American High Levels Up: How Jeremy Garelick & Will Phelps Are Scaling Unconventional Comedy Company – Comedy Means Business Podcast

Nearly a decade after its formation, American High is expanding in new directions.

This weekend, the production company founded by Jeremy Garelick released Rolling Loud, a comedy starring Matt Rife and Owen Wilson that is loosely inspired by Garelick’s experience losing his 13-year-old son at the eponymous hip-hop festival. One of American High’s biggest productions to date and its largest wide theatrical release, the film raises the question of whether we may see the company move more frequently into theaters after producing the majority of its 20-plus features for Hulu.

American High’s second major October release is Minimum Wage, a short-form, pizzeria-set workplace comedy based on the company’s viral low-budget web series, which landed at Netflix in a highly competitive situation earlier this year. The series marks another expansion beyond Hulu, where American High operates under a first-look output deal, and tests whether IP developed in-house can scale its audience on streaming’s biggest stage. Written, directed by and starring the same group of emerging comedic talents from the web series — including recent SNL hire Grace Reiter — the series premieres its first 14 12.5-minute episodes on Oct. 26, with 14 more to follow.

Run by Garelick and President Will Phelps, American High was founded to fill a gap in the feature market by producing the kinds of teen comedies that are now seldom made elsewhere. Garelick launched the company with initial financial backing from Mickey Liddell’s LD Entertainment after finding success in studio comedy, writing films including The Break-Up and directing titles such as The Wedding Ringer.

In establishing the company’s headquarters, Garelick made an unusual choice that suited his experimental banner: He took over a decommissioned middle school in upstate New York and transformed it into a production facility. From there, American High produced an expansive slate of modestly budgeted features, built a digital sketch operation that has amassed billions of views, and even launched a nonprofit academy for student filmmakers.

More recently, the company has acquired additional real estate in the village of Liverpool, including the pizzeria where Minimum Wage was filmed. With Rolling Loud, American High further expanded its production infrastructure, becoming the first “Resident Creator” at Georgia’s Trilith Studios. The partnership is designed to help the company increase its output while providing access to expanded facilities and virtual production technology.

On Deadline’s Comedy Means Business podcast, Garelick and Phelps chronicle the origins and evolution of American High and discuss what the company’s recent pair of big swings could signal about its future. They also explore the Hulu deal that helped American High weather the pandemic and the dual Hollywood strikes of 2023; the pros and cons of owning a production facility; the company’s relationship with Liverpool locals; its commitment to emerging talent on both sides of the camera; the duo’s early experiences in show business, including Garelick’s time working for filmmaker Joel Schumacher; and what it would take to bring about a resurgence in theatrical comedy.