How 8 celebs created successful businesses
From makeup to gin, these stars are making bank
It’s not enough to be an actress or a pop star anymore. Celebrities have been convinced they must also be entrepreneurs. Ever since George Clooney and Rande Gerber sold their tequila brand, Casamigos, to Diageo for a rumored $1 billion in 2017, everyone who’s ever appeared in film and on television has suddenly discovered a passion for distilling tequila (among them: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kendall Jenner, Nick Jonas, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Longoria, Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo, and Michael Jordan).
But not every celebrity business is heading for a billion-dollar valuation or even baseline profitability. Some seem too niche to ever find enough consumers: Take Jessica Biel’s protein shakes for children, or Naomi Watts’ menopause-themed skincare line or Machine Gun Kelly’s nail polishes for men. Then there are the celeb brands like Jennifer Lopez’s line of vaguely European bottled cocktails and Brad Pitt’s wine-inspired face serums . Launching a successful celebrity business is not as easy as simply filing the paperwork.
A few stars, however, have made real money from their entrepreneurial endeavors. And how did they do it? Read on.
Jessica Alba, the Honest Company
One of the first big successes in this era of celebrity brands. Alba launched The Honest Company, which started as an organic baby-products line and has come to encompass everything from diapers to cleaning supplies to makeup for adults, in 2012. By 2021, the company went public with a $1.44 billion valuation. his month Alba announced she was finally stepping down as chief creative officer in an Instagram post with not one but two Eleanor Roosevelt quotes. She can relax knowing she made a ton of money and inspired a whole mommy group’s worth of competitors, from Hello Bello by Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard to Proudly by Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade.
Rihanna, Fenty Beauty
Pretty much every pop star, from Ariana Grande to Lady Gaga to Selena Gomez to Halsey to Ciara, has a beauty line now. And that’s because of Rihanna, who founded Fenty Beauty in 2017. The brand made her America’s youngest self-made billionaire in 2021 and has allowed her to go eight years without releasing an album. Now it’s even selling in China!
Ryan Reynolds, Aviation Gin
Reynolds’s whole thing these days is “business.” He just sold his mobile-network company, Mint, to T-Mobile; he owns a Welsh soccer team; and he even has his own marketing firm (known for viral successes like getting Travis Kelce’s mom to sit with “Jake from State Farm” at an NFL game — woohoo). But his biggest success is behind him: He sold his liquor brand, Aviation Gin, to Diageo for $610 million in 2020. Just like George Clooney, almost! Now perhaps he can help his wife, Blake Lively, do something (anything?) with her line of nonalcoholic mixers, Betty Buzz.
Jennifer Garner, Once Upon a Farm
The actress joined this baby-food brand in 2017 and, according to the company, has taken annual revenue from $1 million to over $100 million. This year, Once Upon a Farm expanded to food for bigger kids, including oat bars. “It was a big deal for us to leave the pouch and go to a bar — bars are huge,” Garner told Fortune. “There’s just an enormous market…it’s really insane.” Insane or not, the brand is one of the most successful celebrity-fronted baby companies and is exploring an IPO. Cheers to bars!
Maria Sharapova, Supergoop
The tennis star didn’t found this upscale sunscreen label, but she came on board as a co-owner in 2015 (announcing her new role with a spread in Vogue, naturally). This proved to be a savvy business decision: Blackstone acquired a majority stake in the company in 2021, valuing it at between $600 million and $700 million. Sharapova’s line of sexy, lip-themed gummy candy, Sugarpova, didn’t do so well (it closed the same year). Oh well!
Shay Mitchell, Beis
The “Pretty Little Liars” actress started this line of mid-priced luggage in 2018 and reportedly cracked $120 million in profitable revenue this year. It turns out that making suitcases that look like they’re from the popular startup brand Away but about $100 cheaper is a good business model. Mitchell created the brand with Beach House Group, which is also responsible for the somewhat less successful celebrity-fronted brands like Moon (Kendall Jenner’s toothpaste line) and Florence by Mills (Millie Bobby Brown’s fashion, beauty, coffee, and pet accessories line). Mitchell also has a tequila brand, but we don’t need to talk about that here.
Kim Kardashian, Skims
The reality star tried her hand at several different promotions and businesses before launching Skims, a shapewear company that’s come to offer loungewear and swimsuits as well as a men’s line. Remember Millions of Milkshakes in Dubai? The disastrous Kardashian prepaid Mastercard? KIMOJI? Nevertheless, she persisted, and now Skims is worth $4 billion, according to The New York Times. All that’s left is to go public (maybe then Kardashian can buy some real Donald Judd tables).
Jessica Simpson, the Jessica Simpson Collection
It was hard to imagine back in 2005, when pop star and “Newlywed” Jessica Simpson launched her eponymous fashion line, that it would still exist two decades later. But Simpson has succeeded where pretty much every other celebrity has failed (save the Olsen twins). It’s been a journey: Simpson grew the company to $1 billion in annual sales, sold it to a private-equity firm in 2015, and then rescued it from bankruptcy with a $65 million bid in 2021 (financed mostly with her own money). This year she announced a new collaboration with Walmart, which means her reasonably priced dresses, shoes, and swimwear will once more reach the masses. She told CNBC in 2022, “I’m always the type that thinks slow and steady wins the race.”
Allie Jones is a writer in New York City.
