Ariel Emanuel TKO

Executive Chair & Chief Executive Officer, TKO Group Holdings

Ari Emanuel on the Moment He Realized Ari Gold Was Based on Him | The Job Interview

📅 Sep 21, 2026 WSJ. Style and The Wall Street Journal 9 MIN 51451 VIEWS 42 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS

Endeavor co-founder and Hollywood titan Ari Emanuel has repped some of the biggest names in entertainment including Oprah Winfrey, Mark Wahlberg and Larry David. He is also the Executive Chair and CEO of TKO Group and the inspiration behind the “Entourage” character Ari Gold. Ari sits down for The Job Interview with WSJ. Magazine to discuss his revealing memoir “Roll the Calls,” his keys to success, why you should always pick up the phone and more. Chapters: 0:00 Ari’s background 0:34 Secrets to success and phone calls 1:18 On writing a memoir 2:13 Getting banned from the Disney lot 2:44 On r...

What Ariel Emanuel said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Ariel Emanuel, Executive Chair and CEO of TKO Group Holdings, discussed his memoir 'Know Me', detailing his career and personal life. He attributed his success to a stubborn persistence, saying he dislikes leaving tasks undone and expects his assistants to make actual phone calls, not texts. Emanuel revealed he was banned from the Disney lot after a dispute involving Michael Moore, Harvey Weinstein, and Michael Eisner. He described his dyslexia as a childhood trigger for rage, but now sees it as an advantage that helps him build teams, recommending the Lindamood-Bell program. He recounted starting Endeavor after reading George Gilder's 'Life After Television' and realizing the potential of infinite distribution. Regarding the character Ari Gold in Entourage, he only watched two or three episodes because it made him uncomfortable, and he admitted his wife was initially upset after learning about the character. Emanuel concluded he is happy, though still curious and calmer than before.

Key takeaways

Emanuel says his success comes from a will to fight the voice in your head and do things you don't want to do.
He was banned from the Disney lot over a dispute involving Michael Moore, Harvey Weinstein, and Michael Eisner.
Started Endeavor after reading 'Life After Television' and seeing the future of infinite distribution.
He has only watched two or three episodes of Entourage because the character Ari Gold makes him uncomfortable.

Numbers and commitments

Figure	What it refers to	Type	At
10 years	Time spent working on his memoir 'Know Me'	timeline	1:29
430 times	Number of times the word appears in the book	metric	2:01
6 months	Time he spent in the mailroom at CAA	timeline	5:22
'85	Year he decided to be an agent	timeline	4:51

Chapters

0:00Success and persistence
1:18Memoir 'Know Me' and its contents
2:13Banned from Disney lot
2:44Dyslexia and rage
4:10Family and early life
4:51Career beginnings and Endeavor
6:37Ari Gold character in Entourage
8:54Reflections on happiness

Questions asked in this interview

0:02That's horrible. Did I say that?
0:15What is the secret to your success?
0:58What do you make of the idea that Gen Z doesn't like phone calls?
1:18What motivated you to write the book now and reveal so much?
2:01The word appears 430 times in the book by our count. Was there a quota?
2:13Is it true that you were once banned from the Disney lot?
3:26Still see it as a disadvantage all these years?
4:10Tell me about growing up in your family. What was that like?
6:02When you were going off to try to start Endeavor, how do you evaluate that risk?
6:37When did you first realize that this is me?
7:23What were you feeling watching those episodes?
7:43Who do you think ultimately benefited more from Entourage, you or Jeremy Piven?

Ariel Emanuel 0:00 ↗

Look at me, I'm miserable. That's why I'm rich.

Interviewer 0:02 ↗

That's horrible. Did I say that?

Well, Ari Emanuel, it's quite a resume. You rep some of the biggest names in entertainment. Oprah Winfrey, Mark Wahlberg, Larry David. You're famously the inspiration for the Ari Gold character in Entourage. And now you're also the executive chair and CEO of TKO Group, which houses both UFC and the WWE. What is the secret to your success?

Ariel Emanuel 0:35 ↗

When you don't want to do something, just making sure that you do it. And that goes to consistency, but also, you know, just this will to kind of like fight the voice in your head and get things done. I'll tell my office to call somebody. And they say, 'Yeah, left word.' And I said, 'What in the conversation did I say leave word?' I said, 'Get that person on the phone.' You have to be agency for yourself.

Interviewer 0:58 ↗

What do you make of the idea that Gen Z doesn't like phone calls?

Ariel Emanuel 1:02 ↗

It just drives me crazy. And I tell my assistants like, you know, call what and then they'll send a text. And I'm like, 'Didn't I tell you to call them?' And that's their definition of a phone call. I just can't handle it. But that's okay. I'm getting over it.

Interviewer 1:18 ↗

The memoir 'Know Me' is teeming with stories of high-profile names, gossip you might only share with a close friend or a spouse. What motivated you to write the book now and reveal so much?

Ariel Emanuel 1:29 ↗

So, I've been working on it for 10 years. When we were at William Morris, this woman by the name of Jennifer Walsh said to me, 'You know, you should write a memoir before somebody writes something about you.' It does explain my craziness.

Interviewer 1:39 ↗

Any bridges you're worried about burning with the book? There's amusing words about Jeff Bezos, about Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Ariel Emanuel 1:48 ↗

I'm not afraid of any moment in the book. It's all honest. All the fuck ups, fights, stupidity that I did. I'm definitely not perfect. Those are all true stories from my perspective, so I'm not worried about any of them.

Interviewer 2:01 ↗

The word appears 430 times in the book by our count. Was there a quota?

Ariel Emanuel 2:06 ↗

No, I mean, you know, it's one of the great words in the English language. I hopefully used it appropriately.

