Nate Richert isn’t the type of actor who pulls the “do you know who I am?” card in public. Still a down-to-earth Midwestern guy at heart, he sometimes forgets he’s the face behind one of television’s most beloved ’90s boyfriends. So when fans of Sabrina the Teenage Witch remind him of his years as Harvey Kinkle, he’s more than happy to reminisce — especially as the magical sitcom celebrates its 30th anniversary.

For Richert, landing Sabrina at just 17 years old was a dream come true. His first major television role came with endless creative freedom, a revolving door of iconic guest stars and increasingly outrageous storylines as Harvey found himself unwittingly swept into Sabrina’s witchy world. Richert loved every minute…well, almost every minute. Getting drenched in gallons of lubricant for a particularly memorable octopus attack wasn’t exactly glamorous.

Thirty years later, Richert continues to embrace the show’s enduring legacy. Whether he’s reuniting with Melissa Joan Hart at a ’90s convention and signing nostalgic memorabilia, recording a podcast with Gordy actor Curtis Andersen or happily chatting with a Denny’s waitress who recognizes him, Richert hasn’t lost the easygoing charm that made Harvey Kinkle a fan favorite in the first place.

To celebrate the milestone anniversary, PopHorror caught up with Richert to discuss his fondest Sabrina memories, navigating fame at a young age, why the show continues to enchant audiences and an unexpected — but unforgettable — encounter with Robert Englund shortly after arriving in Hollywood.

PopHorror: Happy 30 years of Sabrina and 30 years of Harvey Kinkle! From a viewer perspective, it’s hard to believe that so much time has passed since the premiere, so I could only imagine how it feels for you. 

Nate Richert: When we get together, it’s like no time has passed, and we’ve gotten to do that quite frequently lately. But it is really weird! That is a lot of time. It flies, doesn’t it? And I didn’t even realize it was the 30th anniversary! Somebody said, “Hey, you should probably look at your Instagram today,” because I’m not on there often. I’m trying to do better with that stuff, but I’m 48 years old. I kind of missed the mark on all the social media stuff. 

Landing the Role of Harvey

PopHorror: I’d love to rewind to the ‘90s. How did Sabrina come to be for you? What do you remember about your audition? And at that time, were you actively working to make full-time acting a thing?

Nate Richert: I had moved out here from Minnesota. I came to LA in 1996. I was 17, emancipated. I had a manager who was an agent back in Minneapolis where I grew up and I did a lot of commercials and stuff like that. She quit there and started taking kids out here as a managing and finance agent. It started with a little meeting she had with some of the other parents and kids in Minneapolis and then it was about four months before I came out here. I was fresh out of high school and just started auditioning constantly. And back then, especially at that age, you did a lot more auditions. Sometimes it was three, four a week. I got really close to a few things, did some commercials, did a pilot that didn’t go. The executive producer on that turned out to be one of the executive producers on the first season of Sabrina, so she really fought for me to be on it, which was really nice.

But side note story because I think it fits your theme. That pilot I did, they put me up at The Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. I was waiting for my car to pick me up to go to the studio to shoot, and out there waiting for his car was Robert Englund. I watched those movies when I was way too young to be watching them. I said, “Hey, I just want to say you scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. I had to sleep in my parents’ bed when I was nine years old because I was so scared.” He reached out, grabbed my hand, squeezed it really hard and said, “Thank you very much.” Instant goosebumps up my arm. He was really, really nice, except he scared the shit out of me! 

But the audition process, I had that producer fighting for me. I remember the last audition, the final one with the producers in the room, I read with Melissa. It was tiered seating and she was sitting facing me because they didn’t want any of the producers looking at her at all. So I was reading with her sitting right in front of me, then all the rest of the people were in this tiered seating watching. I remember that clearly. Then I remember leaving and thinking, “Well, didn’t get that one. What’s next?” 

PopHorror: When did you find out you actually got the role?

