Kevin Hart has taken over as CEO of his production company, HARTBEAT, marking the third leadership change in less than two years.
According to Bloomberg, Hart stepped in just before Thanksgiving 2024 following a series of layoffs that impacted around 20 employees, nearly one-quarter of the company’s workforce.
Shortly after the layoffs, CEO Jay Levine, Chief Financial Officer DJ Jacobs, and Chief Content Officer Brandon Smiley departed amicably due to disagreements about the company’s direction.
HARTBEAT is a global, multi-platform media company dedicated to creating entertainment that blends comedy and culture. The company produces films, TV shows, audio series, and branded content.
Founded in 2009, Hart merged his two high-growth, profitable companies, Laugh Out Loud and HartBeat Productions, to form the current entity in 2022, per a press release. HARTBEAT was launched with a $100 million investment from the private equity firm Abry Partners, which took a minority stake in the new company.
In addition to HARTBEAT — which is now valued at over $650 million — Hart co-founded the tequila brand Gran Coramino and is a serial investor with a portfolio of 24 companies, including Alice, Function Health, and HUNGRY, according to AFROTECH™.
“Career-wise, I’m pretty happy with what I have achieved, but that star getting brighter isn’t an option,” Hart told Variety in an August 2024 interview. “As far as becoming a bigger star, I think this is it. So the focus is about the entity. Creating what we hope will be the pieces of IP [intellectual property] that people will hold on from this generation, and refer back to in 20 years. That’s the priority.”
He added, “It’s not for me as a star. I think when that happens, then I’ll be at the happiest point of my career. Because building a business is hard. But building a successful business is harder.”
Hart’s business acumen and mindset have contributed to his reported net worth of $450 million, which made him an ideal guest judge on season 13 of “Shark Tank,” AFROTECH™ previously reported.
“Shark Tank” provides a platform for entrepreneurs across industries to pitch to powerhouse investors to secure their investments.
Hart joined judges Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, and Barbara Corcoran, who praised him as “a genius” during an appearance on Sherri Shepherd’s “SHERRI” talk show.
“You cannot believe Kevin Hart. He blew us all away,” Corcoran expressed while speaking to Shepherd. “He was smarter than all the ‘Sharks’ put together. He came on the set, we expected comedy because we all love him as a comic, yeah but he’s a genius. He was like a walking computer; he did numbers faster than Mark Cuban, and he negotiated like he had been doing it his whole life. He blew us away. In fact, he was so good we just stopped and stared at him. We forgot we were ‘Sharks.'”
