Mark Wahlberg is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

Let’s just get this out of the way: Mark Wahlberg is as A-list as it gets. He broke out in 1997’s “Boogie Nights,” and in the nearly three decades since, he’s built one of the highest-wattage careers in Hollywood: two Academy Award nominations, a Golden Globe nod for “The Fighter,” multiple Emmy nominations as a producer (HBO’s “Entourage” among them), and a filmography that spans crime dramas, comedies, and action blockbusters. Right now, he’s back on screen in “By Any Means,” a manhunt thriller set during the 1966 Mississippi civil rights killings. His acting career is really just part of the picture. Over the past two decades, Wahlberg has built a production company, a restaurant chain, apparel and fitness ventures, a slate of angel investments, and the now 25-year-old Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, which supports inner-city kids and teens. He’s used his Hollywood success to launch big projects well outside the movie business —and in a fireside chat at this year’s Disrupt, he’s going to give us a peek into how. Wahlberg, who’s leaned almost entirely on entrepreneurial instinct about people, culture, products, and markets, is now someone who’s been building institutional-level investing discipline, with Lee as his guide, and with a growing focus on healthcare and wellness startups. It’s a rare, unvarnished look at how someone with Wahlberg’s cultural intelligence has worked his way into some of the most sophisticated rooms in business and finance. That includes where high-profile entertainers and athletes sometimes get it wrong (Wahlberg is candid about having had to unlearn some of his own old instincts); how he’s used the trust built over a massive career to drive access and deal flow; and which technologies he’s most focused on right now and why. If you’ve watched Wahlberg build brands, franchises, and businesses over the past decade and wondered, “Whoisthis guy?”—you won’t want to miss this conversation. Mistakes, mentorship, the mechanics of leveling up in a competitive investing landscape—we’ll cover it all at Disrupt.