2026 Icons
- Giorgio Armani
- Gabriel Attal
- Alvin Baltrop
- Frieda Belinfante
- Michael Bennett
- Rachel Crandall-Crocker
- Barry Diller
- Ernestine Eckstein
- Laïla El-Métoui
- Edward Enninful
- Andrea Gibson
- Marsden Hartley
- Muhsin Hendricks
- Patricia Highsmith
- Robert Joffrey
- Julie Johnson
- Lani Ka’ahumanu
- King James I
- Calvin Klein
- Abraham Lincoln
- Chris Pappas
- Pauline Park
- Paul Rudolph
- Amber Ruffin
- St. Vincent
- Jessica Stern
- Charles Sumner
- Jewel Thais-Williams
- Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
- Alok Vaid-Menon
- Edmund White
Barry Diller
2026 Icon
Barry Diller
Media Mogul
b. February 2, 1942
“In today’s world, you don’t need scale to compete, you just need a good idea.”
Barry Diller is a television pioneer, former film studio head, and billionaire businessman. Perhaps best known as the cofounder of Fox Broadcasting Company and founder of USA Broadcasting, he currently serves as chairman and senior executive of the media conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp and the travel technology giant Expedia.
The second son of Jewish parents, Diller was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Beverly Hills. His parents were emotionally distant, and he suffered abuse from his heroin-addicted brother.
Diller attended UCLA briefly before dropping out to work in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency. He later joined ABC and helped pioneer the made-for-TV movie, becoming vice president of ABC's prime-time programming by 1973.
In 1974, at age 32, Diller took over leadership of Paramount Pictures. As its chairman and CEO, he made Paramount the most successful Hollywood studio of the late 1970s and early ’80s.
In 1984, Diller assumed chairmanship of 20th Century Fox. With Rupert Murdoch, he launched the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1986 as a fourth commercial broadcast network, rivaling ABC, NBC, and CBS. Conceived as an edgier alternative, Fox targeted a younger demographic with early programming that included “Married With Children” and “America’s Most Wanted.” The network launched “The Simpsons” in 1989.
Diller resigned from Fox in 1992 and acquired a stake in the home shopping channel QVC. A year later, he became its chairman and CEO. In 1994, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
In 1996, Diller acquired Silver King Broadcasting and repurchased one of its former assets, the Home Shopping Network. By year's end, he had merged the two with Savoy Pictures Entertainment, Inc., to form HSN Inc. In 1998, he renamed the entity USA Networks Inc. (later USA Interactive). In 2001, USA Interactive purchased a majority stake in Expedia. In 2003, USA Interactive became InterActiveCorp.
From 2002 to 2003, Diller also served as co-chairman and CEO of Vivendi Universal. He has been the chairman of Expedia Group since 2005.
Over the years, Diller has had many romantic relationships with men. In the 1970s, he began an on-again, off-again relationship with the prominent fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. They married in 2001.
Although his sexuality was an open secret in elite circles, Diller never disclosed it publicly. In 2025, he published the memoir “Who Knew,” detailing his life and struggles with his sexual fluidity.
Married for more than 25 years, Diller and von Furstenberg live in New York City.
