From Upstate New York to Netflix: How American High Built a Comedy Empire from the Ground Up

In 2017, filmmaker Jeremy Garelick had a vision that seemed both refreshingly simple and dauntingly ambitious: purchase an old schoolhouse in upstate New York and transform it into the epicenter of the next generation of coming-of-age comedy. What began as a physical space for production has since blossomed into a multi-platform powerhouse, "American High." Today, the outfit is no longer just a production company; it is an incubator, a digital laboratory, and, as of this October, a content creator with a massive footprint on Netflix.

The trajectory of American High—culminating in the October 26 premiere of the series Minimum Wage—serves as a case study for the shifting tides of the entertainment industry. By bypassing the traditional gatekeepers and betting on the raw, unvarnished talent of Gen Z creators, Garelick and his partner, Will Phelps, have created a self-sustaining ecosystem that is currently redefining how comedy is discovered, produced, and distributed.

The Genesis: A Blueprint for "Scrappy" Success

The American High story is rooted in the belief that the most effective way to discover talent is to place the funniest people in a room and remove the bureaucratic friction. In 2022, the company launched "American High Shorts," a digital-first initiative designed to test concepts in the high-stakes, high-speed environment of social media.

Minimum Wage, which is now slated to bring 14 of its 28 ordered episodes to Netflix this fall, originated in May 2024 as a low-budget web series posted to YouTube. The production cost for the initial run was under $2,000—a figure that stands in stark contrast to the massive budgets typically associated with streamer originals.

The series follows a group of teenagers attempting to manage a pizza shop. It is, by all accounts, a classic workplace comedy reimagined for the digital age. The cast—featuring Grace Reiter, Aidan Micho, Hyde Healy, Julia Dicesare, Luke Burke, Ryan Micho, and Tommy Armstrong—did not merely act; they were integral to the writing and directing process, treating the production as a collaborative workshop rather than a top-down mandate.

Chronology: A Rapid Rise to the Mainstream

The ascent of American High has been meteoric, driven by a cycle of constant iteration:

• 2017: Jeremy Garelick founds American High in Syracuse, New York, focusing on high-school-themed comedy features.
• 2018: The "Academy at American High" is established, formalizing the company’s relationship with local institutions like Syracuse University and Ithaca College to pipeline interns into professional sets.
• 2021: The company partners with producer Jon Hurwitz on the high school comedy Plan B, signaling a shift toward industry-wide collaboration.
• 2022: American High Shorts launches, creating a "Gen Z version of SNL" that utilizes a weekly production cycle: brainstorm on Monday, write on Tuesday, and shoot Wednesday through Friday.
• 2024 (May): The original Minimum Wage web series debuts on YouTube, gaining immediate traction and catching the eye of Netflix executives.
• 2026 (April): Variety reports on a 28-episode order from Netflix for Minimum Wage.
• 2026 (October): The first 14 episodes of the series are set to premiere on Netflix, marking a significant milestone for the digital-first production model.

Supporting Data: The Power of the "Digital Sandbox"

The success of American High is not accidental; it is backed by an impressive digital footprint. The American High Shorts TikTok account boasts over 2.6 million followers and has accumulated more than 248 million likes. For Tristan Hall, the company’s head of digital, this data is the ultimate barometer of quality.

"The nice thing about social media is you do get that instant verification," Hall explains. "Within 24 hours, we’ll know if an idea is something we want to revisit."

This model of "instant verification" allows the team to treat their sketch videos as intellectual property prototypes. When a concept resonates, the company has the infrastructure to pivot it into a longer-form project. This approach proved successful with Pizza Movie, starring Gaten Matarazzo, which debuted on Hulu earlier this year after gaining significant buzz online.

The company’s ability to scale is further supported by a massive intern program. With over 1,500 students applying per semester, the "Academy" provides a constant influx of fresh, hungry talent. This has led to an internal "promote from within" culture: Matt Sacca, once an intern, now serves as Head of Development, while others like Will Phelps and Tristan Hall have climbed from entry-level positions to executive roles.

Official Perspectives: Breaking the Gatekeeping Model

For Garelick and Phelps, the goal has always been to remove the obstacles that usually plague first-time creators. "Unlike all the studios and giant companies that like to just be reactive and see what’s working, they don’t want to take chances on first-time directors or actors," Garelick notes.

This philosophy of "amplifying without gatekeeping" has caught the attention of veteran producers. Jon Hurwitz, who has worked closely with the Syracuse hub, points out that the company’s greatest asset is its youth. "What struck me was the youth, which is wonderful. A bunch of young people who were passionate and hardworking, getting experience in the film business."

Cast member Grace Reiter describes the experience of working on Minimum Wage as a natural progression. "We already built such a language working with each other; it’s like second nature," she says. "It felt totally comfortable to pitch things in the room and to say not funny things and to get ideas turned down."

Implications: The Future of Comedy and Theatrical Releases

As American High prepares for the release of Minimum Wage and its first theatrical film, Rolling Loud (starring Owen Wilson and Matt Rife), the company is positioning itself to bridge the gap between niche digital audiences and broad, mainstream appeal.

Garelick remains a staunch advocate for the theatrical experience, despite the current industry trend of shifting comedies strictly to streaming. "We’re going to always write and make the funniest movies that we believe deserve a theatrical release," he asserts. He believes that the perception of comedy failing in theaters is a failure of content, not a failure of the medium: "It’s just a matter of when distributors realize that comedies do actually work if they’re funny."

The implications for the industry are profound. If a company can identify, produce, and distribute a series like Minimum Wage with a near-zero budget and then scale it into a Netflix series, the traditional studio model faces a genuine threat.

The "accidental ecosystem" that Garelick describes is proving to be highly intentional in its efficiency. By fostering a collaborative environment where writers, actors, and directors share a "common language," American High has insulated itself from the volatility of the entertainment business. They are not merely waiting for the industry to change; they are building the infrastructure for the next era of comedy, one TikTok sketch and one Syracuse-shot feature at a time.

As the company enters a new school year, with a new cohort of interns arriving and a major Netflix premiere on the horizon, one thing is clear: American High has successfully turned the "scrappy" into the sustainable, proving that if you give talented young people the room to create, they will eventually command the room—and the screen.