He developed a fascination with comic strips at a young age and often cites Charles Schulz's Peanuts as his greatest inspiration.

During his four years at Colby, he produced a weekly comic strip called Third Floor, featuring an ensemble cast of student and faculty characters.

Epic Big Nate, a coffee table book celebrating the strip's first 25 years, was published in 2016.

The strip's main character is Nate Wright, an irrepressible sixth grader with a native and inflated sense of his own greatness.

The beginning of the novel series introduced Big Nate to a generation of young readers and enhanced the comic strip's profile.

In May 2013 Big Nate: the Musical  had its world premiere at Adventure Theatre MTC in Glen Echo, Maryland.

[5] On February 19, 2020, a Big Nate animated series was announced to be greenlit, with Peirce serving as a consultant, beginning with the 26-episode Season 1.

[6][7] Originally planned to premiere on Nickelodeon, and developed by Mitch Watson, the series instead debuted on February 17, 2022, on the Paramount+ streaming service.

After completing the Big Nate novel series in 2016, Peirce began work on Max & the Midknights, a comedic adventure story set in the Middle Ages.

Max & the Midknights was published on January 8, 2019, and went on to spend sixteen weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, peaking at #2.