Nathan Fielder earns Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘absolutely hilarious’ nod for reinventing comedy
Sacha Baron Cohen just called a peer a “comic genius” for transforming comedy — but it’s who he picked that raises eyebrows.
While promoting Ali G: Who Iz I?, Sacha Baron Cohen singled out Nathan Fielder for pushing prank-based comedy into new territory — and did it by recalling how Fielder approached Cohen’s own Showtime series Who Is America?
“He reinvented the genre that I suppose created or developed and he had a rule really which was to not do anything that I had done,” Cohen told The Hollywood Reporter. “But he’s a brilliant, brilliant mind, absolutely hilarious.”
Fielder didn’t just admire from afar — he was in the trenches on Who Is America? in 2018, co-directing two episodes and serving as a writer and consulting producer on the Showtime show.
- Nathan for You — Comedy Central (2013–2017)
- The Rehearsal — HBO, two seasons
- The Curse — Showtime
- You Can See Everything — Elizabeth Holmes documentary, co-directed
Cohen also told THR he thinks You Can See Everything “should be huge,” and awards watchers are already buzzing that it could be a rare documentary with real Best Picture heat.
Tarantino, nearly
Cohen said he keeps a personal rule with filmmakers he reveres: if they ask, he says yes — even if the part feels counterintuitive. Quentin Tarantino is firmly on that list. The two first kicked around a Scarlet Pimpernel adaptation roughly 20 years ago, staying in touch over regular dinners after Borat hit in 2006.
The closest they came onscreen was Django Unchained. Cohen was lined up to appear opposite Kerry Washington; a prosthetic chin was even crafted to match the look Tarantino wanted. A clash with Cohen’s Les Misérables schedule scrapped the plan before cameras rolled, but he says he’d still jump at a Tarantino call.
For now, Cohen is back in character: Ali G: Who Iz I? opened in theaters on October 23 and heads to Prime Video next.