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The following press release was issued
Alfred A. Knopf will publish Roll the Calls, a new memoir by Ari Emanuel, on September 22, 2026. The announcement was made today by Jordan Pavlin, Knopf EVP, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief. North American rights were acquired from Jay Mandel at WME. Roll the Calls was written with collaborator J.R. Moehringer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of The Tender Bar. The book will be published in hardcover and ebook by Knopf, and in audio by Penguin Random House. An announced first printing of 250,000 copies has been set.
Ari Emanuel is one of the most influential people in the world, but he’s also something of a mystery.
Part of the reason is Emanuel’s job description. As a Hollywood super-agent–the inspiration for one of the most beloved and hilarious characters in TV history, Ari Gold from Entourage – he’s paid to speak for his clients, not himself. And as one of the key players reshaping the entertainment and sports industries, he’s been a central figure in some of the biggest deals ever conceived, each of which has required total secrecy and an assassin’s stealth.
But no more. Now, for the first time, the agent, the mogul, the iconic power broker speaks for himself, about himself, and about the game of life, often at the top of his lungs. In Roll the Calls, a fiery, furious memoir, Emanuel gives an insider’s account of every major success and setback, every triumphant merger and nasty breakup, every hard-won lesson and crushing mistake, and it’s a wilder, more relatable ride than any episode of Entourage, because it’s real.
Emanuel says, “As a kid, I was often told I’d amount to nothing. Thank God I didn’t listen because I’ve now worked with so many brilliant writers, directors, actors, artists, journalists, entrepreneurs and investors. From them, and from bitter experience, I’ve learned a lot about success and failure, creativity and persistence. Especially persistence. My story is for everyone who feels doubted and especially for that person who’s been told to give up, just quit. If there’s one major theme it’s that every time someone tells you to pack it in, you’re not good enough, you should tell that person to **** off.”
At the heart of Roll the Calls is the wound that fueled Emanuel’s drive to succeed: his struggle with severe dyslexia. Growing up in a success-obsessed family on Chicago’s south side, competing with two brothers who seemed destined for greatness, Emanuel always feared that he was destined for something less.
After college, and a short stint assisting an old school talent agent in Manhattan, Emanuel headed to Hollywood. In excruciating, comical detail he recounts the unpromising start of a brilliant career, clerking in the mailroom of CAA, fetching bagels, filling candy jars, enduring ritual humiliations at the hands of his mercurial boss, the first-ever super-agent Mike Ovitz. In 1997, Emanuel struck out on his own, launching a new firm with three other agents and no money. The birth of Endeavor startled Hollywood, but Endeavor’s subsequent takeover of powerhouse William Morris shook the town to its core. Many called it a watershed moment; in fact, it was just the beginning. Emanuel and his partners were soon signing the most glittering names in show business, acquiring some of the most dynamic companies on the planet (IMG, UFC, WWE).
Along the way, Emanuel was also raising four kids, coping with a failing marriage, fighting to find love again, and servicing his roster of brilliant, challenging, sometimes impossible clients, from Martin Scorsese to Larry David, Mark Wahlberg to Oprah Winfrey, Dana White to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and (briefly) one angry reality star who harbored secret political aspirations.
Jordan Pavlin says, “Roll the Calls is as ferociously powerful as the iconic figure at its center, a man who made rage and chaos into the instruments of his success. Ari Emanuel’s persistence and drive are legendary, and Roll the Calls takes us on a blistering and intimate journey into every battle he’s fought, with raw emotion and unrelenting profanity. It’s a tremendous reading experience and we are thrilled to have it on the Knopf list.”
Roll the Calls shatters the mold of stodgy CEO memoirs. Told in taut, telegraphic prose, with uncommon humility and ribald humor, it’s a story about the priceless value of simply never giving up, a master class in blocking out the naysayers, and how to push forward through bitter defeat.
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