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Ariel Zev Parmar Emanuel (born March 29, 1961) is an American businessman and the CEO of Endeavor, an entertainment and media agency, as well as CEO and executive chairman of TKO Group Holdings, which owns the UFC and WWE. He was a founding partner of the Endeavor Talent Agency and was instrumental in shaping its June 2009 merger with the William Morris Agency.
Emanuel has been described as a mogul and power player in Hollywood. Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, the co-CEO of WME, have both been named to Fortune's Businessperson of the Year list. In a May 2013 article on Emanuel, Fortune called him "one of the biggest guns in the consolidating entertainment business".
Emanuel's relationships with his clients, coupled with his stature in the industry, has led to various homages and parodies over the years, including Bob Odenkirk's character Stevie Grant on The Larry Sanders Show, and Ari Gold, played by Jeremy Piven on the HBO television show Entourage.
In April 2002 agent Sandra Epstein and other Endeavor employees sued Ari Emanuel on allegations that a pornographic website was operated out of Endeavor's offices and that Emanuel made racist and anti-gay remarks. Emanuel disputed these accusations at the time. Emanuel settled Epstein's claims for $2.25 million.
In 2011, Emanuel co-founded TheAudience with Sean Parker and Oliver Luckett.
Endeavor went public in 2021, the first Hollywood agency to do so, with Emanuel owning a stake worth around $480 million according to Bloomberg. He and Patrick Whitesell are also co-CEO of IMG, a global sports, events and talent management company headquartered in New York City.
In 2023, Emanuel's total compensation from Endeavor was $83.9 million, up 340% from the previous year and representing a CEO-to-median worker Wage ratio of 1,184-to-1 for the company, as well as making Emanuel the seventh highest paid CEO in the US that year. He debuted on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in February 2025 with an estimated net worth of over $1 billion.
In 2025, Emanuel is set to buy Frieze, a global art fair and publishing group, previously owned by Endeavor. The deal is valued at $200 million and is backed by a group of investors including Apollo Global Management and RedBird Capital Partners.
After the disappearance of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2, 2018, and reports that the Tiger Squad had assassinated him inside their consulate in Turkey, Emanuel called White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. Emanuel tried to extricate Endeavor from a $400 million deal with the Saudi Arabian government.
In October 2022, Emanuel urged several businesses to stop working with rapper Kanye West over his antisemitic comments.
Emanuel voiced critical opinions of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he was awarded the Humanitarian Prize at Simon Wiesenthal Center's National Tribute Gala. Emanuel called for Netanyahu to step down during his speech, which caused a negative reaction from the audience. He also criticized protesters using the slogan "from the river to the sea" which he claimed was a call for genocide.
He follows a strict vegan diet.
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