Nat’s What I Reckon

Comedian, rock musician, mental health advocate and award-winning, best-selling author Nat’s What I Reckon had been creating online content for close to a decade when his early 2020 isolation cooking content rocketed his existing fan base to a global following which has since surpassed six million.

Nat’s hilarious social commentary, sweary message of kindness and inclusivity, and open sharing of his mental health struggles has resonated with champions the world over and earned him a staggering half a billion+ views on his videos.

Exhibiting his love for taking the playful piss from his earliest content, Nat’s riffing on everything from trade shows and tattoo events to burnout festivals and exploring “the wrong” Area 51 – had earned him a loyal following in the hundreds of thousands when, in response to seeing pasta jar-sauce shelves picked clean by hoarders while fresh produce sections were bursting with untouched fruit & veg, Nat launched a video featuring one of his one of his own favourite home-cooked pasta sauce recipes.

With his classic sweary style, signature spin and whistle, and kind encouragement to just give it a crack, this clip hit a note with millions – and they have stayed with him ever since. His new level of virality saw Nat win A-list fans including Keith Urban, Courtney Act, Dave Grohl and Briggs – but most importantly, successfully got millions of people into the kitchen and away from packaged meals.

Openness about mental health has always been one of Nat’s core values. In keeping with being consistently open about his own struggles, Nat has reviewed mental health for a popular ‘Is It Sh*t?’ segment on the channel, served as an ambassador for The Big Anxiety Festival and shared his experiences for Stand-up For Mental Health on ABC TV.

In 2022 he took on an ambassadorship role alongside former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and MasterChef sensation Julie Goodwin for Beyond Blue’s inaugural Big Blue Table, raising much-needed funds their 24-hour Support Service. The campaign wildly exceeded expectations, leading to an invitation for Nat to continue the role.

Nat’s 2020 live solo comedy debut, the On Purpose tour was a sell-out success, adding shows to the tour and comedy festivals across Australia to meet demand. Additionally, in the first real-time streamed lockdown events of their kind globally, he performed two shows to packed, sold-out houses in Sydney… at 6am on a weekday. These were live-streamed to the UK and Canada, where time-zones saw audiences join at a more traditional evening show time. Writing and performing a new live show each year to critical and audience acclaim, 2023 marked Nat’s international touring debut, with shows in Aotearoa New Zealand, England, Scotland and Ireland.

He is the author of four bestselling books, all published by Penguin Random House. The first, Un-cook Yourself: A Ratbag’s Rules for Life, an “unhelpful self-help guide”, went straight to the #1 Bestsellers spot on both Booktopia and Book Depository on pre-orders alone. The 25 recipe illustrated cookbook Death To Jar Sauce: Rad Recipes For Champions debuted at #2 on Booktopia immediately on announcement, swiftly going on to take out the top spot in the charts in just a week. And Life: What Nat to Do – Nat’s “hot take on the advice you never asked for” was also an immediate and acclaimed best-seller, once again taking Nat straight to number #2 on the Booktopia charts on release.

All three were shortlisted at the Australian Book Industry Awards and Booktopia’s Favourite Australian Book Award, with both Un-cook Yourself and Death to Jar Sauce winning the Booktopia Award. Nat has donated all of the winning proceeds to Beyond Blue.

Most recently, Smash Hits Recipes once again went straight to the Booktopia charts on announcement and received a FAB awards nomination. Continuing in the comic strip style from his previous books, this amazing hardback book includes forty-five of Nat’s all-time best recipes and advice on the most useful items to have in your pantry.

Due to Nat’s claim that he’s shit at trivia, he wanted to create a game in which everyone has a 50/50 chance of winning, and so the Yeah Nah Game was born, released through Imagination Games in 2021.

Nat has been invited to guest-program ABC TV’s iconic rage music show; join a panel and present a video in collaboration with Briggs at music conference BIGSOUND 2020; present a TED talk for TEDx Sydney, and ARIA awards for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal and Dance. He was honoured to be one of the six guests chosen by Courtney Act for her season of ABC TV’s long-form interview show, Courtney Act’s One Plus One, and to feature on an episode of Tony Armstrong‘s ABC docuseries Eat the Invaders.

Other notable appearances include Hughsey We Have a Problem, ABC’s The Drum, SBS’ The Feed, and appearances on popular podcasts including Osher Günsberg’s Better than Yesterday, a live incarnation of Annabelle Crabb and Leigh Sales’ Chat 10 Looks 3 and Wilosophy with Wil Anderson.

In 2021 the National Film And Sound Archive Of Australia recognised the importance of Nat’s What I Reckon’s contribution to society during the pandemic and honoured the team with inclusion in their curated collection: Creativity in The Time of Covid: Documenting A Nation In Lockdown. Nat and his channel cohort Jules were also selected to represent the collection with participation in the NFSA‘s Creativity in the Time of COVID discussion.

In 2022 Nat and Jules launched their joint Spotify Original podcast, Food Crime. A hilarious investigation into the seedier side of food, the smart, funny and biting buffet of educational and interesting information went straight to the top of the podcast charts on its release. The fact-packed and funny podcast revolves around stories about food getting caught up in the world of crime. Murder, poison, heists… all with a side of piss–taking and taste testing.

When he’s not filming, cooking or purloining rosemary from a local bush, Nat can often be found indulging his love of rock’n’roll and comedy, playing in bands and stand-up venues around Australia and abroad.