Leah Kateb’s fans include millions of “Love Island USA” viewers — and Tobey Maguire.
During a panel at Variety’s Entertainment Marketing Summit presented by Deloitte, the reality TV star said that she met the actor, who told her he was a “really big fan.” “I was like, ‘This is insane. You’re Spider-Man. I’m a big fan.’ And he was so much fun, and he’s so nice. And I feel like everyone I meet is so nice.”
“And I don’t care what anyone says, he’s the best Spider-Man,” she added.
The star-studded closing panel also featured Ariana Madix, Patrick Ta, Bobby Berk and Shareef O’Neal, during which the entrepreneurs discussed how they each built a brand, scaled their platforms and used social media fame to propel their businesses.
Alongside Variety moderator Marc Malkin, each panelist opened up about their journey to becoming an entrepreneur. An Emmy-winning design expert and television host, Berk’s design firm first began as an online business, then grew into a furniture store before ultimately expanding. Berk also did nine seasons of “Queer Eye,” which he calls a “huge catapult for many, many things.” Social media, too, has been a “huge plus” for his business, he said.
Ta, founder of Patrick Ta Beauty, started his brand six years ago following 14 years as a celebrity makeup artist. For him, the products allow his audience to “experience a little bit of my artistry.” With the launch of his brand, TikTok gave Ta more ways to connect with his audience and the opportunity to share different types of content with them. “I launched my number one blush duos five years ago, but it was only three years ago when they actually started getting traction… TikTok rebirthed me as a person, and me as a brand.”
Both Madix, who co-founded the sandwich shop Something About Her, and Kateb, the chief creative officer and re-founder of perfume brand Skylar, took the leap to the business side of things following successful stints on reality TV; Madix first made her debut on Bravo’s “Vanderpump Rules,” while Kateb amassed millions of followers thanks to an appearance on “Love Island USA” (which Madix also hosts). In their own ways, both have taken advantage of the “unique opportunity” that comes with being on the shows, explains Madix — the fact that audiences “get to know you on a different level.”
For Madix, that has meant that everything she’s done has felt “a little bit of like an extension of myself as well.” The same is true for Kateb, who saw that fans were interested in her lifestyle content, and specifically what perfume she wore. After she posted a video breaking down her favorite scents (which included Vanilla Sky from Skylar), she had a meeting with the brand. “From there, they just were like, ‘We need you a part of this brand.’” Kateb also teased a future product, noting that she wasn’t going to stop at fragrance. “Everyone knows me for my layering routines, so we’ve been cooking, literally and figuratively,” she said.
O’Neal, an influencer and the creative director of Shaq Brand, got candid about deciding to share about his health issues, and particularly heart surgery, on his social media. He explained that the announcement, at the time, was “pretty hard to think about.” “I just came out of high school, I was the number one player in California, going to UCLA, and I had such a big following… We weren’t going to announce it at first; we were just going to just go MIA, go missing for a few years and get back. But I told my mom, ‘I want to document this. I want to post it.’ I want to show people that everything’s not perfect, that I can come back from this,” he recalled.
“I didn’t know the impact it was going to have on people. Still to this day, people come up to me and they say, ‘You’re such an inspiration.’”