Thai Randolph
Chief Executive Officer
Hartbeat
Thai Randolph has built her career at the intersection of content, commerce and community. An award-winning marketer, business leader and architect of a next-generation entertainment company, Thai has been named to Variety’s Women of Impact list, Entrepreneur’s Women of Impact list, AdAge’s 40 Under 40 list, Variety’s Silicon Valleywood Impact Report, Cynopsis’ It List, Cynopsis’ Top Women in Media, and Multichannel News Wonder Women in Streaming “Women to Watch.”
Most recently, Thai led the deal that merged Kevin Hart’s two entertainment companies Hartbeat Productions and Laugh Out Loud (LOL) to form the global, multi-platform media company HARTBEAT. To fuel the company’s growth, Thai raised a $100M investment from private equity firm Abry Partners, in what was one of the biggest ever fund raises led by a Black woman in the U.S.
She now leads the new entity as CEO, having previously held positions as President & COO of Laugh Out Loud and COO of HartBeat Productions. In her role at LOL, Randolph brought top tier entertainment, brand and distribution partners into the company, growing it from its original AVOD vision to a full service business with an expansive distribution network, marketing, experiential, branded content, digital and social capabilities. She co-led Laugh Out Loud’s capital raise and partnership deal with NBCUniversal’s Peacock, structured the deal that brought LOL’s Comedy in Color franchise (featuring 300 diverse comedians from 30 different countries) to the Just for Laughs Festival, expanded LOL Audio’s offerings by partnering with Simon & Schuster to bring the franchise to audiobook format, and expanded LOL’s programming on SiriusXM/Pandora.
In 2021, Randolph led the launch of Women Write Now — a first-of-its-kind screenwriting fellowship developed in partnership with the Sundance Institute and LOL (now HARTBEAT) to champion the next generation of black women in comedy through mentorship, advocacy, production, and exhibition.
Prior to her current roles, Randolph was a member of Facebook’s Global Marketing Solutions team where she managed strategic partnerships and digital transformation initiatives with some of the most innovative marketing and technology agencies in the US. Randolph also served as CMO & SVP, Marketing for Sony DADC New Media Solution’s GENERATOR business unit. Randolph was named one of Black Enterprise’s Leading Women in Advertising and Marketing in 2016 for her work transforming Sony Music’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) digital group from an internal cost center to an independent digital marketing and ecommerce service provider.
A seasoned agency executive, Randolph’s past experience also includes digital leadership roles with WPP (VML) and Publicis (Moxie Interactive) agencies, where she provided new media strategy and consultation to world-class brands including Verizon Wireless, Dell, Saks Fifth Avenue, Colgate-Palmolive and Revlon.
Randolph is frequently invited to speak as an industry thought leader at high profile events such as
Advertising Week, BANFF World Media Festival, SXSW, CES, Digiday’s Content Marketing Summit, Sundance, Cannes Lions Festival, The Wrap’s TheGrill, Variety’s Inclusion and Entertainment Summits, Future of Television Conference, Digital Entertainment World, Adobe’s Digital Marketing Conference, YouTube's Publisher Summit, Cynopsis’ Big TV Conference, and Streaming Media East, among others.
Most recently, Thai led the deal that merged Kevin Hart’s two entertainment companies Hartbeat Productions and Laugh Out Loud (LOL) to form the global, multi-platform media company HARTBEAT. To fuel the company’s growth, Thai raised a $100M investment from private equity firm Abry Partners, in what was one of the biggest ever fund raises led by a Black woman in the U.S.
She now leads the new entity as CEO, having previously held positions as President & COO of Laugh Out Loud and COO of HartBeat Productions. In her role at LOL, Randolph brought top tier entertainment, brand and distribution partners into the company, growing it from its original AVOD vision to a full service business with an expansive distribution network, marketing, experiential, branded content, digital and social capabilities. She co-led Laugh Out Loud’s capital raise and partnership deal with NBCUniversal’s Peacock, structured the deal that brought LOL’s Comedy in Color franchise (featuring 300 diverse comedians from 30 different countries) to the Just for Laughs Festival, expanded LOL Audio’s offerings by partnering with Simon & Schuster to bring the franchise to audiobook format, and expanded LOL’s programming on SiriusXM/Pandora.
In 2021, Randolph led the launch of Women Write Now — a first-of-its-kind screenwriting fellowship developed in partnership with the Sundance Institute and LOL (now HARTBEAT) to champion the next generation of black women in comedy through mentorship, advocacy, production, and exhibition.
Prior to her current roles, Randolph was a member of Facebook’s Global Marketing Solutions team where she managed strategic partnerships and digital transformation initiatives with some of the most innovative marketing and technology agencies in the US. Randolph also served as CMO & SVP, Marketing for Sony DADC New Media Solution’s GENERATOR business unit. Randolph was named one of Black Enterprise’s Leading Women in Advertising and Marketing in 2016 for her work transforming Sony Music’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) digital group from an internal cost center to an independent digital marketing and ecommerce service provider.
A seasoned agency executive, Randolph’s past experience also includes digital leadership roles with WPP (VML) and Publicis (Moxie Interactive) agencies, where she provided new media strategy and consultation to world-class brands including Verizon Wireless, Dell, Saks Fifth Avenue, Colgate-Palmolive and Revlon.
Randolph is frequently invited to speak as an industry thought leader at high profile events such as
Advertising Week, BANFF World Media Festival, SXSW, CES, Digiday’s Content Marketing Summit, Sundance, Cannes Lions Festival, The Wrap’s TheGrill, Variety’s Inclusion and Entertainment Summits, Future of Television Conference, Digital Entertainment World, Adobe’s Digital Marketing Conference, YouTube's Publisher Summit, Cynopsis’ Big TV Conference, and Streaming Media East, among others.