50 Fun Facts About Big Nate

Who created the Big Nate comic strip?

His surname is pronounced 'purse'. He is close friends with Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney, whose Poptropica game has featured a Big Nate island since 2009.

What grade is Nate Wright in?

He has been eleven and a half years old since 1991, a C student who is nevertheless a talented cartoonist, drummer and chess player.

What is the name of Nate's school?

The building is over a century old and falling apart. It gets remodelled in Lives It Up after a valuable folk-art mural is discovered in a storage room.

What subject does Nate's nemesis Mrs. Godfrey teach?

Nate calls her names like 'the school's Godzilla' and keeps a list of twenty insulting nicknames for her, which earns him a detention in the first novel.

What is the name of Nate's rock band?

Nate started as lead singer but was not good enough; Artur was hired after singing 'I Fought the Law'. The TV series renamed the band Fear the Mollusk.

Which instrument does Nate play in his band?

Francis plays electric guitar and Teddy keyboard, while Chad serves as roadie.

Which foreign exchange student is the band's lead vocalist, dates Nate's crush and beat him at chess?

He is Belarusian, speaks broken English and considers Nate a friend, completely unaware of Nate's resentment. Nate got demoted to second-best in the chess club because of him.

What is the name of the girl Nate has had a crush on since first grade?

She does not return his feelings and dates the exchange student instead, for what Nate once counted as 'four months, six days, and three-and-a-half hours'.

Which teacher's pet, Mrs. Godfrey's favourite student, does Nate loathe?

Her full name is Gina Hemphill-Toms. In the novels she eventually dates Nate's best friend Francis, and in Strikes Again she is drafted onto Nate's fleece-ball team.

Which of Nate's friends loves 'The Book of Facts' and owns a cat named Pickles?

He is a cat person to Nate's dog person, is friendly with Mrs. Godfrey, and has a gap between his teeth. His middle name is Butthurst.

What is Teddy Ortiz's middle name?

His parents are both math teachers. He is half Mexican and half Puerto Rican and turns out to be fluent in Spanish in Flips Out.

What is the name of Nate's older sister?

She is fifteen, responsible and hardworking, and loves cats, figure skating and egg salad, three of the things Nate hates most.

What is Nate's dad's first name?

He is a bald, overweight divorcé who considers himself a musician, athlete and golfer despite all evidence, and hands out raisins and prunes on Halloween.

What snack does Nate love above all others?

He also hates figure skating and egg salad, and reportedly has a sense of smell that can outdo a dog's.

What is the name of the neighbour's dog, the closest thing Nate has to a pet of his own?

He belongs to Mr. Eustis, wears a cone and a dog sweater, and inspires the team name 'Psycho Dogs' in Strikes Again. Nate's dad refuses to get a dog.

What is Nate's favourite comic book, whose skimpily dressed heroine is never actually shown?

Nate insists he reads it for the stories. It inspired his own comic Eve of Destruction, which he later changed to a male hero, Steve of Destruction.

Which well-funded rival school beats Nate's classmates at almost everything?

It has been described as 'more of a museum than a school'. Nate's side has beaten it in the Ultimate Snowdown, two Mud Bowls and a 2008 soccer game.

What is Nate's phobia, part of the reason he is so desperate to own a dog?

Ailurophobia is the fear of cats. He is nonetheless best friends with a cat person and has a sister who adores them.

What day of the year does Nate treat as 'Prank Day'?

He believes himself a natural prankster and attempts something funny and difficult on that day every year.

In what year did the Big Nate comic strip debut in newspapers?

It launched in 135 papers on January 7 and grew to more than 400. Daily strips ended in June 2026, with the strip continuing on Sundays only.

What was the title of the first novel in the series, published in 2010?

In the UK, Ireland and Australia it was retitled Big Nate: The Boy with the Biggest Head in the World.

In the first Big Nate novel, a fortune cookie tells Nate 'You will surpass all others'. What school record does he set?

He collects seven slips from seven different teachers. His attempt at the green-bean speed-eating record fails when the principal slips in bean juice.

Which elderly science teacher is rumoured never to have laughed at anything?

Nate finally cracks him up in the first novel when a confiscated pen leaks in his pocket, and is rewarded with five extra hours of detention.

In Big Nate Strikes Again, which historical figure is Nate assigned to research?

He becomes genuinely fascinated and starts drawing Ben Franklin comics, but misses the fleece-ball captains' meeting while reading up in the library.

What name does Nate's fleece-ball team end up stuck with in Strikes Again?

