He rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s representing Journey, Marvin Gaye, Van Morrison, War, Eric Burdon, Crosby Stills & Nash, Ike & Tina Turner, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Otis Redding, the Who, REO Speedwagon, Black Sabbath, Humble Pie, Styx, the Grass Roots, and the Standells, among many others.

In the mid-1980s, he worked with R&B and hip hop acts like Michel'le, World Class Wreckin' Cru, J. J. Fad, The D.O.C., Egyptian Lover and LA Dream Team.

Born to a Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohio,[1] Heller served in the United States Army and attended college at the University of Southern California, and started working in the agency business in 1963.

After working at Coast Artists, Associated Booking, and the Chartwell, he opened the Heller-Fischel Agency in Beverly Hills which represented rock groups the Who, Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, Humble Pie, and Black Oak Arkansas as well as writers Carly Simon, Van Morrison, and Cat Stevens.

The label included artists and producers such as Dr. Dre, whose careers Heller helped establish, and sold millions of records for Interscope, Priority, Atlantic, MCA, and Sony.

At the time of Eazy-E's death, and Heller's departure from Ruthless, the company was generating revenue in excess of $10 million per month.

In the 1980s, Heller began managing acts on the nascent Los Angeles hip hop scene, many of whom recorded for the now defunct Macola in Hollywood.

He managed both C.I.A., of which Ice Cube was a member, and the World Class Wreckin' Cru, which included Dr. Dre and DJ Yella.

[5] Under the direction of Heller and Eazy, Ruthless had six RIAA-certified Platinum or Gold releases in three years: Supersonic (J. J. Fad), Eazy-Duz-It (Eazy-E), Straight Outta Compton (N.W.A), No One Can Do It Better (The D.O.C.

Jerry Heller and Eazy E became the subject of diss tracks such as No Vaseline and Fuck wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin').

"[6] Ice Cube accused Eazy of being too much under Heller's influence and both of them exploiting the rest of the group: "Eazy-E, MC Ren, Dr. Dre, and Yella".

Also, "It's a case of divide and conquer, 'cause you let a Jew break up my crew" and "house nigga gotta run and hide, yellin' Compton but you moved to Riverside.

[19] In October 2015, Heller filed a lawsuit against several members of N.W.A, NBCUniversal and others involved in the production of Straight Outta Compton.

The lawsuit claims "the film is littered with false statements that harm the reputation of (Heller) and aim to ridicule and lower him in the opinion of the community and to deter third persons from associating or dealing with him.

"[20] Producers for the film, which included Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, filed a countersuit in February 2016 to have portions of the suit thrown out.

[21] In June 2016, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Fitzgerald dismissed nearly all of Heller's lawsuit, but agreed to allow one claim to continue.

[25] On September 2, 2016, Heller suffered a heart attack while driving, crashed his car, and later died at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California.