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Meet Casey Wasserman, Hollywood sports mogul and LA Olympics organiser

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Meet Casey Wasserman, Hollywood sports mogul and LA Olympics organiser

Few people occupy as influential a role at the cross section of Hollywood, business, sports and politics as marketing mogul Casey Wasserman. A case in point? His 50th birthday party on June 28, which saw everyone from Bill Clinton and Gavin Newsom to Disney CEO Bob Iger and Jessica Alba show up to celebrate.
Casey Wasserman (left) rubs shoulders with the world’s elite. Photo: @wasserman/Instagram

The epic, 500-person bash was staged in a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, and featured food from Nobu and a performance by Imagine Dragons, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The event was also something of a tribute to his late grandfather – Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman – with a recreation of the deli that Casey used to frequent with him at the event, complete with one of the spot’s original waitresses and a vintage photo booth.

Here’s what you need to know about one of the US’ ultimate power players, and the man GQ once referred to as a “Jewish Tom Cruise”.

Casey Wasserman comes from a well-connected family

Casey Wasserman with his grandmother, Edith “Edie” Wasserman. Photo: @mptf/Instagram

Casey Wasserman was born in 1974 to Lynne Wasserman and Jack Myers, but the pair divorced when Casey was seven, per the Los Angeles Times. From then on, he was raised by his mother and mentored by his grandfather Lew Wasserman, the legendary movie mogul and former president of entertainment conglomerate MCA.

Lew Wasserman, chairman of MCA Inc.’s board of directors, in 1976. Photo: AP
Lew took Casey to Beverly Hills deli Nate ‘n’ Al’s every weekend to teach him life lessons, according to The New York Times, and he enjoyed the kind of access to showbiz that most kids could only dream of. “At 10, he helped carry the torch at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles,” the newspaper notes. “At 18, when he wanted to go to a sold-out Guns N’ Roses concert, his grandfather told him to call David Geffen, one of Hollywood’s biggest power brokers” for tickets.

He has a sports marketing empire

Casey Wasserman talks with the media in May 2016. Photo: AP Photo

At 21, Wasserman received a multimillion-dollar trust fund, according to the LA Times, and Lew made him president of the family’s charitable foundation.

Apparently taking his grandfather’s life lessons on board, by the age of 28, Wasserman had started Wasserman Media and began assembling a client base of sports stars to represent. Before long, he had bought a number of other companies to secure his place among the world’s top sports marketing and talent agencies. According to Forbes, by 2021, Wasserman had US$5.7 billion in talent contracts ranging across sports from basketball to American football and golf.
Casey Wasserman rose through the sports agency ranks. Photo: @wasserman/Instagram

Celebrity Net Worth estimates Wasserman himself to be worth somewhere in the region of US$400 million.

He is head of the 2028 LA Olympic committee

Los Angeles 2028 Olympic chair Casey Wasserman (centre) with others from the International Olympic Committee. Photo: @emilyclokeuk/Instagram
Remember the story about grandpa Lew taking a young Casey to the Los Angeles Olympics at age 10? The event had a “profound effect” on him, per his interview with the Financial Times, and in 2014 he was asked by the city’s mayor to lead its bid for the Games. His hard work paid off, and LA will host the event in four years’ time, with Wasserman heading up the organising committee that will oversee the US$7 billion project.

“I enjoy the pressure,” Wasserman told the LA Times last July. “If this were easy and boring, I’m not sure it would be worth the time.”

He’s a Democrat

Casey Wasserman is a Democrat. Photo: @hollywoodreporter/Instagram
Not only is Wasserman a friend of the Clintons – The New York Times reported that he’d had a two hour breakfast meeting with Hillary a few weeks before their interview in 2013 – but his influence extends to donations too. This February, he co-hosted a fundraiser for president Joe Biden, per Deadline, and was similarly supportive of Barack Obama’s run, according to Variety.

Who is Casey Wasserman’s wife?

Casey Wasserman and Jenny Chandler. Photo: @jennychandlerart/Instagram

In 2001, Wasserman married the granddaughter of one of his grandfather’s friends – Laura Ziffren – and the pair have two children together, Emmet and Stella. A film industry music supervisor, Ziffren has overseen the soundtracks on blockbusters ranging from Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! to Spider-Man 2.

However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, their relationship “ended after [Wasserman] took up with a flight attendant, Jenny Chandler, who’d worked on his private jet”. While it’s unclear whether he is officially divorced, he has been with Chandler since at least 2023, per her Instagram. These days, Chandler is an artist, according to Vogue, and was also spotted at this year’s Vanity Fair Oscars party alongside her beau, and Nancy and Paul Pelosi.
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