Executive producer is a role in the entertainment industry that is difficult to define clearly. Executive producers vary in involvement, responsibility, and power.

Executive producers are commonly the main investor, the financier of the project. This particularly applies to the music industry.

Some executive producers have hands-on control of every aspect of production. In television, the latter type is also called the show runner, is frequently the creator of the project, and often a writer.

There's also a practice of naming celebrities executive producers of a project in order to help gain approval.