The Hollywood Reporter's 40 Biggest Celebrity Entrepreneurs 2022 – The Hollywood Reporter - Hollywood Reporter

Becoming an entrepreneur is turning into an arms race in Hollywood, as more and more celebrities seek to ascend to the heights of moguldom, following the paths forged by fellow stars like Rihanna, Jay-Z, Jessica Alba, Sean Combs, Gwyneth Paltrow, Dr. Dre, George Clooney and the Kardashians.

Just how hot are brands founded by stars? Celebrity makeup brands, for example, accounted for four percent of the market pre-pandemic but have now grown to seven percent, according to Larissa Jensen, vice president at market research company The NPD Group.

And Ari Bloom, CEO of brand incubator A-Frame (which worked with Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade to launch their babycare brand Proudly and Naomi Osaka on her skin care brand Kinlò) says, "We have many global retailers and operators reaching out to us on a regular basis with interest to jointly develop celebrity-led brands that solve unaddressed problems for their increasingly diverse customer base. We see a very bright future in proprietary, talent-led brands that help existing sellers to develop more authentic relationships with consumers who demand products that are made for them and reject traditional one size fits all offerings."

But while celebrity name recognition often can quickly lure first-time customers, Jensen cautions that, "You'll have that initial purchase because consumers will want to try it, but to get the repeat purchase, the product has to work. That's what's going to determine success."

Investors and industry experts in the ever-growing celebrity brand space weighed in on this list of top talent finding that success, who spoke to THR of their inspirations, business lessons and sales.

Written by Laurie Brookins, Evan Nicole Brown, Kirsten Chuba, Ashley Cullins, Danielle Directo-Meston, Chris Gardner, Brad Japhe, Sydney Odman and Ingrid Schmidt