Nate Bargatze

Bargatze was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 25, 1979, the son of Carole and Stephen Bargatze. His father is a motivational speaker and magician. Bargatze attended Donelson Christian Academy in Nashville and Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee.

Bargatze's surname is of Romansh origin; he is descended on his father's side from Simeon Bargatze, who immigrated to Tennessee from the Canton of Graubünden in eastern Switzerland in the 19th century. In Switzerland today, the surname is usually spelled Pargätzi.Bargatze began his stand-up comedy career in Chicago and later did comedy at The Boston Comedy Club in New York City. He has called the Jerry Seinfeld documentary Comedian (2002) "life-changing" and a "big reason why he moved to New York". He has appeared on Conan and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He was part of Fallon's Clean Cut Comedy Tour in 2013, also winning New York's Comedy Festival and the Boston Comedy Festival that year. He wrote for the Spike TV Video Game Awards and has performed for American armed forces in Iraq and Kuwait. He was mentioned by comedians Marc Maron and Jim Gaffigan as one of the top up-and-coming comics.

Bargatze's first stand-up album, Yelled at by a Clown (2014), was on the Billboard Top Ten Comedy Charts for two weeks, peaking at No. 2. He released his second album, Full Time Magic, in coordination with his Comedy Central special in 2015. In 2017, Netflix released a half-hour Bargatze special as part of The Standups.

In 2019, Netflix released an hour-long Bargatze special, The Tennessee Kid, shot outside Atlanta, Georgia. Bargatze began hosting a podcast called "The Nateland Podcast" in 2020 along with Brian "Breakfast" Bates and Aaron Weber; in 2022, Dusty Slay joined as a fourth host. Netflix released Bargatze's next stand-up special, The Greatest Average American, in 2021. It was filmed outdoors at Universal Studios Hollywood and was nominated for the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. Also in 2021, Bargatze was featured in an article in The Atlantic that called him "The Nicest Man in Stand-Up". In 2022, Bargatze voiced the character Grady in the short Portal spinoff game Aperture Desk Job.

Bargatze's stand-up special Hello World, filmed at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona, was released in 2023 on Amazon Prime Video. On April 15, 2023, Bargatze drew 19,365 attendees to a performance at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, breaking the venue's all-time attendance record.

He hosted Saturday Night Live on October 28, 2023, and again on October 5, 2024. In those appearances, he attracted attention for his portrayal of George Washington in viral sketches that mock the American language and system of measurements.

Also in 2024 he performed at Netflix is a Joke Festival with Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, and Sebastian Maniscalco at the Hollywood Bowl.