Possibly you suppose Nick Cannon.
The 44-year-old actor, comic, musician and entrepreneur has been a presence on our TV displays since he used to be a boisterous youngster on Nickelodeon’s All That within the past due ’90s, and he’s been a tabloid headline fixture since now not lengthy after that.
However the Cannon who sits down with SUCCESS® for our leisure factor is soft-spoken and mild. His demeanor is simple; he’s fast to snicker. (OK, that phase you most likely can have guessed.) Possibly that’s as a result of years of arduous paintings within the leisure business have taught him when it’s OK to be quiet or possibly he doesn’t have as a lot to end up at this level, a long time into the occupation he constructed out of skinny air. In all probability it’s as a result of after we talk, he’s simply put certainly one of his sons down for a snooze.
Something is sure: Cannon isn’t slowing down. These days, on the helm of a media empire that comes with more than one podcasts and tv presentations, he’s certainly one of a small selection of actors who’ve effectively navigated the transition from a standard leisure and media financial system to search out luck within the virtual house. He’s nonetheless an actor and entertainer—he’s been the host of The Masked Singer since 2019—however he’s additionally a celebrity writer, with greater than 1,000,000 subscribers on YouTube and masses of 1000’s of fans throughout his different platforms staring at and listening as he sits down with Suge Knight, TikTok-famous hip-hop duo Flyana Boss or Mike Tyson.
For Cannon, this present technology is a kind of non-public pinnacle, a media luck tale that’s on the intersection of his non-public lifestyles, his inventive lifestyles and his entrepreneurial mindset. However whilst he sees the virtual media house as the way forward for leisure, in a humorous means, it’s additionally a go back to the leisure ecosystem the place he first hustled for luck as a young person.
“Actually, what sort of were given me on used to be I used to be a child with a camcorder, a child [who] would cross do interviews and man-on-the-street stuff. That used to be more or less my genre of comedy and my genre of leisure within the ‘90s,” Cannon tells SUCCESS®. “So, to peer that more or less come complete circle and it if truth be told change into a real industry nowadays with the entire creators and influencers, it’s like—wow. I’ve been doing this all my lifestyles, and it’s more or less like 2d nature for me.”
Ranging from scratch
Within the leisure industry, it’s famously all about who .
Cannon didn’t develop up with the connections usually required for Hollywood superstardom. He used to be raised basically through his paternal grandparents in a public housing building in southeast San Diego, California, the place gang tradition used to be prevalent and ability scouts weren’t. However the long term famous person used to be motivated from a tender age—and he used to be humorous. He used to be 11 years outdated when he were given his first gig, acting stand-up comedy on his dad’s cable-access program.
He used to be nonetheless a youngster when he used to be added to the solid of the hit comic strip display All That all the way through its 5th season. The Nickelodeon collection, which used to be like Saturday Evening Are living for children, used to be a staple of the community’s programming for as regards to a decade, and Cannon, for the entire foolish characters he performed, took it extraordinarily critically. “I used to be a young person on the time, coming from my community like, ‘I’d do anything else to stand up out of right here. Give me a get dressed; I’ll put it on! I ain’t scared. Is there a test that includes it? Let’s cross!’” he recalled in a 2014 oral historical past of the display.
The younger actor had the guts and spirit of an excellent entertainer, however he had the potential for arduous paintings and the mindset of an excellent entrepreneur. His time on All That (and The Nick Cannon Display, despite the fact that short-lived) ended in starring roles in motion pictures Drumline—for which Cannon’s step forward efficiency used to be nominated for MTV Film Awards, Teenager Selection Awards and Black Reel Awards—and Love Don’t Price a Factor. Then, there used to be Wild ‘N Out—phase comic strip comedy, phase rap fight, phase improvised sport display and all from the thoughts of 1 Nick Cannon.
“Once I began the display, I used to be a tender child having a look to discover a position to voice my standpoint and opinion in a comedic means, and I had such a lot of buddies [who] didn’t even give you the chance that I had,” he remembers. “So, I used to be like, ‘Oh, let me open this door. Let me create this level so other folks can listen voices like Katt Williams, and Kevin Hart, and Pete Davidson, and Mikey Day and Matt Rife.’”
Cannon felt positive that he had successful on his palms, however MTV executives heard “hip-hop improv comedy display” and weren’t so positive. “They didn’t get it. They didn’t comprehend it,” he says. “So, I actually invested in myself, took my very own cash, rented a comedy membership, rented some cameras, were given my buddies in combination and shot the pilot episode of Wild ‘N Out.” It wasn’t the normal means of doing issues, nevertheless it labored. “And if I might have long past the normal direction, allow them to make a pilot, and them pay for it and increase an concept, I wouldn’t had been in a position to possess Wild ‘N Out to at the present time,” Cannon says.
Holding doorways open
This has been his playbook since he used to be younger—along with his presentations and along with his song. Listening to “no” doesn’t make it a foul thought, Cannon causes. It simply approach it would take slightly extra arduous paintings to make it occur. His checklist of present inventive endeavors is lengthy and contains The Daily Cannon, a radio display on which he steadily highlights up-and-coming song and comedy skill; audio and video podcast Cannon’s Class, on which visitors talk about far-ranging subjects, from the jail device to homeschooling to hip-hop; and Nick Cannon’s Large Power, a Tubi display that unearths him hopping within the automotive and using along side everybody from Snoop Dogg to Rita Ora.