Nate Richert: It was only a few days later. I think it was down to me and one or two other people at that point. It was pretty quick and I was super excited. But again, I had just done that pilot that didn’t go, and I had done a lot of auditions at this point. You kind of have to do the audition like it’s your job, then immediately forget about it and walk out of the room like, “Okay, that’s done. What’s next?” So even at the point where we were shooting the first episode of Sabrina, I was like, “Well, this could go a couple of months or something and then it’ll be onto the next thing.” I didn’t know that it would continue as long as it did.

On the Set of Sabrina

PopHorror: What was your first day on set like? Especially given the fact that this was your first major, recurring role on television. 

Nate Richert: That was my first television show job, for sure, and I remember shooting the first scene where she hits me with the door. Getting to have fun with physical comedy on the spot was really fun. I was like, “Well, if I put my foot right here and she moves the door open, I can put my face really close, etc.” They didn’t really tell me what to do. They just said, “Go for it.” They were really freeing. All the directors just kind of let us do our thing and have fun. If they had any minor notes, then they would give them. But typically it was, “Just go have fun.” We film it, we laugh, we move on. We got very, very spoiled on that show in that everybody was great, respectful. Not a lot of arguments, no fights. Nothing salacious to tell, really. One of our executive producers said, “If I’m going to do this show, I want this whole thing to be like a family.” He was the producer on Blossom and I guess there was some tension there. He’d done other shows in the past where some of the actors were divas and he didn’t want any of that. So that’s how he wanted it to be and it was just like that. 

PopHorror: That definitely translated to the audience, as well. You could just tell you guys were having fun. 

Nate Richert: Oh, yeah! We had Martin Mull, who’s like a sniper. He would just come off the cuff with something and you wouldn’t be ready for it and crack up. There were people that were seasoned pros that not only kept it fun, but made it very memorable. 

PopHorror: And not only the main cast, but Sabrina had so many incredible guest stars. Everyone from Backstreet Boys to Britney Spears to Dick Van Dyke. What was it like having these people visit?

Nate Richert: I didn’t get to work with a lot of them, but I got to work with Barbara Eden, which was crazy because I watched reruns of I Dream of Jeannie when I got home from school when I was a kid. So that was wild. I was maybe 20 at the time and she was in her early 60s. She was hanging on me the whole time, like, “Oh, I love looking at his face,” and doing all this stuff, whispering dirty jokes in my ear. [laughs] She was a blast. She was nutty and fun. Henry Winkler directed, and I watched reruns of Happy Days growing up. I was like a kid in a candy store when it came to the guest cast. I didn’t get to work with Teri Garr, but Teri Garr was there and I loved Young Frankenstein. 

And Shelley Long, I grew up watching Cheers and she tried to cook me in a pot. That was fun. There was always some gag, some gimmick. I was wearing a fat suit for that one and she was fattening me up to eat me. All the goofy shit we got to do, it just made it a blast. The magic stuff made it a hundred different jobs in one. You weren’t doing the same thing every week by any means. I don’t care how many jobs I get in the future. There’s going to be nothing that compares to Sabrina. 

PopHorror: And all the goofy stuff made it so fun for audiences, as well. It was just absolute nonsense most episodes, but that’s part of the charm of Sabrina! Are there any other Harvey plotlines that were particularly enjoyable to shoot?

Nate Richert: I really liked any one where I got to wear some kind of goofy makeup. The turning into the hideous beast man was my favorite because they let me go nuts. I was dancing on a table. Some of the stuff they didn’t use, but they put me in different situations and just let me go nuts. I was diving around in a dumpster and throwing stuff up in the air. I think they might’ve used just a piece of that. But the makeup, it was Eryn Krueger Mekash and her husband [Mike Mekash], who created Vecna for Stranger Things, and she’s done American Horror Story so much that she’s an executive producer on it now. So that was her in the beginning of her career, working on us. It was two hours in the makeup chair to do the face, all the prosthetics and stuff, which was fun. They even made teeth for me. In fact, they might be in this drawer right here… [pulls out fake Harvey teeth]. Yes, they are! They’re in a Ziploc because I wanted to keep them fresh. I want to put them in a block of epoxy or something. They’re formed to my mouth and everything. I’m not putting them in though, I’ll probably catch something. 

