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 or financier of a 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.