Kevin Hart Moves To Chairman Of Laugh Out Loud, Jeff Clanagan And Thai Randolph Promoted

There are some promotions and additions taking place at Kevin Hart’s comedy brand Laugh Out Loud (LOL) as it expands across its core divisions of LOL Network, LOL Studios, LOL Audio, LOL X!. Hart will move from his position as CEO to Chairman while continuing to take an active role in the company’s overall comedic vision, content, and talent development. Jeff Clanagan will pivot from his role as current President and step into the role of CEO while business development and operations leader and EVP and GM Thai Randolph will be promoted to President and COO.

In addition, Clanagan has appointed Candice Wilson as Head of Production and Development while Randolph has brought on Manveer Sehmi as new SVP, Head of Finance and Operations.

“We are delivering on our vision for the future of comedy at Laugh Out Loud. In just a few short years, we have built a global comedy brand that is giving a platform to emerging and diverse comedic voices,” said Hart. “As leaders, Jeff and Thai have been a tremendous force in growing the company with me. Together, they have expanded our distribution network, brought in amazing content partnerships, and led the expansion and growth of our divisions across the company.”

He added, “My move to Chairman and Jeff and Thai’s new roles, along with our additional new hires and appointments, allow us to continue building on our promise and will keep us on track to become the biggest comedy company in the world.”

Clanagan and Randolph both have been with LOL since it’s 2017 launch. They have been instrumental in helping the company evolve from its original vision of an OTT streaming service into a broader global multi-platform comedy brand with an owned IP portfolio and O&O distribution network. They will continue to share business development.

Clanagan is a long-time business partner of Hart. As CEO, he will focus on the content side of the business, including development, production, distribution and experiential. He also founded Codeblack Films and Codeblack Digital, an entertainment company dedicated to super-serving the black community worldwide. Clanagan and Hart partnered to co-finance and self-distribute Hart’s first theatrical release, Laugh At My Pain and went on to partner on all of Kevin’s subsequent specials. Most recently, Clanagan broke new ground in theatrical marketing with his digital-first approach to the release of the feature All Eyez On Me.

In her new role as President and COO, Randolph will focus on strategy and operations, including overseeing corporate development, marketing, ad sales, finance and strategic partnerships. Randolph has spent her career at the intersection of content, consumers and commerce and has a proven track-record of developing brands, audience and revenue for some of the biggest names in advertising, technology and entertainment – including WPP, Publicis, Sony and Facebook.

Wilson came to LOL from Lionsgate, where she worked on acquisitions and development at CodeBlack films. She oversees all development production for LOL, including Die Hart on Quibi, Lyft Comics and more. Sehmi joins LOL from the experiential company, Confirmed360, Inc., where he served as CFO and COO. Prior to that, he was the Vice President, Controller at Funny or Die, Inc.

LOL has also promoted Tina Maher to VP, Integrated Marketing & Monetization and brought on Beej Gefsky as VP of Content Acquisition and Distribution.

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