Where was Ozark filmed? Georgia filming locations for Jason Bateman Netflix series - including Lake Allatoona

Ozark, the popular Netflix crime drama, is named after the place in Missouri in which it’s set – however, the series doesn’t actually film there. Instead, the Jason Bateman series films primarily in Atlanta, which is itself quite a popular filming location for a number of different productions.

It’s relatively rare for a series to actually film in the place it’s set - for example, Peaky Blinders is set in Birmingham but films mainly in Manchester, and Doctor Who is on different alien planets but films mainly in Welsh quarries.

Here’s everything you need to know about where Ozark is filmed, as well as an explanation as to why Georgia is such a popular filming location for different film and television productions.

Where is Ozark filmed?

Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier

Ozark the series is set in and around the Lake of the Ozarks, which is a lake in the Ozark mountains (which themselves stretch from Missouri to Arkansas, though the series is set mainly in the Missouri part).

However, Ozark doesn’t actually film there, as we’ve established. It films primarily in and around Atlanta, and so Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier in Georgia double for the Lake of the Ozarks.

Lake Allatoona is in fact a reservoir, originally created by the US Army in the late 1940s. Lake Lanier is also a man-made reservoir, created around the same time due to the construction of the Buford Dam.

Alhonna Resort & Marina

A large part of Ozark is also set in and around the Alhonna Resort & Marina cabins. That’s a real-life location – it’s actually where series co-creator Bill Dubuque worked while he was at college.

Again, though, Ozark doesn’t film at the real Alhonna Resort in Missouri. The production team studied the real life cabins extensively, and then recreated them as an entirely new set built in Georgia.

Why film in Georgia?

Atlanta is the capital of Georgia, a state in the American South where a huge number of films and television shows are shot. You might have noticed a Peach logo at the end of the credits on some films and television shows – that logo signifies that the production filmed in Georgia.

The reason for this is because the state offers huge tax incentives for any production that films there. There’s a 20% tax incentive for any production with a budget over $500 000, and there’s a further 10% incentive for any production that puts the peach logo in their credits (which is why you see it so often).

Some of the actual locations in Atlanta are often a good visual match for the Ozarks, but it is primarily a financial decision.

Did Ozark film anywhere else?

The series begins with Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) and his family living in Chicago – a number of those scenes for the first season were actually filmed in Chicago.

The production returned to Chicago during the fourth season to film some new Chicago set sequences as well.