modern secular cemeteries, they may be temporary or full-time staf ...

for two years.

Career

Barnatt appeared on Comedy Central's ''

The Gong Show with Dave Attell ''The Gong Show with Dave Attell'' was a short-lived revival of the 1970s Chuck Barris television comedy, comedy game show called ''The Gong Show'', hosted by comedian Dave Attell. The show premiered on July 17, 2008. It was produced by Adam Sa ...

'' in 2008, on Comedy Central's '' Ghosts/Aliens'' pilot in 2009, and on '' This Show Will Get You High'' in 2010. In 2012, Barnatt developed a show with Adult Swim based on his Keith Apicary character called ''Youth Large''. The ''Youth Large'' pilot was written by Barnatt, his brother Seth, and Paul Cummings (who is also the director). However, Adult Swim passed on the pilot but it was released online in August 2014. Since then, Barnatt has sold shows to television networks Nickelodeon, Amazon, Comedy Central, Fox and Viceland. Barnatt is a performer at the

Upright Citizens Brigade The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, ...

theater in Hollywood California. He is also an amateur dancer, as displayed in his videos including a

Kimberly Cole Kimberly Cole is an American Pop music, pop singer, songwriteractor Music journalism, music correspondent, anhost for the American Music Awards She is signed with the William Morris Endeavor, William Morris Endeavor agency. Background Cole has ...

audition session. His popularity in the Kimberly Cole audition video has led him to appear in the music video for Kimberly Cole's "U Make Me Wanna" in his Keith Apicary character. Barnatt also appeared in character in a music video for "Let It Roll" by

Flo Rida Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), known professionally as Flo Rida ( ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 debut and breakout single "Low (Flo Rida song), Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the ...

and "Paradise" by Laidback Luke. He appears in character in the music video for "

Freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott Laboritories Media * '' FreeStyle'', ...

" by country music group

Lady Antebellum Lady A, known until 2020 as Lady Antebellum, is an American country music group formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2006. The group is composed of Hillary Scott (lead and background vocals), Charles Kelley (lead and background vocals, guitar ...

. In 2012, Barnatt was featured on the front cover of ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

'' magazine, covering his success on YouTube. In 2013, Barnatt provided voice work on the

Animation Domination Animation Domination (also called AniDom, Fox AD, and AD) is an American animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are d ...

show '' High School USA!'' as one of the main characters, Lamort Blackstein. In 2015, Barnatt played a police officer in the music video for "

Sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

" by

Robin Schulz Robin Alexander Schulz (; born 28 April 1987) is a German musician, DJ, and record producer. On 4 February 2014, he released the first single from his debut album, a remix of "Waves (Mr. Probz song), Waves" by Dutch hip hop artist Mr. Probz. T ...

. In June 2016, Barnatt appeared as a guest on the

Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...

webseries A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short screenplay, scripted or Improvisation, non-scripted online videos, generally in Episode, episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), w ...

Game Grumps ''GameGrumps'' is an American Let's Play web series hosted by Arin Hanson (2012–present) and Dan Avidan (2013–present). Created in 2012 by co-hosts Hanson and Jon Jafari, the series centers around its hosts playing video games. After Jafa ...

''. In November 2016, Barnatt appeared in an episode of '' James & Mike Mondays'', alongside

James Rolfe James D. Rolfe (born July 10, 1980) is an American YouTuber, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for creating and starring in the comedic retrogaming web series, ''Angry Video Game Nerd'' (2004–present). His spin-off projects include review ...

, whom he worked with on Rolfe's 2014 film '' Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie''. On December 20, 2016, he again appeared as his character Keith Apicary in a Christmas episode of the ''

Angry Video Game Nerd ''Angry Video Game Nerd'' (''AVGN''; originally known as ''The Angry Nintendo Nerd'') is an American retrogaming review comedy web series starring and created by James Rolfe. The series centers on Rolfe's titular skit character, often simply ...

episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a serial (radio and television), series intended for radio, television or Streaming media, streaming consumption. Etymology The noun ''episode'' is ...

where he dresses up as

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for his leading man roles in comedy films and for his work as a television producer. Ferrell received various accolades, including ...

's character from ''

Elf An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic peoples, Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' ...

'' in order to secure Santa's gifts, and he and the Nerd play a variety of games with different

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

accessories while destroying the set in a slapstick fashion. He also appears in a short film by James Rolfe called "Flying Fuckernauts vs. the Astro Bastards" as one of two Fuckernauts, alongside Rolfe. In July 2018, Barnatt played a fast-talking salesman in an ad for the game Sonic Mania. In the ad, he is trying to sell a faceless customer a copy of a fictional game called ''Finger GunZ''. However, the customer is repeatedly drawn to the gameplay of '' Sonic Mania Plus''. Deliberately edited to look and sound like a 1990s commercial, the customer talks about all the features of ''Sonic Mania Plus'' and its low price while Barnatt repeatedly tries to sell ''Finger GunZ'' with comments taking direct jabs at the games industry. In 2019, Barnatt created a YouTube channel called Dad, featuring the web series ''Dad Feels'' following a character named Dad. Though it is often called an

alternate reality game An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by int ...

(ARG), Barnatt disowns the term. The series concluded its first season consisting of three acts in December 2020. The series was a surprising success for Barnatt, who was experiencing financial struggles severe enough that he prepared to live in his van. In August 2019, Barnatt appeared as a guest on an episode of '' Rental Reviews'' in which they reviewed the 1971 film ''

Duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

'', and appeared again in September 2019, this time reviewing the 1982 film ''

First Blood ''First Blood'' is a 1982 American war action film starring Sylvester Stallone as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, the film was co-written by Michael Kozoll, William Sackheim, and Stallone, deriving from the 1972 no ...

'' both as himself and Keith Apicary. In June 2021, Barnatt appeared on

season 16 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and polar ...

of ''

America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distributed by) and ...

'' as his character Keith Apicary where he received four "yes" votes from the judges for his dance routine. On the semi-final live show broadcast August 25, 2021, Apicary did not make it through to the next round. In May 2022 and April 2023, Barnatt participated in the

Creator Clash The Creator Clash events are a recurring for-profit boxing, crossover boxing event co-founded by Content creation, content creators Ian “IDubbbz” Jomha and Anisa Jomha, in partnership with event management company "Real Good Touring". Creato ...

boxing events as his "Dad" character. In the 2022 event, he won his match against Matt Watson by TKO in 22 seconds. At the 2023 event, he defeated Starkilla after Starkilla forfeited between the first and second rounds. In his winning speech, Barnatt called out

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

and stated he still has the paperwork provided by them. In March 2025, his "Dad" character made an appearance on an episode of '' Make Some Noise'' featured on Dropout.

Filmography

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Boxing record

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnatt, Nathan Living people 21st-century American comedians 1981 births America's Got Talent contestants American Internet celebrities American male boxers American male comedians American male film actors American male television actors Boxers from Massachusetts Male actors from Massachusetts YouTube boxers YouTubers from Massachusetts Comedians from Massachusetts