Druski Just Joined Emma Stone in 'The Catch'. The Studio Door Now Opens for Creator IP.

Druski just landed a Universal feature. Deadline reported on June 10 that the comedian, real name Drew Desbordes, joined "The Catch," a baseball rom-com starring Emma Stone and Chris Pine, playing Stone's security guard. The film, directed by Dave McCary, hits theaters May 21, 2027. For the Forbes No. 9 creator of 2025, it is the cleanest signal yet that the studio door opens first for creators who built their own audience.

What actually happened?

Universal slotted Druski into "The Catch," a studio rom-com pitched as "Bull Durham" meets "Notting Hill," per Complex. McCary directs from a Jen Statsky and Travis Helwig script, with Stone, McCary, and Ali Herting producing through Fruit Tree, alongside Shawn Levy and Dan Levine of 21 Laps. SNL's Ashley Padilla also joined the cast in the same window. The role is supporting and comedic, exactly the kind of slot studios used to hand a Saturday Night alum, not an Instagram comedian.

Why does this matter for creators?

Druski did not get cast because Universal needed a creator. He got cast because his comedic IP is already studio-grade. Coulda Been Records, his satirical talent-show universe, runs like a content studio with recurring characters, sketch worlds, and production polish that slot next to Emma Stone and Chris Pine without friction. The 12M Instagram followers on @druski were the fuel, the IP was the asset.

Druski's $14M in 2025 earnings are also instructive. The income did not come from acting fees, it came from skits, brand deals, tours, and Coulda Been Records. A supporting studio role is a payday and a press cycle, not a category. The category is the audience he owns 365 days a year.

That distinction is the whole game in mid-2026. Forbes' 2025 Top 50 Creators collectively earned an estimated $853M from Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube alone, per AfroTech. The ones getting the Universal call are the ones who turned audience into recurring IP, not the ones who chased platform algorithms. If your characters can headline next to A-listers, Hollywood comes to you.

"It's an honor to be the youngest host ever for the BET Awards. I grew up watching the BET Awards and, to know the comedic legends that hosted before me set the bar so high, I'm just grateful to be a part of the history. But I'm still bringing my brand of comedy to the stage, so expect a little chaos, a lot of laughs, and some of your favorite Druski characters to pop out along the way."

Druski, Comedian and Coulda Been Records founder, via AFRO / AP wire

What's the bigger picture?

The Universal casting lands inside one of the loudest stretches of Druski's career. BET tapped him on April 30 to host the 2026 BET Awards on June 28, making him the youngest emcee in the show's 25-year history (he is 31, surpassing Kevin Hart's 2011 hosting at age 32). He is also attached to Hartbeat's "Livestream From Hell" alongside Hart and Kai Cenat. Same June window, three studio-grade slots, all running off the same audience.

The infrastructure around him is moving in the same direction. The Hollywood Reporter noted that Night, the talent firm representing Kai Cenat and MrBeast, raised $70M earlier in 2026 to push creator deals into gaming, sports, music, and live events. Studios, broadcast networks, and agencies are all racing to lock in creator IP before the next breakout proves the multiple should be higher. The creators with owned audiences and named characters are the ones cashing the checks.

What does Fanvault think?

The Druski casting is the validation. The audience is the asset. Fanvault is built for the creators who already have the followers, the characters, and the demand but who are not yet getting the Universal call, and we charge an 8% platform fee so they keep 92% of every storefront sale, every paid DM, every wishlist drop, every authenticated memorabilia auction. Compared to Fanvue's 15%, Passes' 10% + $0.30, and Fanfix's roughly 20% take, that gap is the difference between funding the content engine that makes you studio-grade and bleeding it out one transaction at a time.

The Catch is what happens when the audience is already too big to ignore. The work, the characters, the storefront, the long compounding asset of an audience that comes back, is what makes the audience worth coming for. Druski did that first. Universal showed up second.