Brian Volk-Weiss (born May 28, 1976) is an American film and television producer and director. He is the founder and current chief executive officer (CEO) of The Nacelle Company and its subsidiary company, Comedy Dynamics.
Volk-Weiss is the creator, producer, and occasional director of the current Netflix series, The Toys That Made Us and The Movies That Made Us, along with the television specials, Kevin Hart's Guide to Black History and Discontinued (originally on The CW). Through Comedy Dynamics, he has produced and directed numerous stand-up specials and comedy albums for comedians like Kevin Hart, Jim Gaffigan, Ali Wong, Tiffany Haddish, Ilana Glazer, and many others. Volk-Weiss has also produced several television shows including Join or Die with Craig Ferguson, Behind the Attraction on Disney+, A Toy Store Near You, The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek, and Down to Earth with Zac Efron. He also serves as executive producer on the revival of the 1992 TV series, Mad About You.
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Early life and education
Volk-Weiss was born and grew up in Queens, New York. He has described himself as coming from "a family of dentists and lawyers". He attended the University of Iowa and graduated in 1998. Soon after graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television.
Career
Volk-Weiss began his career as a production assistant and worked in the wardrobe department for the 2000 film, Cast Away. He later took a job as an assistant at the Barry Katz Entertainment Group (BKEG), a talent management company. While at the company, he eventually began managing comedians, like Whitney Cummings, Jeff Ross, and Dane Cook. In 2003, he was promoted to senior vice president. In the position, he was responsible for producing film and television projects. BKEG was acquired by New Wave Entertainment in October 2003 and it became the new company's talent management and production division.
Volk-Weiss continued to manage comedians and produce films and television shows with Barry Katz as part of New Wave. He was a producer on the Dane Cook films, Employee of the Month, Good Luck Chuck, and My Best Friend's Girl. He also produced the Dane Cook-led HBO documentary series, Tourgasm. During that time, he also began producing comedy specials. In 2007, he produced the first stand-up special for New Wave. In 2008, he founded New Wave Dynamics (which would later become Comedy Dynamics) as a production and distribution company of New Wave Entertainment. By 2009, he had become the head of production for New Wave Entertainment.
By 2012, Volk-Weiss had produced HBO, Comedy Central, Showtime, and Netflix stand-up specials for numerous comedians, including Aziz Ansari, Whitney Cummings, D.L. Hughley, Jim Gaffigan, Tom Papa, Bill Burr, and others. He had also served as a producer on shows like VH1's Stevie TV and Investigation Discovery's True Grime: Crime Scene Clean Up. In July 2013, he was named president of production at New Wave. At that time, New Wave Dynamics was renamed "Comedy Dynamics" and Volk-Weiss became a partner in the company. It was producing around 20 to 30 stand-up specials per year at that point.
In 2014, two Volk-Weiss-produced comedy albums (That's What I'm Talkin' About by Bob Saget and I'm Here to Help by Craig Ferguson) were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. He had also produced a range of other new stand-up specials that year for comedians like Kathleen Madigan, Marc Maron, Mike Birbiglia, Doug Stanhope, and Brian Posehn. By July 2014, Comedy Dynamics had produced over 100 stand-up specials and 125 comedy albums. That month, the company also launched its own comedy channel on Hulu, Roku, and Amazon platforms. In 2015, Volk-Weiss produced Louis C.K.'s album, Live at Madison Square Garden, which would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Brian Volk-Weiss productions
Comedy Dynamics: Uncontrolled Comedy (2015)
Coming to the Stage (2015–present)
The Toys That Made Us (2017–present)
Dons of Disco (2018)
Discontinued [Pilot episode] (2018)
The Movies That Made Us (2019–present)
Down to Earth with Zac Efron (2020–present)
A Toy Store Near You (2020–present)
All the Way Black (2020–present)
Video Game Box Art (2020)
Grant (2020)
How to Fix a Drug Scandal (2020)
The Holiday Movies That Made Us (2020)
Seven Short Films About (Our) Marriage (2020)
The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek (2021–present)
Behind the Attraction (2021–present)
Action Figure Adventure (2021–present)
Icons Unearthed (2022–present)
Icons Unearthed: Star Wars (July 12, 2022, first season)
Icons Unearthed: The Simpsons (October 5, 2022, second season)
NacelleVerse
The NacelleVerse is an ongoing American transmedia franchise and shared fictional universe created by Volk-Weiss and presented by The Nacelle Company. It features lines of comics, cartoons and toys based on several brands from the '60s-'90s that the company has acquired the rights to.
Featured franchises
RoboForce
Biker Mice from Mars
Sectaurs
The Great Garloo
Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa
Power Lords
Big Loo
Barnyard Commandos