But yeah, I loved anything where we got to play. There was one where I get sucked into the linen closet by an octopus. It grabs me, pulls me in and then spits me back out, and I’ve got hickeys from it all over me. For that, they put me in a kiddie pool and had gallons of lubricant, like a ridiculous amount, and they just poured it all over me until I was completely covered. That was the slime from the octopus. Any stuff like that or character things, like the mystery train, was a lot of fun. Every week was like a different job. She turned me into a puppy at one point and I had the after effects from that. 

Becoming a Multi-Generational Hit

PopHorror: I really love that you – and the rest of the cast – speak about Sabrina so positively and fondly. A lot of actors might not want to be associated with past projects anymore. But it seems like you’re still embracing it and enjoying being known for the role. 

Nate Richert: Yeah! And also, it’s 30 years now, so sometimes I forget! [laughs] When somebody goes, “Are you Harvey?,” I go, “Oh…yeah!” Then I just reminisce with people who are fans of the show and it’s fun for both of us. It’s just been so long that sometimes I do forget it was me. 

PopHorror: What was it about Harvey that made you say “yes” to the role? How similar was he to you at the time?

Nate Richert: I was a kid from the Midwest, so playing dumb is pretty easy. [laughs] But it really depended on who wrote the script that week. All of a sudden he’d be a little brainy sometimes and it would be kind of funny because it hit people from the side. They weren’t expecting it. I based him a lot on some friends that I grew up with, just kind of talked like them and acted like them. It was always written really well, so it was pretty easy to have fun with it. 

PopHorror: Was there a point after it aired that you realized, “People are watching this. People know who I am”?

Nate Richert: It did get a little weird because I never watched it myself. I think watching myself would have put me in my own head, and I didn’t want to do that. I just wanted to work on it, be there, have fun and then go home, you know? I’m from the Midwest – not a lot of notoriety for doing commercials when you’re a kid. Nobody goes, “Oh, you’re the kid from that commercial!” No, nothing like that. There was one point, we went into a mall and were going to go into a Sam Goody record store. It was just one girl who noticed. We could hear her from the other side of the store. And then another and then another. And suddenly, there was a group of kids running at us, and we just spun around and walked right back out. I didn’t go into a mall for 10 years. I had a hat stolen off my head one time when I was out, a shirt torn. It got a little weird, but I don’t know, I guess it comes with the territory. I could get another hat. 

PopHorror: Well, I hope you got to go to Sam Goody before it died. 

Nate Richert: I don’t think I did, actually. I don’t think Sam Goody survived through those 10 years that I didn’t go back into a mall. Rest in peace, Sam Goody. But these kids nowadays are getting more tactile. They like books and CDs and VHS and vinyls, it’s pretty wild. Maybe we’ll see some Sam Goodys popping up. 

PopHorror: Were you aware of how much audiences loved Sabrina and Harvey as a couple and were rooting for them? Even during her later stint with Josh, the coffee shop guy.

Nate Richert: There was a rivalry thing that happened. I wasn’t aware of it a whole lot because I was off the show for the time that was blossoming as far as the storyline went for the characters. So when they brought me back, I went, “Oh, okay, this is the dynamic now. Alright.” But I love David [Lascher]. We still hang out, we still get along. So it was very much in the characters and not in us.

PopHorror: What was it like returning to the show after some time away?

Nate Richert: I thought it would be like riding a bike when I went back, but it was a very different dynamic. A lot of things had changed. And so you had to find the rhythm of everybody else and sort of navigate your way through that, which was a little challenging at first, but it worked out. It was fun and I got back into it. 

