Cooper Bradford Hefner (born September 4, 1991) is an American businessman. He has worked as the chief creative officer and chief of global partnerships at

Playboy Enterprises PLBY Group, Inc. is an American global media and lifestyle company founded by Hugh Hefner as Playboy Enterprises, Inc. to oversee the ''Playboy'' magazine and related assets. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California. The company is focus ...

, a company founded by his father

Hugh Hefner Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obsc ...

. He was also founder and initial chief executive officer of the startup company Hop.

Early life

Hefner was born on September 4, 1991, in Los Angeles, California, to

(1926–2017) and

Kimberley Conrad Kimberley Conrad (born Kimberley Conradt; August 6, 1962) was chosen as ''Playboy''s Playboy Playmate, Playmate of the Month in January 1988 and became List of Playmates of the Year, Playmate of the Year 1989. Conrad was Hugh Hefner's second wife ...

. He grew up in a mansion adjacent to the

Playboy Mansion The Playboy Mansion, also known as the Playboy Mansion West, is the former home of ''Playboy'' magazine founder Hugh Hefner who lived there from 1974 until his death in 2017. Barbi Benton convinced Hefner to buy the home located in Holmby Hills ...

, which was purchased by his father after his parents separated. Hefner graduated from

Ojai Valley School Ojai Valley School is a co-educational independent boarding school in the Ojai Valley near the city of Ojai, California, United States. The school was founded in 1911 and offers pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade education. The motto of th ...

in 2009 and received a bachelor's degree from

Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California. It encompasses ten schools and colleges, including Fowler School of Engineering, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Fowler School of Law, and Schmid College of Scie ...

in 2015.

Career

Hefner started working for Playboy Enterprises, Inc. when he was in college. In early 2016, Hefner, who was a board observer at the time, left the company due to disagreements with then CEO

Scott Flanders Scott N. Flanders (born December 26, 1956) is an American corporate executive in the media, entertainment and technology industries. He is currently chief executive officer and long-term member of the board of directors at EHealthInsurance, eHea ...

about the direction the company was taking. Hefner then began editing, writing and publishing op-eds, which centered on politics, culture and philosophy. In 2016, Hefner launched the media startup company Hop (Hefner Operations & Productions) focused on content and social events for millennials. Hefner returned to Playboy and was named chief creative officer of the company in July 2016 when Hugh Hefner stepped down from that post. In February 2017, Hefner announced nude images would return to the magazine stating that the problem had been the presentation of nude images rather than the nudity itself. Hefner also oversaw the decision to feature Playboy's first

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

playmate in the centerfold for its November issue. Playboy's earnings for 2017 increased by more than 39 percent year-over-year following Hefner's return to the company. In January 2018, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' reported the controlling shareholder of Playboy Enterprises was considering ending the U.S. print edition of Playboy Magazine, stating the magazine has lost as much as $7 million annually in recent years. Hefner has been recognized on ''The Folio: 100'' list for 2017 for his contributions to the magazine media industry as well as appearing on the ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 list for 2018. In January 2019, Hefner took over as the chief of global partnerships for Playboy Enterprises. In that position, he would focus on revenue and business development over content and media management. In April 2019, Playboy Enterprises CEO Ben Kohn confirmed Hefner would exit his senior role at Playboy to launch a media brand, the Hefner Media Corporation, and a digital content platform called HefPost. Later, through Instagram and Twitter accounts after having left Playboy, in July 2019 Hefner stated his new digital content platform would be called instead StagDaily. In December 2019, Hefner halted plans to start a media company and digital content platform, and chose instead to enlist in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. Hefner was previously a member of the

California State Military Reserve The California State Guard (CSG) (formerly the California State Military Reserve) is a component of the California National Guard (CNG). The CSG is a volunteer force that supports the state missions and federal readiness of the Army and Air Natio ...

. Hefner was deployed stateside to New Jersey's

Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst (JB MDL) is a United States military facility located southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. The base is the only tri-service base in the United States Department of Defense and includes units from all six armed ...

for Operation Allies Welcome, which supported resettlement of approximately 130,000 refugees airlifted from Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal in 2021.

Personal life

In 2015, Hefner became engaged to British actress

Scarlett Byrne Scarlett Hannah Hefner (née Byrne; born 6 October 1990) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Slytherin student Pansy Parkinson in the '' Harry Potter'' series, and as Nora Hildegard in '' The Vampire Diaries''. Career Byr ...

. On November 4, 2019, Hefner and Byrne announced that they had married. On August 24, 2020, Byrne gave birth to their first daughter. On March 26, 2022, she gave birth to twin daughters. Hefner is a teacher at

, where he also serves on the

board of governors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

. Hefner considered running for Congress in

California's 37th congressional district California's 37th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California based in Los Angeles County. It includes many neighborhoods west and southwest of Downtown Los Angeles. The district includes *Culver City * I ...

in 2016. In July 2020, Hefner announced his campaign as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

for the

California Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. Due ...

in 2022, in the state's 30th District, but suspended it four months later.

Early life

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading