Kountry Wayne, the Southern comic who landed major streaming releases for his first two specials, has an unusual origin story.

While many comedians have parlayed success in content creation into careers onstage, Wayne took an unusual tack in utilizing vertical micro-dramas to build a highly lucrative online business — and an audience that would ultimately fuel his touring career.

Born DeWayne Colley and raised in the one-stoplight town of Millen, GA, Wayne is also unlike most comics in that Facebook has always been his platform of choice. He first went viral in 2014 with comedic clips posted to the platform, and after making some traction as a stand-up, he hoped to leave content creation behind altogether.

Then, the pandemic hit, and unable to perform onstage, he returned to Facebook with a vengeance. Wayne recognized that his online audience craved story as much as they did comedic bits — and so he began producing soapy, serialized skits built around a recurring cast of characters.

Initially, Wayne worked with just his phone, creating clean content geared toward a Southern, Black audience. He was always confident he would succeed, but he could not have conceived of the scale of the success he would find with micro-dramas — or how broadly they would translate. His content now reaches billions of viewers worldwide each month, generating a reported eight figures annually in advertising revenue.

No longer the sole creator of content distributed through his channels, Wayne now oversees hundreds of employees who together produce roughly 1,200 pieces of content per month. He followed his digital success by scaling his stand-up business, culminating in a pair of specials for rival streaming giants: A Woman’s Prayer, which debuted at No. 1 on Netflix, and Nostalgia, which premiered on Prime Video in March.

He has since moved further into the mainstream with roles in projects like Time Bandits, Apple TV’s series adaptation of the Terry Gilliam film, and at age 38, his ambitions as a comedic multi-hyphenate seem to know no limits. Soon, he’ll be launching a podcast, and he also has a self-financed indie coming up for release.

In today’s episode of Comedy Means Business, Wayne details his transition into comedy after working in nightclubs, discussing the success he’s found in addressing an audience he found to be underserved. He explains how his voice as a stand-up is informed by his earlier work as a rapper and also talks about his upcoming arena tour with Mike Epps, his reasons for being uncommonly transparent with his viewership statistics as a content creator, and more.

Check out the conversation by clicking above.

Paul Anthony Kelly knew when he took on the role of such an icon as the beloved John F. Kennedy Jr, a person America and the world has known since he was just a little boy learning to walk, that it would be no easy task. ”It’s very challenging playing a historical individual, certainly one who’s so well known and well regarded,” he said. “I think the biggest challenge was just for myself to find the humanity in it and keep it real and honest, while also navigating how people perceive him and and hold him in their hearts.”

Considering the level of success the FX limited series from Ryan Murphy under his “Love Story” umbrella has had in terms of critical acclaim, viewership and now seven Emmy nominations, he and his co-stars succeeded beyond all expectations. Kelly joined Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees Studio along with co-stars Sarah Pidgeon, who plays Carolyn Bessette, and Constance Zimmer, who plays her mother Ann Marie Freeman, to talk about the series and why it has resonated.

RELATED: Contenders Television: The Nominees Studio – Deadline’s Complete Coverage

Watch the conversation here and scroll down for more photos from the event.

For Pidgeon — who is Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology or Television Movie — Bessette was a person who had to navigate a sudden explosion of fame and curiosity while staying true to herself, and it wasn’t always easy. Pidgeon could relate to that just shooting this show.

“Well, we’re making a television show, but I think that started to sort of wake up my nervous system. You know, the awareness that someone is watching you or filming you, capturing you beyond the film camera that’s in your face for the television show,” she said. “In some ways, I think because my nervous system reacted in my head, I thought, ‘Well, this is akin to what she might have been experiencing.’ And I think that was something that I found really exciting and an important part of her story to share, because I think especially, you know, 30 years on, we can reflect on that, the advent of paparazzi culture in a very different way. But Carolyn never spoke on the record. So in a way, I was able to showcase what that experience might have been for her through me in this iteration of Carolyn, sort of setting the record straight.”

Sarah Pidgeon

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Paul Anthony Kelly

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Constance Zimmer

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Sarah Pidgeon

Anthony Avellano for Deadline

Playing her mother — someone well out of the limelight of the Kennedys and a woman who would lose not only one daughter but two in the tragic 1999 crash that took their lives in a plane piloted by JFK Jr — was quite extraordinary and sensitive for Zimmer to play, especially since Ann is no longer alive. She has been nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role for a Limited Series, Anthology or Television Movie.

RELATED: Emmy Nominations Analysis: ‘The Pitt’ And ‘Hacks’ Dominance Proves It Helps To Be On A Show Voters Actually Watch

“I think for me, because there wasn’t as much known about her as there was about the majority of the other people in the show, it gave me a freedom to all I had to do was look like the photo and then everything else. I could basically give her the power, give her a voice, give a voice to the voiceless,” Zimmer said. “Which is also a little bit of what happened with Carolyn, as we didn’t get to know her that way. And so I think this being based on the book and, and this being very much a little bit more of Carolyn’s point of view is the side of the story we never knew. And so I felt incredibly honored, and a lot of pressure, to make sure that whatever I did was just to make her somebody that nobody would forget.”

The next generation of Hillman College students are arriving this fall in Netflix‘s A Different World, and Deadline has your first-look at the trailer above. New photos of Season 1 have also been released, and can be found below.

The single-camera comedy will release all 10 half-hour episodes on September 24.

Maleah Joi Moon is at the center of the new chapter, playing Deborah Wayne, the youngest daughter of Hillman royalty: Whitley Gilbert-Wayne (Jasmine Guy) and Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison). Deborah is a sheltered young woman, a free spirit with a flair for the spotlight and a big heart who’s still figuring out her own path at Hillman.

The new A Different World hails from Felicia Pride.

The trailer reveals Deborah will have a special relationship with Dr. Langhorne, played by Debbie Allen. Allen has been part of the continuation from the start as an executive producer and director of the premiere episode. The legendary multi-hyphenate, who directed 83 episodes of the original series, was not previously announced as having a role on the show.

In a funny scene between the two, Dr. Langhorne asks Deborah, “Baby, why are you here?” Deborah gives a short speech on hour her parents have inculcated in her the importance of Hillman, but Dr. Lanhorne knows better.

“You didn’t get in anywhere else, did you?” said Dr. Lanhorne, leaving Deborah to embarrasingly confirm it was true by putting her head down.

One thing about Deborah’s mom Whitley that we can’t forget from the original series: she is an impeccable dresser. Her appearance in the trailer shows her decked out in a classic Chanel suit. Deborah is forging her own stylish reputation wearing Balmain and a Chanel look of her own.

The new class also includes Rashida Duvall (Alijah Kai), a first‑gen criminal justice major; Shaquille Johnson (Cornell Young IV), a five‑star athlete choosing legacy; Amir Rodale (Jordan Aaron Hall), a sharp psych major better at fixing everyone else’s problems than facing his own; Hazel Henry (Kennedi Reece), a church‑raised small‑town girl defining her own values; and Kojo Achebe (Chibuikem Uche), a Ghanaian‑Nigerian fashion entrepreneur finding the courage to follow his vision.

And for us old school fans back for more, in addition to Guy and Hardison, the series will see the return of Darryl M. Bell as Ron Johnson, Cree Summer as Freddie Brooks, Charnele Brown as Dr. Kimberly Reese Boyer, Jenifer Lewis as Professor Davenport, Jada Pinkett Smith as Lena James, Dawnn Lewis as Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor, and Glynn Turman as Col. Bradford Taylor.

The trailer can be watched above and more new photos can be found below.