[5][6] His mother, Marsha Emanuel (née Smulevitz), was a civil rights activist, and the one-time owner of a Chicago-area rock and roll club.

[7][1] In his early career, Emanuel worked as an assistant to New York talent agent Robert Lantz and then as a trainee at Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood.

[12][13] Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, the co-CEO of WME, have both been named to Fortune's Businessperson of the Year list.

[16] Emanuel's relationships with his clients, coupled with his stature in the industry, has led to various homages and parodies over the years, including Bob Odenkirk's character Stevie Grant on The Larry Sanders Show, and Ari Gold, played by Jeremy Piven on the HBO television show Entourage.

[20] Endeavor went public in 2021, the first Hollywood agency to do so,[18] with Emanuel owning a stake worth around $480 million according to Bloomberg.

[21] He and Patrick Whitesell are also co-CEO of IMG, a global sports, events and talent management company headquartered in New York City.

[27] After the disappearance of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2, 2018, and reports that the Saudi hit squad had assassinated him inside their consulate in Turkey, Emanuel called White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

[29] In October 2022, Emanuel urged several businesses to stop working with rapper Kanye West over his antisemitic comments.

[30][31] Emanuel voiced critical opinions of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he was awarded the Humanitarian Prize at Simon Wiesenthal Center's National Tribute Gala.