10th: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
This child-star got a hold of the Hollywood life really quick, and in contrast to other child stars, he got a successful career as an actor but has recently established his own production company “HitRecord” that is founded and owned by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
We might say that business runs in the family, if you consider the fact that both Joseph’s parents were the founders of Progressive Jewish Alliance.
Debut as actor
Joseph is a familiar face in Hollywood, starring in early sitcoms and soap operas like “3rd Rock From the Sun” and “Dark Shadows” but mostly from the high school comedy “10 Things I Hate About You”, alongside actors Julia Stiles and the late Heath Ledger.
He made his debut as an adult actor by starring in movies a bit mature such as “Inception”, “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”.
Directorial debut
His first project as a film director was the 24 minute short story “Sparks”, a production selected for Sundance Film Festival from 2009. In 2010 he directed another short film, entitled “Morgan and Destiny’s Eleventeenth Date: The Zeppelin Zoo”.
He directed, produced and managed his own movie, “Don Jon” in 2013, serving as he’s directorial debut, starring alongside actors like Scarlett Johansson, Julian Moore and Tony Danza.
The actor is also involved in the film adaptation of the graphic novel series “The Sandman” in which he also stars, producing for the Warner Bros. with David S. Goyer and Neil Gaiman.
HitRecord
HitRecord uses diverse media segments to establish projects like short films, book and DVDs. Joseph initially started the website with his brother, who unfortunately died in 2010, as a way of feedback for their videos but soon after they opened a new platform for others to review and remix their until then projects.
When they launched their new website at the Sundance Film Festival, Joseph paid its contributors $50,000 in checks.
Richest celebrity
The actor, film director, screenwriter, film producer and entrepreneur is one of the richest celebrity in Hollywood, with an estimated net worth of $35 million. No wonder why those numbers, if you think about all his projects he had so far and the company is just at their beginning.
At a young age, Joseph managed to make his name well-known in the business and acting industry, keeping a focused attitude and a balanced career, incorporating his roles into his directorial projects which sounds like an undeniable path to even greater success.
9th: Gwyneth Paltrow
The beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow isn’t just an amazing actress, she is also a business woman that is seriously ascending to the top. Wishing to ensure an inspiring lifestyle, the actress launched the weekly lifestyle newsletter “Goop” in 2008, which was initially created for friends and the actress itself.
Gwyneth played in several movies like “Shakespeare in Love”, “Proof” and the trilogy “Iron Man”, which increased the amount of the actress’s net worth of $140 million.
Lifestyle company
The lifestyle company, “Goop” often teams up with clothing and beauty brands, and it would be a surprise if in the future “Goop” will partnership with one of this brands, in addition to the condition of limited edition that functions right now with the company.
The website has over 150,000 subscribers that follow her how-to articles and vacation destinations, workout tips and recipes.
The site appeals to well-educated women with an income at about $50,000 a year that wish to “nourish their inner aspect”. With a high Web traffic information, the sites attracts attention to many.
Despite Gwyneth’s initial intention of the site, they expanded and added a product line and a travel app. “We are small, but we are growing. When I started GOOP, it was really just for myself and my friends.” The signature item, a plain T-shirt known as the “goop tee” costs $90.
Long-term business venture
Gwyneth is the shareholder and creative director of makeup of “Juice Beauty”, a company that has also invested in “Goop”. A significant business move was the deal with the fashion brand “Coach” and the deal with Estée Lauder’s Pleasures perfume of being the face of the brand in 2005.
The two companies partnered up and in a long-term business venture that will officially start working and producing in 2015.
The parties have developed a skincare collection scheduled to launch on the market in 2016. The business woman has also written two books entitled: “My Father’s Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family and Togetherness” and “It’s All Good”.
Most trusted girlfriend
Want to be inspired with a tasty recipe or want to find a perfect dress for spring? The website provides it and many other inspiring items and ideas that could be exactly what are you looking for. It’s the “most trusted girlfriend on the Web”.
It seems that we will hear a lot from this career women in the future, as she expands and dominates the fashion, business and acting industry.
8th: Ashton Kutcher
If you haven’t heard about Ashton Kutcher by 2015, you have probably lived in a shoe until now. You may know him as the actor who played in the Fox sitcom “That 70’ Show”, portraying Michael Kelso from the late 90’ and from the comedy “Dude, Where’s My Car?” but little do people know that Ashton is also an investor and a capitalist with a lot of success.
Movie roles
He got recognition from roles in movies like “Dude, Where’s My Car?”, a box office hit, “Just Married” with the late actress Brittany Murphy, the comedy “My Boss’s Daughter”, “A Lot Like Love” and “What Happens in Vegas” but he also had mature roles from movies like “The Butterfly Effect”. It has been a long way since he impersonated the goofy characters back in the days, having a net worth now of $140 million.
