EXCLUSIVE: After partnering with Live Nation on one of the largest comedy tours in 20+ years, comedian Matt Rife is expanding his relationship with the company with a second world tour, as well as a new feature project.
Rife will be among the leads of Rolling Loud, an R-rated comedy co-produced by Live Nation Productions, which will film at the hip-hop festival of the same name this winter, as its 10th edition takes place in Miami from December 13-15. The deal reflects Rife’s longtime drive to bolster his acting career amid his busy touring schedule. It’s the second high-profile project he’s taken on recently, on the heels of a gym-set workplace comedy currently in development, which he’ll write and star in for Netflix, as we told you first.
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Rolling Loud is inspired by the true story of an overprotective father who makes the worst parenting decision of his life when he sneaks his 13-year-old son into Rolling Loud, the world’s biggest hip-hop festival, setting off a chaotic adventure with his reckless co-worker and an eccentric festival volunteer as they navigate wild crowds, security, and their own family dynamics.
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Jeremy Garelick (Murder Mystery 2) has written and will direct the pic through his company American High. UTA Independent Film Group is repping worldwide rights to the film, which is slated for release next year.
While tour markets for Rife’s new tour won’t be announced until later this year, we’re told it will feature all new material, including crowd work — one of his specialties, as highlighted in his new Netflix special Lucid. Marking the streamer’s first one-hour crowd work special, Lucid debuted last week at #1 on the service.
With his ProbleMATTic World Tour, for which he’s still currently on the road, Rife stunned the comedy community, selling over 600,000 tickets in under 48 hours last June. In doing so, he joined Taylor Swift as one of the only live acts to break Ticketmaster’s website due to demand. Highlights from the tour have included four sold-out shows at The Dolby Theater in Hollywood, a record five consecutive sold-out performances at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut, and the sale of over 17,000 tickets at the Hollywood Bowl, as Rife became the youngest stand-up comic to sell out the venue during Netflix Is a Joke Fest.
For Rife, Lucid is the first of two specials to come from a deal with Netflix signed following the huge success of Natural Selection, his debut special for the service. Released last November, that special was the most viewed on Netflix in the second half of 2023, garnering over 10.3 million views in its first two weeks and earning a Top 10 ranking in 42 countries including #1 in the U.S., Canada, and South Africa.
Seeing his career hit the stratosphere last year after blowing up on TikTok, Rife has now amassed over 35.6 million followers and over 3 billion views globally on social media. From a small town near Columbus, Ohio, he started performing at the age of 15 and moved to Los Angeles two years later in pursuit of a career in Hollywood. Self-financing his first one-hour special, Only Fans, and releasing it on YouTube in 2021, he again bet on himself two years later as he took the same approach with his follow-up, Matthew Steven Rife, before making his way to Netflix. Previously, he also released the crowd work special Walking Red Flag on YouTube, which amassed over 13 million views.
Rife made his television debut on MTV’s Wild ‘N Out as the youngest cast member in history for four seasons before moving on to other MTV properties, such as hosting the reboot of TRL and appearing on The Challenge. Other screen credits include Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fresh Off the Boat, BET’s North of the 10, NBC’s comedy competition show Bring the Funny and Netflix’s That ’90s Show.
Rife is represented by Christina Shams of Avesta Entertainment, UTA and Felker Toczek Suddleson.