He wanted Psycho Dogs, but his partner had already submitted the name to Coach Calhoun. Intramural sports at the school are called SPOFFs, Sports Played Only For Fun.

In Big Nate: On a Roll, what are the Timber Scouts selling to raise money for camping gear?

They are wall hangings with little sayings underneath. Nate is only motivated because the top seller wins a new skateboard, his own having rolled off a bridge.

What is the cartooning club Nate and friends start with the art teacher in Big Nate Goes for Broke called?

Mr. Rosa suggests recruiting more girls, which is how the dramatic, costume-loving Dee Dee joins the friend group.

In Goes for Broke, what contest does Nate invent to finally beat the rival school?

The rivals lose by taking the lazy route and packing snow around a spare knight statue.

In Big Nate: In the Zone, Chad's good-luck charm is a small plastic what?

He found it in the cafeteria and simply calls it 'the Foot'. Nate borrows it, then hands it back so Chad can win over his crush Maya.

In Big Nate Lives It Up, the new student Nate is assigned to buddy has what elaborate name?

He turns out to be 'Bobby', a boy from Nate's past, and his passion for drawing flowers is what identifies the long-lost Granny Peppers mural.

How much had one Granny Peppers painting sold for, making the mural discovery in Lives It Up so significant?

The century-old journal of student Edna Birkdale described the mural, which was hidden behind a storage-room wall where the south stairwell used to be.

How many novels are in the main Big Nate series that ran from 2010 to 2016?

Every one of them was a New York Times bestseller. Peirce followed them with the medieval Max & the Midknights trilogy.

What was the final book in the novel series, published in 2016?

It reveals that Nate's dad was the hero of the very first Mud Bowl.

Which online game has featured a 'Big Nate Island' since 2009?

The game was created by Jeff Kinney, and Peirce wrote and illustrated the island's quest himself.

On which streaming service did the animated Big Nate series premiere in February 2022?

It had been announced for Nickelodeon, which eventually aired it that September. The show was pulled from the service in March 2024.

Which Disney Channel star voices Nate's sister in the animated series?

Rob Delaney voices their dad and Ben Giroux is Nate.

Which character was created for the TV series and, like Ali Stroker, uses a wheelchair?

She is Dee Dee's girlfriend and first appears in the episode 'Sixtween Candles'. The show also made Dee Dee a lesbian, unlike the strip.

Where did the stage musical Big Nate: The Musical premiere in May 2013?

The plot has Nate trying to avoid detentions so his band can enter the Battle of the Bands. Christopher Youstra wrote the music.

Which cartoonist does the creator of Big Nate cite as his greatest inspiration?

Peirce grew up in Durham, New Hampshire, drew a weekly strip called Third Floor at Colby College, and taught art and coached baseball at a New York high school before the strip took off.

In 2019 Big Nate was GoComics' second most-viewed feature, behind only which strip?

Big Nate books have been translated into 33 languages and sold more than 20 million copies.

According to Peirce, the comic started out as what kind of humour before the school jokes took over?

He intended to focus on Nate's single dad, but having been a teacher himself, found that 'schools can be very funny places'. The strip began with only six characters.

What did Peirce write after finishing the Big Nate novels, a comedic adventure set in the Middle Ages?

The first book spent sixteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and the trilogy became a Nickelodeon animated series in 2024.

In the animated series, which of Nate's friends is president of the school drama club?

Voiced by Bryce Charles, the show's version of the character is a lesbian, unlike her comic-strip counterpart, and dates the TV-only character Amy.

Kevin Michael Richardson voices which head of Nate's school in the animated series?

The firm principal is one of the authority figures Nate keeps running afoul of, along with Mrs. Godfrey and the ageing Mr. Galvin.

Who voices Nate Wright in the animated series?

The show casts Nate as a semi-incompetent, spirited 11-year-old who loves pranks and drawing cartoons.

After running daily since 1991, the comic strip switched in 2026 to what publishing schedule?

The daily run ended on June 13, 2026, more than 35 years after the strip's debut.

The animated series was originally planned to premiere in September 2021 on which channel?

It shifted to Paramount+ for a February 2022 debut and eventually aired on the cable channel from September 2022 anyway.

In 1991, Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson optioned Big Nate for cartoons on which network?

The day after the deal was finalised the network cancelled all its Saturday-morning cartoons, and the project died for three decades.

In which state was the creator of Big Nate born?

He was born in Ames in 1963, grew up in Durham, New Hampshire, and later settled in Portland, Maine.

In how many newspapers did the Big Nate strip debut in 1991?

The client list has since grown to more than 400 papers worldwide, plus a huge online readership on GoComics.