David Ellison’s ascent to the summit of Hollywood power traces an unconventional flight path. At 13, the Oracle founder’s son received an extraordinary gift from his father: his own airplane. By 17, he was performing aerial acrobatics in professional air shows. Two decades later, he has traded the cockpit for the boardroom, steering his company through a $8 billion merger that placed him atop Paramount, with hopes of adding Warner Bros. to his trophy case.
The aviation obsession began early. After watching Top Gun as a child, David Ellison became fixated on flying. His billionaire father, Larry Ellison, purchased a plane for him at age 13, and they took lessons together. By 16, he was flying a high-performance German aerobatic aircraft capable of rolling 360 degrees in under a second. Wayne Handley, a pilot who worked with the family, told Variety that to “pry this airplane out of David’s hands, Larry bought him a top-of-the-line aerobatic airplane out of Germany, the Extra 300.”
David Ellison soloed on his 16th birthday and began competing in air shows at 17. In 2003, at 20, he became the youngest member of the Stars of Tomorrow aerobatic team at the EAA AirVenture Show in Oshkosh, Wis. He flew a Cap 232 painted in full Flyboys regalia to promote the 2006 film.
“I started flying aerobatics when I was 14,” he told Smithsonian Air & Space magazine. “I flew a bunch of air shows, a competition in an Unlimited, and I flew at Nationals.”
The pivot to entertainment emerged gradually. It was while studying film at the University of Southern California that Ellison appeared in Flyboys, playing an American pilot fighting for the French in the World War I drama. The film cost $65 million but earned only $18 million, marking a brief acting career.
Ellison abandoned competitive flying and acting at the same time, dropping out of USC to focus on production. In 2006, he founded Skydance Media with financial backing from his billionaire father. The company’s name reflects Ellison’s passion for stunt flying, also known as “skydancing.”
Skydance’s first major success came with the Coen brothers’ True Grit in 2011, which grossed over $250 million worldwide on a $38 million budget. This launched a partnership with Paramount that produced five Mission: Impossible films grossing $3.3 billion globally, two Star Trek movies, and the record-breaking Top Gun: Maverick, which is the 14th highest-grossing film of all time.
The Paramount merger, approved by federal regulators in August, culminates Ellison’s transformation from daredevil to mogul. Now 42, David is the chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance, overseeing CBS, MTV, and Paramount Pictures. The deal faced obstacles including competing bids and political pressure from President Donald Trump, who extracted a multimillion-dollar settlement from Paramount over a 60 Minutes lawsuit.
Ellison’s strategy centers on technology integration. He plans to create a “studio in the cloud” with Oracle’s infrastructure, using AI to streamline production and reduce costs. The company will double theatrical releases while modernizing Paramount+’s streaming algorithms to minimize subscriber cancellations.
Competitors note he has become adept at managing financial outcomes while appeasing high-profile talent, two critical aspects of studio operations.
But Ellison still has that flyboy DNA: He has his pilot’s license to operate helicopters, perform aerobatics, and fly commercial and multi-engine aircraft. Now, the daredevil who once thrilled Oshkosh crowds is navigating a different kind of turbulence—a 113-year-old studio in an industry being reshaped by streaming giants and tech conglomerates.
For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.