UCB artistic director debunks “reality” TV romances via his experience on “Beauty and the Geek”

As 2012 comes to a close, Nate Dern celebrates his first full year as artistic director of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, overseeing one of the hubs for developing young sketch and improv comedic actors.

Dern’s UCB bio lists his TV appearances on Comedy Central’s Daily Show and Colbert Report, ESPN, The Onion and more. Missing, however, is his first and still most prominent (for now) TV role to date: “Reality” TV star on season three of The CW’s Beauty and the Geek, which ran for several weeks at the beginning of 2007.

Back then, Nate Dern was introduced to us as a Harvard student and singer for a Star Wars tribute band called So Long Princess.

Beauty and the Geek, for those who need a refresher course, was billed as a social experiment, pairing up so-called beauties and so-called geeks in a mansion, having them compete as couples in a series of challenges, and seeing if the geeks got more handsome and/or the beauties got wiser to the ways of the world.

Today, Dern takes us back to those days, and specifically behind the scenes of his “TV romance” with model Jennylee Berns during filming on Beauty of the Geek. If you ever wondered how couples could couple up on a “reality” TV series, and how real those romances could ever be, well, Dern fills you in on the hows, the whys and the reality of the situation in this new confessional, animated by Rich Chapple and directed by Todd Bieber for UCBComedy.

Roll it!

Related reading: TV Guide’s interview with Nate Dern in February 2007 at the conclusion of Beauty and the Geek.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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