PopHorror: One thing about Sabrina, it still feels modern when you watch it in 2026. It doesn’t feel dated like some shows from the ‘90s might. The characters still work. Take Libby [Jenna Leigh Green] for example – she’s not the stereotypical mean girl often seen in shows and films from that era. She’s funny, there’s depth. Can you share your thoughts on why these characters and Sabrina as a whole still works 30 years later? And is even attracting new generations?

Nate Richert: With Libby, that was her thing – whatever she’s going to do, she’s going to do it with a smile. It made it more evil and made it more funny when things happened to her, like the lipstick gag where she’s drawing on her face uncontrollably. It’s such a big change. Because if she was already the mean girl, then the mean girl sort of stays at the same level. But she started off being smarmy and smiley, and then this thing happens. It’s a bigger shift and funnier. 

And Sabrina as a whole, that’s all in the writing. They formulated it so well. And the guest cast was there for the parents because they were all people that the parents knew already. Not all the guest casts – obviously Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, they were meant for the younger generations. But there was always some sort of balance where they brought in somebody that the parents really recognized and made them more than willing to watch it with their kids. The formulation of the writing, they made a lesson plan in it. There was always some sort of moral lesson to be learned, and they did it in a funny way. We’d never had one of those, “On a very special touching episode of Sabrina…” We didn’t go down that rabbit hole ever, but there was always some sort of moral involved, and we did it in a funny way that was light and family-friendly. And again, getting that guest cast in for the older generation made sure that the parents were there watching it with their kids. Then that got cyclical. Now the kids that grew up watching it watch it with their own kids, and it’s pretty amazing to see. 

PopHorror: I love that. I’m rewatching it now from start to finish for the first time since it aired. It’s incredible to still remember scenes that I initially saw when I was 7 years old. 

Nate Richert: Thanks for keeping it perpetuating!

Meeting the Fans and Cast Reunions

PopHorror: You and the rest of the Sabrina cast have been doing ‘90s conventions the past few years, especially up in Connecticut. What are these events like for you? Do any fan interactions stand out to you?

Nate Richert: We started doing them about four or five years ago. They can slide us into comic book conventions because technically, it was an Archie comic. But it’s sort of a fringe thing when they do throw us in there. People are like, “Oh, you’re here?” But with ‘90s cons, it’s all ‘90s oriented. It’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot happening in one place and they draw large crowds. 

And as far as fan interactions, there was an episode where Sabrina turns into a boy and as Harvey, I’m trying to be protective. I’ve had a lot of gay men say that made them comfortable to come out to their parents or their friends. A lot of people have told me that and it’s super touching. Again, it’s the writing. They had the moral lesson there. Harvey stood by Sabrina’s side, even though his friends might give him shit. They did a really good job of making sure there was a lesson there and it was family-friendly. 

PopHorror: Have these conventions been a reunion of sorts for the cast? Or have you kept in touch all these years?

Nate Richert: It was kind of social media that started bringing us back together again, just because there’s that accessibility no matter where you are. Then they did a 15-year anniversary cast and crew party at a little coffee shop. So many people showed up that it was too small for us. It was jam packed. But then we all kept in contact more often after that. I’ve been doing a fun little podcast with my friend Curtis Andersen – that’s where we ran back into each other and kept in contact after that. 

PopHorror: I’d love to hear more about the podcast – how did the idea to do that come about? 

Nate Richert: It’s hard to even really call it a podcast. It’s more of a weekly catch up that Curtis and I do. Finally, his wife was like, “Why are you guys not recording this?” So now it’s a podcast! He does it all. I just show up and derail the whole thing. We go on a lot of tangents. We have subjects to talk about, but we end up going on tangents and just being us. It’s an excuse for us to shoot the shit once a week, and we really like that. He’s up in Portland. He was actually just here and left this morning. He crashed here for a couple of days, did some meetings over at the DGA. He’s got a short film that he’s trying to get off the ground and that was like a convention for people who have money offering it to people who need it. So he made some good connections there and hopefully there’ll be a short film that he’s going to be making in the near future. 