Interviewer 2:13 ↗

Is it true that you were once banned from the Disney lot?

Ariel Emanuel 2:17 ↗

Well, that's a story. So, Michael Moore is making his famous documentary and Harvey Weinstein wanted to buy the project and his company was owned by Disney. Michael said to me, 'You can't sell this to Harvey.' Harvey goes behind as I have sold it, goes behind my back and buys it off of Lionsgate and Michael Eisner has lost it on me. And yeah, I was in a no-fly zone with Mickey.

Interviewer 2:44 ↗

One of the things you talk about a lot in your book as well, rage and you call it a metric of desire. Tell me more.

Ariel Emanuel 2:52 ↗

I think it first started when I was growing up in high school, I was dyslexic. I was in special ed and people didn't think I was smart. Like so, when somebody calls you stupid and you're sitting there saying, 'I know I'm not stupid.' But, you know, you get pissed off. That then triggered, I would say, a third rail when anybody treated me as if I was stupid. I would get into some rage. Either my competitive nature or whatever forced me to kind of prove everybody wrong cuz I was pissed off.

Interviewer 3:26 ↗

Still see it as a disadvantage all these years?

Ariel Emanuel 3:28 ↗

No. I actually think it's a... and I say this to parents that have young kids, if you can get through it, it enables you to build teams. You think about things in an abstract way differently from people that read straight. You know, there's a program now, a great program for dyslexic kids called Lindamood-Bell. And my brother Zeke, his daughter who's a Rhodes Scholar, was dyslexic. Put her through it. And what they do is just do a marathon on that part of your brain to enable you to start reading. Back in the day, they didn't have Lindamood-Bell. And I had Marsha Manuel. My mother was never ever going to let me not read or go to college, even though there was a lot of people saying that that was not going to happen.

Interviewer 4:10 ↗

Tell me about growing up in your family. What was that like?

Ariel Emanuel 4:13 ↗

You know, you'd come home and both my brother Ron and my brother Zeke are very intellectual, smart, competitive guys. And I was dyslexic, so my mom every quarter would put our grades up on the refrigerator. So, when you came in the side door at our house, you'd be looking at A's and then the schmuck. And so, if you didn't do well in my house, you would be grounded. It was that simple.

Interviewer 4:43 ↗

Your brothers took different paths, of course, into medicine, into politics. Tell me about the moment you knew you wanted to be an agent.

21 more exchanges in this transcript

Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX

APA

Emanuel, A. (2026, September 21). Ari Emanuel on the Moment He Realized Ari Gold Was Based on Him | The Job Interview [Interview transcript]. WSJ. Style and The Wall Street Journal. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2914086/

MLA

Ariel Emanuel. "Ari Emanuel on the Moment He Realized Ari Gold Was Based on Him | The Job Interview." WSJ. Style and The Wall Street Journal, 21 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2914086/.

BibTeX

@misc{emanuel2026_2914086,
  author       = {Ariel Emanuel},
  title        = {Ari Emanuel on the Moment He Realized Ari Gold Was Based on Him | The Job Interview},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, WSJ. Style and The Wall Street Journal. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {sep},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2914086/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}

▶

Key Quotes (2)

“When you don't want to do something, just making sure that you do it. And that goes to consistency, but also, you know, just this will to kind of like fight the voice in your head and gets things done. I'll tell my office to call somebody. And they say, 'Yeah, left word.' And I said, 'What in the conversation did I Did I say leave word?' I said, 'Get that person on the phone.' You have to be agenc”

▶ 0:35

“I think it first started when I was growing up in high school, I was dyslexic. I was in special ed and people didn't think I was smart. Like so, when somebody calls you stupid and you're sitting there saying, 'I know I'm not stupid.' But, you know, you get pissed off. That then triggered, I would say, a third rail when anybody treated me as if I was stupid. I would get into some rage. Either my co”

▶ 2:52

Mentioned in this interview

Oprah Winfrey American host and television producer: One of the biggest names in entertainment he represents.

Mark Wahlberg: A client and the person who predicted Entourage's benefit.

Larry David: One of the biggest names in entertainment he represents.

William Morris: Where he was working and was suggested to write a memoir.

Jeff Bezos Owner (via Nash Holdings): Subject of amusing words in the memoir.

Jeffrey Katzenberg Co-founder of WndrCo: Subject of amusing words in the memoir.

Michael Moore: Making a documentary that led to the Disney lot ban.

Harvey Weinstein: Bought the project behind Emanuel's back, causing the dispute.

Earlier, on the same topics

“I think in a good way and that I think people are going to have more free time than ever. They're going to want movies. They're going to want entertainment. They're going to need more. I think that we're going to go down to a permanent four-day workweek. Governments are going to need it for full emp”

Jul 08, 2026 at 50:11 →

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About Ariel Emanuel

Ariel Emanuel has been conducting a wide-ranging press tour for his memoir, "Roll the Calls," during which he has discussed his career, his struggles with dyslexia, and his management style. In interviews, he has described rage as a clarifying tool in business, stated he learned to channel his anger from childhood bullying, and attributed his success to persistence, such as consistently making phone calls. He has also discussed his family, including his brother Rahm Emanuel, whom he described as the best-qualified candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, while noting Rahm is not currently running. Regarding his business activities, Emanuel has discussed TKO Group Holdings, which owns UFC and WWE, and his investment firm MARI, which he has said targets live events as a counterbalance to the rise of AI. He has commented on the proposed Paramount merger with Warner Brothers, expressing support for the deal and highlighting the role of David Ellison in its execution. Emanuel has also addressed his dealings with political figures, including President Donald Trump, saying he maintains a working relationship and has communicated with him about film and television tax credits. He has expressed views on AI in entertainment, arguing it will lower production costs while necessitating new compensation formulas for creators.

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