Ari Emanuel Releases 400-Page Memoir, Recounting Rise Across WME, UFC and WWE
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 20
Ari Emanuel Releases 400-Page Memoir, Recounting Rise Across WME, UFC and WWE
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 20
Summary
“Roll the Calls” casts Ari Emanuel as the same hard-driving, profanity-laced dealmaker long associated with Hollywood, while tracing his path from Chicago to the top of sports and entertainment.
More than 400 pages, the memoir mixes career milestones with score-settling, including signing Oprah Winfrey, challenging Barack Obama on streaming and dropping Donald Trump as a client after he took office.
Emanuel also frames the book as a personal story, writing about dyslexia, a middle-class upbringing and a persistent dissatisfaction with success despite building a sprawling empire.
That empire now spans WME, WWE, UFC, Broadway theaters and Frieze art fairs, underscoring how the memoir doubles as a portrait of one of the industry’s most powerful executives.
Behind the explosive celebrity feuds and massive sports mergers, is Ari Emanuel's combative new memoir a genuine confession or a calculated distraction?
How does a dyslexic kid from Chicago build a ruthless multibillion-dollar entertainment empire while secretly feeling like he can never enjoy success?
What hidden motives drove Hollywood's most aggressive power broker to suddenly gamble six billion dollars on the future of live theater?