And speaking of when you were asking about people recognizing me now and me saying, “Oh, yeah,” that happened to us today! We had some Denny’s and our server went, “Oh, my God!” And her name was Melissa, she named her daughter Sabrina. So she was a fan. We took a picture today. In our 30th anniversary photos, I needed a picture of me and Curtis to put in there, so it’s actually Curtis, myself and our server Melissa from Denny’s this morning. Again, I had that moment of, “Oh, yeah! That was me!” I thought she was going to tell me I sat in the wrong place or I spilled something. But no, it was just, “You’re Harvey!”

PopHorror: I love that you forget most times until someone else brings it up. 

Nate Richert: A lot of time passes. One of my side hustles now is I work in locations. When somebody goes to film in somebody’s house, I’m there sort of on the side of the homeowner because I know how to stay out of the way, but also help make sure their house is looked after. Once in a while, I’ll get somebody saying, “Are you…” And then I have to go, “Oh, yes!” Maybe it’s better to forget, I don’t know. 

PopHorror: Hey, it’s better than walking around being one of those people going, “Do you know who I am?” 

Nate Richert: God, I hated those people. There are a lot of them, especially being a kid at 17, 18. You’re young and hungry for the work, and the egos were all super inflated a lot of times. That’s why I was always so impressed with Melissa because, for growing up in the way she did with so much success at such an early age, she turned out pretty normal. I mean, I have the benefit of growing up in the Midwest, so that was helpful. It keeps you humble. 

PopHorror: I’ve been following Melissa since Sabrina and always thought she seemed super humble and down to earth. Not every child and teen star turns out like that later in life. 

Nate Richert: A lot of that’s due to her mother, who was very protective of her, even though her mother was also a producer on the show. She offered her daughter a lot of guidance. She had a lot of street smarts herself, so she didn’t let certain shit fly with Melissa. That’s a big part of it. 

PopHorror: Now as far as your podcast, season two is coming soon. What can fans expect?

Nate Richert: We had a big, heavy one we wanted to talk about, but then we watched it and were like, “I think we’ve got to do this again and go in more detail.” So there was a false announcement of something big and it’s not as big yet, but we’re going to save that for later. But we’re still having fun. We’re still having conversations and every once in a while, we’ll have a guest on. It’s not a celebrity guest – it’s somebody who is in the business at the same capacity as we are. It’s more like how the sausage is made. Especially for the position we’re in now, where, like I was saying about Curtis going to this convention to hopefully get money to start his short film and things like that, you don’t just take a meeting with Netflix and go, “Here’s what I’d like to do.” It’s not that tier. It’s a little more realistic for people who are thinking about it or investigating the thought of working in the industry. 

PopHorror: That’s awesome. And I like that you’re doing something different than the typical rewatch podcast that so many actors are doing these days. 

Nate Richert: Oh, yeah, it’s everyone you can think of. Maybe we’ll do that for one just to play the camp of it, but no – this is more of us just being us and fly on the wall conversations, which people seem to be responding to really well. It’s pretty odd. [laughs] It’s just grown organically. We didn’t put a big push on it. We just do it and people seem to like it. 

Music, Touring and an Expected Cheesy Hit 

PopHorror: That’s all you can ask for! In addition to the podcast, I saw you’ve done music over the years as well. Is that something you’re still doing? Is there anything you can share about this other creative hobby?

Nate Richert: When I was a kid, I was a drummer and I played in some bands. Then when I moved here, I couldn’t take them with me. I couldn’t travel with drums. So I played harmonica a lot and I still play in some blues bands here and there. But on Sabrina, I was waiting in the trailer a lot and needed something to occupy my mind and time. I brought a guitar in and was learning to play, trying to write songs. Martin Mull was in the same trailer as me next door on it. They call them a two banger, it’s when there’s two units in one. He would bring his guitar and we’d play together and he’d say, “Oh, why don’t you try this here? Play this chord there.” We had a lot of fun. Then I had another friend of mine move out here from Minnesota and he started songwriting, so we did stuff together and made a couple albums. It was never a big decision or a career move. It was more of a hobby as I waited to go in to shoot or rehearse or whatever. 

