Hollywood has a long tradition of actors stepping behind the camera, but the more interesting shift in recent years is how many of them have built companies that exist to develop other people’s stories, not just their own. These outfits sign first-look deals, back emerging directors, and shepherd scripts through years of development long before a camera ever rolls. The seven examples below show just how far that model has traveled from vanity project to genuine industry infrastructure.
1. Brad Pitt and Plan B Entertainment
Plan B Entertainment started in 2001 with Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, and Jennifer Aniston, and after the founders’ paths diverged, it became an American production company founded in November 2001 by Brad Grey, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, with Pitt becoming sole owner in 2005. Under Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner, the company has built one of the strongest track records in independent film, earning three Best Picture Oscar wins with The Departed, 12 Years a Slave, and Moonlight, along with more than ten total Best Picture nominations.
What makes Plan B relevant here is how much of its slate does not involve Pitt at all. The company has partnered with filmmakers like RaMell Ross on The Nickel Boys and Nia DaCosta on Hedda Gabler, and Pitt, Gardner, and Kleiner described documentarian Kevin Macdonald as an artist they were excited to collaborate with across a joint venture to co-develop unscripted films and series. In late 2022, French media group Mediawan bought a majority stake, and the deal valued the company at over 300 million dollars and triggered a European expansion including a London-based branch called Plan B Europe.
2. Jason Bateman and Aggregate Films
Jason Bateman is known for Ozark and Arrested Development, but his production company has quietly become a steady generator of other people’s projects. Aggregate Films is an American motion picture and television production company founded by Bateman, who runs it with producer Michael Costigan. The company has moved through multiple studio relationships over the years, always positioning itself as a development engine rather than a vehicle purely for Bateman’s own acting career.
Its current setup keeps it firmly in the business of finding and shaping outside material. Aggregate currently has a first-look deal with Netflix to generate film and television projects, after previously holding a two-year first-look producing deal with Universal Pictures. In 2018, Bateman and Costigan formalized their partnership at the head of Aggregate, striking a multiyear first-look deal with Netflix, a structure built specifically to bring in writers and directors whose projects Bateman may never appear in himself.
3. Tessa Thompson and Viva Maude
Tessa Thompson launched Viva Maude in 2021 as a dedicated home for stories beyond her own filmography. The company’s launch was announced in January 2021 alongside a two-year first-look deal with HBO and HBO Max, and producer Kishori Rajan joined Thompson as her producing partner that same year.
Viva Maude has since moved from a promising newcomer to an active development house with real output. The company produced the film Hedda and the series His & Hers, along with the feature film Is God Is, and by May 2026, Viva Maude had more than 20 film and television projects in development. That pipeline includes work from writers and directors Thompson has no acting role with at all, which is exactly the point of running a company built for development rather than star vehicles.
4. Will Ferrell and Gloria Sanchez Productions
Will Ferrell founded Gloria Sanchez Productions in 2014 with a specific mission that had little to do with putting himself on screen. The company was created, according to its founding announcement, as a female-focused film and television venture, and its slate has leaned heavily on comedies and dramas centered on women writers and directors.
Recent projects show the company still functioning as a launchpad for outside talent. Gloria Sanchez has co-produced titles like No Good Deed alongside other production partners, and its 2026 project The Hawk was made with Rough House Pictures, Guest Spot, T-Street Productions and PGA Tour Studios, a lineup of collaborators that underscores how much of the company’s work is built around partnerships rather than solo projects for Ferrell.
5. Reese Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine has become one of the most recognizable examples of an actor-led company that develops far more than its founder could ever star in. Founded by Witherspoon to shine a light on where women are and help them chart a new path forward, the company aims to broaden perspective and empower women through storytelling. Its television slate spans genres and formats well beyond anything Witherspoon appears in personally.
The company’s unscripted output alone illustrates the breadth of its development work: Hello Sunshine is behind unscripted series including Family Recipe Showdown, Women’s Sports Now, F1: The Academy, Surf Girls, and My Kind of Country. Backed by Candle Media, the company has continued expanding, launching new content labels and partnerships aimed at Gen Z audiences and reportedly reaching a valuation in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a scale that reflects development infrastructure rather than a single star’s production shingle.
6. Kerry Washington and Simpson Street
Kerry Washington built Simpson Street as a company designed to develop projects across broadcast, cable, and digital platforms rather than simply star in her own material. Washington’s production company, Simpson Street, operated under a two-year deal with ABC to develop broadcast, cable and digital projects exclusively for ABC Studios and ABC Signature. That kind of studio-backed development deal is precisely the mechanism through which actor-founded companies scout and shepherd scripts that have nothing to do with the founder’s own casting.
The arrangement gave Washington’s team the resources to option books, hire writers, and package shows for a major network slate. It is a model shared by many of the companies on this list: a formal studio partnership that funds a development staff whose job is finding stories worth telling, whether or not the founder ever appears in them.
7. Charlize Theron and Denver and Delilah Productions
Charlize Theron founded her production company two decades ago, and it has grown into a genuine engine for other filmmakers’ work. Denver & Delilah Productions was founded by Theron in 2003 and named after her two dogs, Denver and Delilah. Over the years it built a reputation for producing female-led and female-centric projects across film and television, including Monster, Atomic Blonde, Bombshell, The Old Guard, and the Netflix series Mindhunter, several of which did not feature Theron at all.
The company’s development machinery has run through formal studio partnerships as well. In January 2015, Denver & Delilah signed a first-look deal with Universal Cable Productions to develop and produce scripted series for NBCUniversal, and it later added a television agreement with HBO and HBO Max. In late 2023, the operation evolved further when Theron teamed with veteran executive Dawn Olmstead, along with Denver & Delilah partners Beth Kono and AJ Dix, to form a new media venture with Olmstead serving as CEO and taking over the company’s content slate, a restructuring aimed squarely at expanding how many outside projects the company could develop at once. These seven companies represent very different corners of the industry, from awards-season dramas to unscripted television to studio-backed genre films. What connects them is a shared decision by their actor founders to build something bigger than a personal vanity label, choosing instead to fund writers, directors, and producers whose work stands entirely on its own.
