Kevin Hart and Bryan Smiley want to make people laugh. The comedian and his producing partner at HartBeat Productions are in the middle of producing a varied slate of projects for Netflix spanning every genre — but at the heart, there are laughs.

Hilarious Comedy Movies to Stream NowReady for a good laugh?

“Comedy is the foundation of everything we do,” HartBeat President and CCO Smiley tells Tudum. “I think today more than ever — especially coming out of this ‘post-pandemic’ phase, although, obviously, COVID is still real — it’s figuring out how to make people laugh, because it’s been such a heavy few years. For us, it’s: ‘What stories do we personally respond to? What ideas do we just think are funny, and how do we build that into either a television show or a movie?’ ”

Smiley was a feature film executive at Columbia Pictures before Hart recruited him to head up HartBeat, winning the experienced development exec over with his pitch for best-in-class movies and TV shows that touch on universal themes like parenthood and family, all through a comedic lens. And they don’t want to stop at television: “I think also what really struck a chord with me was his vision for doing something even beyond that — really building a media empire that is a brand that can and will survive whether he’s in front of the camera or not.”

So far, HartBeat’s projects for Netflix have included Fatherhood, a drama starring Hart as a widowed new dad coping with doubts, fears and heartache as he sets out to raise his daughter on his own; and True Story, a thriller series starring Hart as a famous comedian who returns to his hometown for a triumphant show and ends up embroiled in his older brother’s drama involving loan sharks and multiple dead bodies.

Saeed Adyani/Netflix

Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg in Me Time.

Buddy comedy Me Time, which came out Aug. 26, saw Hart team up with Mark Wahlberg to play a pair of mismatched old friends — one a devoted stay-at-home dad (Hart), the other a hard-partying bachelor (Wahlberg). It made perfect sense for HartBeat because it combined real, heartfelt themes with the laughs for which Hart is known.

“It’s universal,” says Smiley. Me Time asks, “How does a person find their happiness? You can be happy, but what’s that thing you’re maybe missing personally, even outside of your family? What are you longing for? What do you think maybe you missed in life? The point I’m trying to make is, they’re very relatable themes I think a lot of adults experience.”

And then there’s upcoming international heist thriller Lift, which wrapped in June and filmed across the globe. Hart stars alongside Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D’Onofrio, Úrsula Corberó and Billy Magnussen in the action movie about an international heist crew recruited to prevent a terrorist attack mid-flight. In addition to working outside of his usual genre, Hart was a hands-on producer.

“The man has been on so many sets,” says Smiley, “and I think what comes with that is a deep understanding of what it means to make a movie. The hurdles you face and the idea that no matter what the obstacle is, you’ve got to find a way out, you’ve got to pivot to a solution. So, as a producer, he has great creative instinct, but he also is a fantastic problem solver. When you’re making a movie like Lift, which is a big global film, a lot of problems arise. Unlike a lot of people, he doesn’t just hide in the trailer. He was very active in all the problem-solving and, when needed, even took charge.”

Saeed Adyani/Netflix

Ilia Isorelýs Paulino and Kevin Hart in Me Time.

Another of Hart’s strong suits: spotting and showcasing up-and-coming talent, like Me Time’s Ilia Isorelýs Paulino. Smiley says Hart constantly calls to set up meetings with stars-on-the-rise he’s recognized in other projects. “He is a great identifier of burgeoning talent because obviously he’d been there for many, many years,” says Smiley.

And, although plenty of comedians can be very serious in their day-to-day life, Hart is “always funny,” even in finance meetings. “He loves to test material on people. I think he loves to know what jokes are landing. He’s always a workshop in progress.”

But with HartBeat, Smiley and Hart are able to bring a touch of laughter to life’s most serious moments. That’s why Smiley is extra excited about Lift.

“To me it represents this trajectory of where we’re going as a company. I do think it’s exciting and it shifts people’s perception of what’s possible,” he says. “Although we’re comedy in our DNA, we can do things that are also not super-hardcore comedy, but they have really fun moments that are big and splashy. We are one of the few companies today led by a Black woman, pretty much an all-Black executive team, and to be able to make movies on this scale is exceptionally exciting for us as a company, as a brand. We really hope to do more of these.”