My biggest claim to fame with the music is a cheese commercial for Kerrygold Irish Dubliner cheese. And it happened to be my favorite cheese! I was like, “Ugh, a cheese commercial?” And they said, “It’s Kerrygold Dubliner.” I said, “I’m in!” I told them it was my favorite cheese and they sent me a cooler in the mail with a little sample kit of everything. They paid some of my bills for a while, which I thought was really nice. I still write and fart around with it, but I think I’m getting too old to tour. I did that a couple of times and it’s a rough life. 

But speaking of touring, we did a live show of Sabrina in Chicago a couple of months back, and we’re doing a tour of that. We played around, we did some sketches, we did a Q&A at the end. The show was around two hours long altogether. Caroline [Rhea] did some stand-up to open it up. There were a couple of videos in there, clips of the original with Ryan Reynolds. Did you know he was in it?

PopHorror: No!?

Nate Richert: There was a movie of the week type of thing that served as the pilot presentation for what we did, but it was very, very different. It wasn’t a sitcom. It was an hour-long movie and Ryan Reynolds didn’t play Harvey, but he played another character. So they showed a little clip of that. We had this projector going, and had our backdrop on the projector showing the kitchen and sets and all that sort of stuff. It was a lot of fun. We got to reminisce with the fans and they packed the place. 

Horror Love and Killer Pinatas 

PopHorror: Before I let you go, I must ask since we’re PopHorror – what’s your favorite scary movie?

Nate Richert: I love a good zombie movie. Actually, Roland, Phil Fondacaro, on Sabrina, was in a George Romero zombie movie Land of the Dead. His character’s name was Chihuahua. My sister is a huge Halloween fan and then Freddy Krueger made me sleep in my parents’ bed when I was eight or nine, so I’d have to say Nightmare on Elm Street for me. They don’t make them like they used to, though. I was in a really bad one, Pinata Survival Island. I was killed by a killer pinata. It was on TCM, Turner Classic Movies. They played it a few years in a row and I could never figure out why. If you watch it, just don’t come back at me wanting an hour and a half of your life back. 

PopHorror: Okay, I’m checking to see if that’s streaming somewhere as soon as we hang up. 

Nate Richert: It has Nicholas Brendon from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. God, who else? Drawing a blank. I have a memory like a sieve when it comes to names. I could forget my own mother’s name depending on the day. Numbers are fine – I could remember my phone number from when I was six. But yeah, another all-time favorite horror movie is Evil Dead II. It’s just so damn funny, you can’t top it. Like where he cuts off his hand and the hand has got him bashing himself over the head with the plates. I laughed so hard. And then Army of Darkness was amazing. But then I watched the series that just came out recently. I liked it, but it was different, you know? It was just its own thing. But Evil Dead, Army of Darkness are classics. 

Thankful For the Fans

PopHorror: Let’s drive this back home to Sabrina. What do you think Harvey is doing today in 2026?

Nate Richert: He’s the Termite Prince because his dad was the Termite King. I think he took over the company and now he’s the Termite King. I imagine they have at least one daughter who’s a witch at this point, if not more. So he’s probably got his hands pretty full, doing more chasing the kids than he does termite control. 

PopHorror: Do you have any final words for the Sabrina fans? 

Nate Richert: Thanks for watching and thanks for having your kids watch. All the fans are so incredible. I can’t wait to meet more of you somewhere along the road. Thanks so much to everybody for being part of our family. 

Thanks for speaking with us, Nate, and happy 30th anniversary to Sabrina the Teenage Witch!