After which there’s Counsel Culture, the Cannon-hosted psychological well being podcast and display that asks, “What if, as an alternative of looking to cancel one some other, we endorsed one some other?”
Cannon connects to Suggest Tradition on a private stage: “Being any individual who has been at the slicing block repeatedly, I’ve at all times simply identified that, as an alternative of looking to cancel one some other, if we might suggest one some other, I believe there could be such a lot atonement,” he chuckles. “I actually sit down in that house as though I’m sitting on my therapist’s sofa, being as candid and as inclined.”
However like any of his leisure initiatives, it’s a win-win: Now not handiest does Cannon have complete inventive keep an eye on over the content material, issues and subjects of dialogue, however he additionally will get to provide folks a platform they may not another way have. Now that he’s in his 40s, the previous teenager sensation says one of the rewarding issues is giving different gifted and hungry younger other folks their first alternatives.
“We get to curate this younger leisure house,” he says. “Considered one of my presents is with the intention to acknowledge different peoples’ presents and to be that man to mention, ‘Good day, this individual’s subsequent. This individual merits a possibility,’” he says.
“If I’m a gatekeeper, I’m the only man maintaining the gate open,” he continues. “I’m retaining it open for everyone.”
A balancing act
If the theory of website hosting more than one podcasts and TV presentations whilst additionally operating your individual media corporate appears like numerous paintings, neatly, it’s. And whilst Cannon is at some degree in his occupation the place he may coast, doing the occasional film or TV display and another way quietly accumulating royalty assessments, that’s by no means been a mindset that feels relaxed for him.
“Once I sit down with my therapist, he calls me a machete juggler,” he laughs. “It more or less makes such a lot sense… the entire issues other folks say I will’t do, I’m like, ‘Smartly, watch me. Imma display you. Throw me another machete.’”
Even fatherhood, he grins, is one thing he approaches in a “machete-juggler form of means.” With 12 youngsters—Monroe, Moroccan, Golden, Robust, Zion, Zillion, Zen, Mythical, Onyx, Upward thrust, Stunning and Halo—he has lots to stay him busy as a mother or father. He put his son down for a snooze simply earlier than our name, and in a twinkling of an eye, he’ll cross pick out up certainly one of his daughters from faculty.
However being a mother or father has given him a sense of goal even more than probably the most thrilling leisure alternatives.
“Possibly 10 years in the past, I used to be more or less like—I used to be searching for a brand new problem. I used to be searching for one thing else to intrigue me and encourage me,” he says. “Now, I don’t have to seem, as it’s proper there in all my youngsters. No matter their desires and aspirations are, I’m simply looking to feed into that and put money into them up to I most likely can.”
And if you happen to’re questioning how he most likely balances all of his leisure initiatives with elevating a dozen youngsters… Smartly, he says, it takes multiple calendar. “It’s time control; it’s power control. No matter I put my power in opposition to, I’ll to find the time. I believe it’s actually the place my pastime lies,” he explains.
“Idealistic optimism”
Cannon says he’s extra mature than he’s ever been—fatherhood is helping with that. However, in some ways, he’s nonetheless the wide-eyed child he used to be within the early 2000s, stuffed with a younger exuberance that spills out into his lifestyles and paintings. He explains that he has an “idealistic optimism” that issues will occur for you if you happen to paintings arduous to determine it out, and that’s an ethos he hopes he’ll go all the way down to all of his youngsters.
“I don’t suppose that the entrepreneurial spirit has been extra alive than it’s at this time,” Cannon says, his eyes sparkling.
He signifies that extensively—the truth that any younger individual can document a humorous video and add it to Instagram or YouTube in moments has upended one of the outdated tactics of doing issues in Hollywood, and luck is one thing you’ll be able to achieve out and snatch for your self now greater than ever. You don’t even need to have a camcorder the way in which Cannon did, as a long term famous person doing man-on-the-street-style interviews; only a smartphone will do.
However he may be regarding himself, in particular. Now not content material to easily run a media corporate, the ever-enterprising Cannon’s NCredible emblem is coming into a brand new house this 12 months, with a renewed emphasis on well being and wellness. The road of NCredible Meals merchandise will come with NCredible Power, an all-natural, zero-sugar power drink made with pure caffeine.
“I simply actually, more than likely within the remaining 5 years, dove into that international in one of these possible way…. That’s an area that folks don’t know I’m enthusiastic about: I’m an herbalist for certainly one of my different jobs,” he laughs.
It’s all in step with Cannon’s trust that anything else can also be achieved with sufficient arduous paintings and determination, as long as you don’t let someone sway you out of your objectives. He noticed it firsthand with Wild ‘N Out, the scrappy upstart display no tv executives understood in the beginning. Now airing on VH1, the display wrapped its twenty first season in 2024.
Cannon shakes his head, smiling. When you’d have informed him again within the early 2000s that the little display he dreamt up in order that his buddies had a spot to inform jokes and rap in combination would nonetheless be round 20-plus years later, he more than likely wouldn’t have believed you. However, because it seems, he had a trailblazing imaginative and prescient in what it is advisable accomplish through casting individuals who had been viral sensations however had very little tv publicity.
Taking a look again on it now, “The trajectory wasn’t linear in anyway,” he says, explaining how he were given the place he’s nowadays. “However I’m so thankful for it. I’m so thankful for each and every adventure, for each and every lesson.”
This text seems within the Would possibly/June 2025 factor of SUCCESS mag. Picture through Nick Onken.
