Film producer Chase Crawford, from Monroe, and comedian Luke Nell, from West Chester Township, will be the first to tell you they’re – in Nell’s words – “Midwestern guys through and through.”
Nell went to Lakota East High School and did the school play and school musical. He’s a Bengals fan and loves his wife, whom he met because she was a barista at the coffee shop where he first started performing comedy as an Ohio University student.
Crawford went to Butler Tech, where he made fake Taco Bell commercials that would later launch his filmmaking career. He went to college at Miami University and loves Skyline Chili. Crawford even has a “Midwest sweet” romance, having married his high school sweetheart.
These two seemingly-ordinary Cincinnati residents have gone on to find success in the entertainment industry, making their mark in Los Angeles and New York. Nell, 33, appeared on the 2017-18 season of “Saturday Night Live” before pursuing comedy full-time in Los Angeles. Crawford, 27, launched his own film company, Four by Three Productions, and produced a $300,000-budget film before even graduating college.
The pair of Cincinnati creatives crossed paths in 2019, when Crawford saw Nell perform at Legends Bar in Cheviot. Crawford had recently launched his film production company and was dabbling in filming comedy specials.
Many phone calls and a flight to Los Angeles later, Crawford and Nell finally teamed up to shoot Nell’s debut comedy special: “Pretty Songs, Dirty Words” at the historic Dynasty Typewriter on Oct. 2 this year.
The special is one of the best, full-scale productions Crawford’s team has worked on, he said. Along with a live band and complete set builds, the show features cameos by five-time Emmy winner Wayne Brady and LA-based comedians Steph Tolev and Lizzy Cooperman. It’ll release around the spring or summer of 2024, according to Crawford.
“I just hope (the special) shows to other people … work with your own and you’ll never be led astray,” Crawford said of collaborating with another Cincinnati-born entertainer.
From making YouTube videos in high school to producing major films, comedy specials
Crawford knew he wanted to make movies for a living as a high schooler at Butler Tech. He remembers kids his age commenting that, “No one’s made a movie in this town.”
Which, he says, “kinda lit a fire under my tail.”
He’s largely self-taught, making YouTube videos and eventually getting his big break in high school by filming fake Taco Bell commercials, of all things.
One video went semi-viral, he says, racking up nearly 10,000 views. The next thing he knew, he was being flown out to Los Angeles by Taco Bell to write and direct content for them. He graduated Butler Tech early to continue pursuing his dreams.
In 2017, Crawford produced his first movie under his Four by Three Productions company: a low-budget film titled “Alan and the Fullness of Time” shot in and around Butler County.
The following year, he got an offer to produce a $300,000-budget film called “Moondance.” He was four classes away from graduating college. He took the job offer instead.
Since then, Crawford’s team at Four by Three Productions has grown considerably. They’ve produced over a dozen more films, and once film production costs increased post-pandemic, they expanded into comedy specials, too.
Crawford saw gaps in the comedy market, which he knew his team could fill.
“People want to see not just an iPhone (video) with bad audio, they want to see the real deal. We came from the film world and understood what it took to get (content) in front of people.”
Despite entering the comedy video realm, Crawford still produces films. He recently worked on a $1 million-budget film shot in Spain.
‘Cincinnati is the entertainment capital of the world’
Even though Crawford has traveled all over the world filming movies and comedy specials, he still adores Cincinnati through and through. His film company’s offices are located here. And he believes the city rivals other art havens, such as New York City and Los Angeles.
“I joke that Cincinnati is the entertainment capital of the world, (and) now I believe it when I say it,” he said.
“There’s way more output media-wise than should come from a town this size, even in Indy, Columbus, Louisville – there’s not as many independent films and comedy specials coming out of (those places).”
It was this loyalty to Cincinnati that made collaborating with Nell so special, he said.
“It was a surreal, ‘pinch me,’ full-circle moment” Crawford said.
“He’s our Cincinnati boy who made it to ‘SNL,'” he said.
Nell expressed the same. He said having Crawford and his team in Los Angeles was like, “having a warm, Cincinnati Midwestern hug.”
Crawford plans to pitch Nell’s special “Pretty Songs, Dirty Words” to Max, Hulu and other major streaming platforms.