Ariel “Ari” Emanuel is best known for being the inspiration behind Jeremy Piven’s character, Ari Gold on the HBO series Entourage. In Hollywood, he’s known for being the driving force behind the agency he co-founded in 1995, Endeavor Talent Agency and more recently as the new co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, the second-largest agency in Hollywood. He represents a long list of clients that includes people like Michael Moore, Mark Wahlberg, Larry David, Martin Scorsese, Aaron Sorkin and Conan O’Brien. Endeavor has become one of the fastest growing agencies in Hollywood today and it has been said that Ari is what best embodies the Endeavor spirit. He’s commonly referred to as being competitive, aggressive and at times, obnoxious. When angry, he has been known to pick up the phone, scream epithets and hang up before the recipient says “Hello” (Variety, 2004). But even those who are not fond of him admit that the fearless Ari gives his all for his clients.

Emanuel was born in 1961 to Dr. Benjamin Emanuel (pediatrician) and Marcia Emanuel (psychiatric social worker). He grew up in a Chicago household with his two older brothers, Ezekiel (White House Health Care policy adviser) and Rahm (White House Chief of Staff). At an early age Ari was diagnosed (by his father) as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and was prescribed Ritalin. In school, Ari found himself struggling with his grades. While he was exceptional at math, he had trouble concentrating on subjects that involved reading and would later be diagnosed with dyslexia. Eventually, he was placed in a special-education program, which made him a target for other students. Throughout school he was tormented by other children and visited the principal’s office frequently due to fighting. Many teachers predicted that he would never make it to high school graduation, let alone graduate from college. Outside of school, Ari spent time attending civil rights rallies and anti-war protests with his mother, as well as attending summer camp in Israel with his three brothers. At home he would study with his mother for hours to improve his grades and after graduating high school he gave up the Ritalin and attended Macalester College in St. Paul.

After graduating college in 1983, Ari spent a short time playing racquetball professionally. He was unsure as to what he wanted to do with his life and spent a year in France trying to figure it out. Upon returning home he moved to New York and began his career as a personal assistant at William Morris to veteran agent, Robert Lantz. Mr. Lantz suggested that Ari move to Los Angeles, where he helped Ari land a job in the mail room of the Creative Artist Agency in 1987. Every day for the next year Ari would phone his high school sweetheart to try and persuade her to join him out in L.A. In the end she agreed and a short time later they were married. During the next few years, Ari floated from CAA to Inter Talent and eventually wound up at International Creative Management and by 1995 he had established himself as a senior agent. Unfortunately, around this time Ari was accidently hit by a car that was driven by an ICM client. He suffered from broken ribs and tore his knee open. This incident caused him to re-evaluate his life. Not wanting to look back on life and have CAA or ICM as his big book on life, he decided that it was time to move into his own. He and three other agents were fired after being caught taking files out of ICM in the middle of the night. This would be the early beginning of Endeavor, which would be formed later that year by Emanuel and his fellow late night vigilantes: Rick Rosen, Tom Strickler and David Greenblatt.

Endeavor started out with humble beginnings. In order to get office space, all of the partners had to remortgage their homes. The original Endeavor offices were above a burger joint in Beverly Hills, named Islands. The computers sat on cardboard boxes and all of the office furniture was brought in from the partners’ homes. The agency was known to be somewhat unorthodox for several reasons. With all of the partners, they all insisted on having no agency presidents and while most agencies try not to ruffle clients, Endeavor agents are known to be honest and abrasive. One client described the agency as: “What CAA used to be: young and hungry. Endeavor is all run by these little Michael Ovitzes”.

In 2004, Ari gave the agency a scare when he decided to publicly tackle Disney’s then CEO, Michael Eisner. When Eisner tried to prevent Miramax, who had agreed to distribute the controversial Fahrenheit 9/11, Ari broke one of the unwritten rules and went public with the matter. Ari’s Client Michael Moore told the press that Mr. Eisner had insisted on meeting with Ari, and according to Ari, in that meeting Eisner asked him to pull out of the Miramax deal because if Miramax got involved, it would endanger tax breaks that Disney receives for its theme parks and hotels in Florida, where President Bush’s brother, Jeb, is governor. In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Moore thanked Emanuel for saving his film from being blocked: “We would not have gotten the release our film received without Ari’s work. He took a big risk. He did something agents were not supposed to do when he went on the record. He made sure the film wasn’t shelved.” There was a great deal of worry within Endeavor that Disney would then stop taking calls from the agency, but within several days the studio executives and the agents were back to business as normal.

In 2006, Ari caused controversy once again when he publicly called on Hollywood to blacklist Mel Gibson, after the actor’s drunken tirade where he made anti-Semitic remarks. Ari took to his Huffington Post blog to suggest, “People in the entertainment community, whether Jew or Gentile, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him, even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line.” Many people have admired him for being one of the only people to speak out against Gibson during that time. However, when long-time friend Chris Albrecht lost his job at HBO after a domestic violence arrest and Ari defended him on his blog, many people criticized him for it. Not long after, Ari helped Albrecht land his next job at International Management Group.

14 years later, Endeavor has stood its ground and is in the top five ranking of talent agencies. Its revenue is estimated to be a bit more than $100 million a year, but is soon to merge with the William Morris Agency and to become William Morris Endeavor Entertainment. Leading WME will be William Morris chief executive Jim Wiatt as chairman and Ari as one of the co-CEOs. It is said that this merger promises to change the landscape for the talent representation biz.

But there is more to Emanuel that just agenting: he is also a Jewish Zionist and an environmentalist. He traded in his Ferrari for a Toyota Prius to curb greenhouse gas emissions and has convinced several other Endeavorites and a few of the agency’s clients to do the same. It is also his belief that this will cut down America’s dependence on foreign oil and stop funding that is going to terrorists. In an interview with The Daily Grist Emanuel elaborated: “I’m demonstrating my point of view on national security. Fifteen of 19 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia. I refuse to give them more money.” Emanuel is also active through committee membership in P.S. Arts, an industry supported non-profit agency working to bring arts education to public school students all over Southern California and also served as the co-chair of the 2002 Earth to L.A. biennial fund-raising event for the Natural Resources Defense Council (The Detroit Project). He is also active in the political community and has held fundraisers in order to help raise money for the Democratic Party.

Ari currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Sarah Addington and their three sons. On rare occasions when he’s not working, you can find him in the gym or on the golf course.