Meet Jude Merkel

We were lucky to catch up with Jude Merkel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jude, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I got my work ethic from my father, without a doubt. He was always doing something. Whether that be building a pavilion in our backyard (goodbye to my summer of ’09) or mulching 100 trees on our property, my father STAYED busy. When I was born I already had seven older siblings, and they were helping him out, you know, contributing 1/7th of their time. They would all walk to the creek behind our house, and sell Christmas tress, pumpkins, or corn. It was a full family affair. They moved irrigation pipes, they helped my dad with 100 head black angus cattle, but they all had each other. The first seven kids were eight years apart – total. Then five years later I came along. Then another five years later Mary came along. So I like to think that it was really just me helping my father when I was in high school. My older brother fought with my dad, and my little sister well, she just got out of a lot of manual labor, which left me!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a comedian, actor and writer living in Los Angeles, Ca. After serving in the navy for ten years, I got out and moved to LA to pursue my creative dreams. This past year I booked my first movie (Shark Terror – Apple TV+) and TV show (Wild West Chronicles – Peacock) and two commercials! It has been very rewarding after a tough couple years to start out here. I also produced and hosted a standup/musical comedy show with my friend John Baldwin at the Westside Comedy Theater. We did 11 shows over the past year and had a blast. I will most likely re-brand and try a different show in the new year.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think the most important have been sports, adaptability, and allowing yourself to fail. Sports is the best, you can learn so much about yourself and others in so many ways. I played football and basketball my entire life growing up, and football eventually got me a full ride to college which has helped me in so many ways. After many injuries, I’ve picked up other hobbies like surfing, Jiu-jitsu, soccer, tennis and I still play basketball once a week. I hope to never stop learning. I think being able to adapt is so crucial in your journey. I’m the second youngest of nine kids so I was always exposed to different personalities and dispositions. I think being able to adapt to different landscapes and emotions goes so far. Lastly, allowing yourself to fail is one of the best things (although it has devastated me many times). Without failure, I would have never grown, whether that be in my writing, acting standup comedy, you name it. It’s so healthy and cathartic for me to not take life too seriously and realize it truly is never too late to start something.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I’m looking for a team of like-minded individuals. I’m an actor, comedian and writer but I would love to be friends with more creative people. Whether that’s a DP, a videographer, an editor, a sound technician, a gaffer, etc. Some of my favorite comedians are guys like Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett (GoodNeighborStuff), or the Workaholics guys – Adam Devine, Blake Anderson and Ders Holmes. So many times I wish I could have met my core group of people that wants to make silly fun content together in college, but that’s not the reality. These guys are so funny and successful because they have great relationships and all have similar goals in my opinion. So if you’re out there reading this and want to be the next best thing, you know where to find me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: merk_nowitzki
• Youtube: merk_nowitzki
• Other: TikTok / Threads: @merk_nowitzki