49 Facts About Ryan Kavanaugh

Ryan Kavanaugh was born on December 4,1974 and is an American film financier.

Ryan Kavanaugh co-founded and served as CEO of Relativity Media, where he brokered deals between Wall Street investors and major film studios.

Ryan Kavanaugh credited his risk-assessment algorithm with Relativity Media's initial success.

Ryan Kavanaugh later founded Proxima Media, which held a controlling stake in Triller from 2019 to 2022.

Ryan Kavanaugh's mother is a real estate broker and his father is a dentist turned businessman, born in Germany.

Ryan Kavanaugh's father changed his surname to Kavanaugh before his son's birth.

Ryan Kavanaugh began purchasing stock shares when he was six years old.

Ryan Kavanaugh attended UC Santa Barbara and UCLA but dropped out in 1996.

In 2012, Ryan Kavanaugh threatened The New Yorker with legal action for its reporting on him, including its report that he dropped out of university.

Ryan Kavanaugh said he was "an official graduate of UCLA and currently enrolled in a PhD program at USC".

Several investors, including Peters, sued Ryan Kavanaugh, alleging fraud, and the suits were settled out of court.

An arbitrator found that Ryan Kavanaugh was "clearly negligent", and Sitrick won a $7.7 million arbitration judgment against Ryan Kavanaugh.

Ryan Kavanaugh never received payment because Kavanaugh successfully argued that he was virtually penniless and his business on the verge of bankruptcy at the time of the judgment.

Ryan Kavanaugh co-founded Relativity Media in 2003 or 2004 with entertainment executive Lynwood Spinks.

At Relativity Media, Ryan Kavanaugh created a Monte Carlo-based model that predicted the probability of a given film's commercial success.

Ryan Kavanaugh held Albert Einstein as his hero and would write long equations on whiteboards at investor meetings.

Ryan Kavanaugh advertised heavily in trade press, where he was praised for Relativity Media's high-value deals.

Ryan Kavanaugh garnered a reputation for successfully bridging Wall Street with the risk-prone film production industry.

In 2010, Ryan Kavanaugh raised investor funds for Relativity Media to launch its own studio, producing movies vetted by Ryan Kavanaugh's algorithm.

Ryan Kavanaugh publicly claimed that he would buy out the hedge fund's stake to re-take charge of his company, but Elliott Associates denied that they would sell to him.

Relativity Media executives became increasingly doubtful as the company's financial health declined yet Ryan Kavanaugh's valuations kept increasing.

Ryan Kavanaugh presented implausible valuations and "adjusted" EBITDA numbers to investors, which included projections based on films the company had already relinquished to Elliott Management.

In June 2015, lenders began requiring Ryan Kavanaugh to receive approval before making any transactions.

Ryan Kavanaugh eventually stepped down as CEO at the end of 2016 but held onto a majority equity of Relativity Media.

The trustee learned that Ryan Kavanaugh paid himself $2.6 million between April and November 2016 while his company failed to pay bankruptcy fees or file tax returns.

Relativity Media submitted the falsified memo to court two weeks before Fields's wrongful termination suit against Ryan Kavanaugh was set to be tried.

Fields's lawsuit alleged that Ryan Kavanaugh misrepresented Relativity Media's financial prospects, wrongfully fired Fields four months into his four-year contract, and used Relativity Media office space to produce pornography without the co-president's knowledge or authorization.

In 2019, Ryan Kavanaugh announced a prospective partnership which would provide $250 million to Proxima Media for film production.

In May 2019, Ryan Kavanaugh announced a cryptocurrency to be used for fractional investing in the platform's slates.

Ryan Kavanaugh was confident that the Jobs Act would allow his platform to operate legally, but securities experts said that the project's inherent risks might increase scrutiny from the SEC.

Ryan Kavanaugh tapped Elon Spar, who formerly worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, the owner of HSX, to help him develop the company.

Ryan Kavanaugh argued that Kavanaugh persuaded him to go into business under false pretenses.

Ryan Kavanaugh submitted a counterclaim alleging Spar was breaching his contract with ESX.

Ryan Kavanaugh subsequently co-founded Triller Fight Club, a subsidiary focusing on pay-per-view boxing events.

In 2021, Ryan Kavanaugh proposed a potential merger with SeaChange International to take Triller public.

Ryan Kavanaugh was denied a producing credit for the Academy Award nomination of the film The Fighter since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences only allows the submission of up to three producers for Academy Award consideration; Ryan Kavanaugh unsuccessfully appealed the Academy's decision.

Ryan Kavanaugh is a member of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

When it was revealed that the hotel Ryan Kavanaugh used for landing was legally permitted only for emergency landings, a spokesperson for Ryan Kavanaugh expressed his intention to stop landing there.

In 2012, Ryan Kavanaugh was targeted by an extensive extortion plot that was mainly aimed at business executives, including Harvey Weinstein.

The perpetrator sent a letter to Ryan Kavanaugh demanding $11.3 million and threatening the lives of his family members.

In 2006, Ryan Kavanaugh was arrested after being accused of driving under the influence of alcohol and being involved in a hit-and-run.

Ryan Kavanaugh was placed on three years of probation, ordered to pay a fine and take counseling and alcohol education programs.

Ryan Kavanaugh pled guilty to violating his probation and the other charges were dropped.

In 2013, Ryan Kavanaugh was criminally investigated for potentially impeding the manhunt for Christopher Dorner because Ryan Kavanaugh had landed his helicopter on a sheriff's helipad during the manhunt.

The investigation was later closed after it concluded that Ryan Kavanaugh had received prior permission to land on the helipad.

In 2007, Ryan Kavanaugh presented Habitat for Humanity with an oversized check pledging $1 million and announced he would become a fund-raising chair for the charity.

However, as of 2015, Ryan Kavanaugh had not yet donated the promised funds.

Ryan Kavanaugh served as chairman of the board of The Art of Elysium from 2009 until 2015.

Ryan Kavanaugh was named by Variety as 2011's "Showman of the Year" and placed 22nd on the Fortune 40 Under 40 list in 2011.