Rihanna sold a controlling stake in her Fenty Beauty empire in early 2024 at a valuation that briefly made her wealthier than her entire combined music catalog and film career. Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty hit a $2 billion valuation just three years after launching. And George Clooney’s tequila brand, Casamigos, sold to Diageo for $1 billion in 2017 — making the actor more money in one transaction than his entire Hollywood salary up to that point. Celebrity side businesses are no longer just vanity projects. They’re quietly becoming the main events.
The shift has reshaped how A-list stars think about fame itself. Hollywood is now treated as the marketing channel, and the actual revenue lives in beauty, alcohol, fashion, or media. Here are the celebrity-owned businesses pulling the biggest numbers right now.
Rihanna’s Fenty Empire Eclipsed Her Music Career
Fenty Beauty launched in 2017 with a then-radical lineup of 40 foundation shades. Within 40 days, it had generated $100 million in sales. By 2024, Forbes estimated the brand had earned over $700 million in annual revenue, with Rihanna owning roughly 50% of the company before her partial sale.
The brand worked because it solved a real problem. Foundation lines historically catered to lighter skin tones, leaving millions of consumers without inclusive options. Fenty’s 40-shade launch — quickly expanded to 50 — became known industry-wide as “The Fenty Effect,” forcing competitors to expand their own ranges.
Rihanna has openly said in interviews that the business now occupies more of her time than music. Her last studio album was released in 2016, and her business empire — which also includes Savage X Fenty lingerie and Fenty Skin — is what made her a billionaire.
George Clooney’s Tequila Deal Was a Hollywood Earthquake
Casamigos started in 2013 as a personal project between Clooney and his friend Rande Gerber, who wanted a tequila they could drink themselves. They never planned to sell it commercially. When friends kept asking for bottles, they applied for a license, and the brand quietly launched.
Four years later, Diageo bought Casamigos for $700 million upfront, with an additional $300 million tied to performance milestones the brand quickly hit. The deal made Clooney roughly $240 million personally — likely more than his entire acting salary across decades of major films.
The deal also kicked off the celebrity tequila gold rush. Kendall Jenner launched 818 Tequila in 2021. Dwayne Johnson launched Teremana the same year. Both have reportedly become hundred-million-dollar brands in under five years.
What’s the Most Surprising Celebrity Business?
Reese Witherspoon’s media company Hello Sunshine sold for a reported $900 million in 2021 to a private equity-backed company. Witherspoon founded Hello Sunshine specifically to address the lack of strong female-led stories in Hollywood — and ended up producing Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere, and Where the Crawdads Sing.
Hello Sunshine’s book club, launched as a side feature, became one of the most influential reading recommendation systems in publishing. A book getting selected for Witherspoon’s monthly pick reliably adds tens of thousands of sales within weeks. We’ve covered how wholesome celebrity moments build long-term fan trust, and Witherspoon’s approach is essentially the corporate version of that same goodwill.
Other surprises include Jessica Alba’s Honest Company (valued at over $1.4 billion at IPO), Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation Gin (sold to Diageo for $610 million in 2020), and Hugh Jackman’s coffee company Laughing Man, which donates 100% of its profits to fund education projects.
Kylie Cosmetics: The Original Celebrity Brand Blueprint
Kylie Jenner’s lip kit launch in 2015 reshaped how celebrities approach branding entirely. Her first product, a $29 lip kit, sold out in under a minute. Within three years, Kylie Cosmetics was valued at $900 million, and Jenner became the youngest self-made billionaire in Forbes history at age 21 (though the “self-made” label was later disputed).
The brand’s secret was direct-to-consumer marketing via Jenner’s then-90-million Instagram following. By bypassing traditional retail and selling directly through Shopify, she retained margins that competitors couldn’t touch. Coty acquired 51% of the company in 2020 for $600 million.
Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty followed a similar playbook starting in 2020 — direct-to-consumer, inclusive messaging, and built around the founder’s personal story. By 2024, Rare Beauty was valued at $2 billion, with Gomez retaining the majority share.
The Celebrity Wine and Spirits Game
Sarah Jessica Parker’s Invivo X wine line, launched in 2019, became one of the fastest-growing celebrity wine brands in US retail. Cameron Diaz quietly launched Avaline organic wines and quickly hit national distribution. Bob Dylan released Heaven’s Door whiskey in 2018, which now sells over a million bottles annually.
The pattern is consistent: celebrities who pick categories they actually understand and partner with established producers tend to build durable brands. Celebrities who slap their name on a generic product and expect fans to do the rest tend to fail quickly.
If you enjoyed our earlier piece on celebrities with surprising second careers, these brands are essentially the financial side of that story — proof that the “famous person side hustle” has graduated into actual industry leadership.
One Last Celebrity Empire You Probably Missed
Here’s an under-the-radar one. Tom Brady’s TB12 sports nutrition and recovery brand has quietly built itself into a nine-figure business over the past decade, with everything from cookbooks to electrolytes to recovery equipment. Brady reportedly owns the majority of the company and has built it as a long-term legacy project for his post-NFL career.
What’s the most successful celebrity-owned brand you’ve actually bought from — and were you surprised when you found out who owned it? Drop your pick in the comments.