He’s recent role as an actor was as the replacing character of Charlie Sheen in “Two and a Half Men” as “Walden Schmidt”, for which he started quite the controversy as the public would fear that the legendary show wouldn’t been the same.
But he pulled it off since the first episode in which Ashton appeared was viewed by 28.7 million people, more than any other eight season episode had when Charlie Sheen was around and because of the high ratings, Ashton earned $750, 000 for each episode.
It is believed that the one year contract for Ashton’s role was worth almost $20 million. Although the series ended in February, 2015, the finale season had high rating making out of the show a success.
Ventures
Besides entertaining, Ashton ventured with quite a few high technology startups like Skype, Foursquare, Airbnb, Path and Fab.com and became co-founder of the firm A-Grade Investments.
But the big surprise was when Lenovo announced that Ashton will be the new product engineer. The talented actor is also the creative director of the tech management team Ooma for which he produced several viral videos in order to promote the services of the company.
Since he noticed the business side of Hollywood would suit him well, he also decided to invest in the Italian Restaurant “Dolce” and in the Japanese restaurant “Geisha” which has several locations. He developed a huge interest in Twitter, launching the A.Plus, his own Twitter client, being the first user of Twitter with more than 1,000,000 followers.
“Why?” one might wonder, would this comedy actor would venture into tech and be so serious about and why not promote just another high end popular product. Ashton explained: “I know that’s hard for people to understand because so many of these have been vanity products. I actually am less interested in the color of the phone or tablet than in how it works.”
The role of Steve Jobs
Following this idea, Ashton taught to combine his two assets, tech interest and acting when he decided to play the role of Steve Jobs in the biographical film “Jobs” which had its premiere in April 2013.
While studying at the University of Iowa, he learned about biochemical engineering so it was easier for the actor to portray the Apple mastermind, a movie available to watch the evolution of the actor.
7th: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Fashion, fashion and fashion. That is the first thing that comes to everybody’s mind when it comes to the Olsen twins. Starting of as actresses in the Hollywood life, the twins have been acting since they were so young they didn’t even knew what was going on but once they got a hold of themselves, they saw an opportunity of expanding through fashion.
Young entrepreneurs
They didn’t wait for nobody when they decided to launch the production company Dualstar Entertainment in 1993 and began to establish their image. The young actresses enjoyed success with Dualstar, a teen clothing line, accessories, beauty and dolls, a move made shortly after their roles in “Full House” were finished.
They appeared in a series of films and videos that would be under the company’s label like, “You’re invited to Mary-Kate & Ashley’s…”. The Olsen twins had a fan club called “Mary-Kate and Ashley’s Fun Club” in which they would sell collectable catalogues, T-shirts, posters, the issue of “Our Funzine” magazine but the fan club lasted until 2000.
The twins we’re quite the hit from 1990 to 2000 to teenage girls, having their image sell through clothes, shoes, purses, books, CD-players, fragrances, makeup, board games and calendars.
They even had fashion dolls created after their appearance. On their 18th birthday the sisters became co-presidents to the Dualstar company which prospered since their takeover. In 2007 they reached the 11th place in Forbes list of “Richest Women in Entertainment”, estimating their net worth to $100 million.
Fashion Icons
Over the years, the sisters followed a more mature side of celebrity, that of fashion designers, being constantly referred to as “fashion icons”. They launched a fashion line for girls between 4 to 14 years called “Real fashion for real girls”.
They founded their own label, “The Row”, when they decided to enter the couture world in 2006. As they grew up so did their brand, the clothing line “The Row” referring to an experienced consumer that has been around shopping for years.
The brand is famous for its $18,000 black alligator backpack. Although the girls are celebrities, they have genuine talent as fashion designers, as a result the success of their brands. In 2008 the talented designers released “Influence”, a best seller book that involves famous names like Christian Louboutin and Lauren Hutton.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America awarded the sisters as “Womenswear Designers of the Year” in 2012. The designers didn’t stop there with the clothing lines, releasing “Elisabeth & James”, named after their siblings, “Olsenboye” and “StyleMint”.
Secret ingredient to success
With a billion dollar worth of a company and a net worth estimated at $80 million in 2013, the Olsen twins could only be motivated to go even further with their talent and visionary thinking.
It seems that these two know the recipe to success because it hasn’t been a time when the girls fail something that they put their minds to and even though some steps are made slowly, that is the secret ingredient to success according to Mary-Kate: “Every move that we’ve made through the past 10 years has been step-by-step. One item at a time. “