Patrick Schwarzenegger: How He Balances A Rising Acting Career With Growing Business Ventures

After more than a decade in Hollywood, Patrick Schwarzenegger is finally having his moment. The 31-year-old actor, who you might have seen in The White Lotus, is stepping into his own spotlight. But acting is not the only thing on his mind. He is also making smart investments and growing a successful protein bar company. He has been really busy lately, even traveling to 15 countries to promote his HBO series. This guy really seems to be everywhere at once.

He was just dealing with jet lag and hunger on set when he chose some Sugarfish sushi over other snacks. He told Forbes he always carries his Mosh protein bars with him, the brand he started in 2021. "Especially on filming days when you don’t know what the snacks are. I always bring my own," he said. This habit makes me think of his character Saxon Ratliff from The White Lotus, who is also very careful about what he eats and obsesses over protein shakes. The similarities do not stop there. Patrick also went to a top university with a business degree. He comes from a powerful family and knows a lot about money. But unlike Saxon, who just lived off his parents' wealth, Patrick is really making a name for himself both in business and on screen.

Being the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver meant he grew up around Hollywood and political royalty. His father was an actor who became a billionaire governor, and his mother is a well-known broadcast journalist from the Kennedy family. Patrick fell in love with acting early. He would often visit his dad's movie sets as a kid. This must have been a really exciting way to grow up. It is easy to see how he would want to follow in his father's footsteps, but also how much pressure that would bring.

Patrick Schwarzenegger's Early Business Moves And The Pressure Of His Family Name

From Investing In Pizza To Considering An Alias, His Path Was Never Simple

Patrick has talked about the pressure of his last name. He told Variety, "There were times where I was, like, ‘Oh, God, these are big shoes to fill. Should I change my last name and have a stage name?’ Those things crossed my mind." But he ultimately felt proud of his dad and the life and brand he built. It was his father's interest in business that Patrick picked up first. His mother remembers him as a preteen who loved watching Shark Tank. He even asked for money for his birthday to open an E-Trade account and buy Apple stock. This shows he had a mind for business from a very young age.

In 2008, when he was only 15, Patrick worked as an intern for film producer John Davis. Davis was a big investor in Wetzel’s Pretzels. He had just sold his part for around $36 million. This caught Patrick's eye. He learned that the founders, Elise and Rick Wetzel, were starting a new fast-casual pizza place. Patrick's parents loaned him about $50,000 to invest in Blaze Pizza. LeBron James was also one of the investors. Six years later, in 2014, Patrick opened the first of his two Blaze franchises in Los Angeles. This was a smart move, showing he was not just investing, but also actively involved.

He noticed that customers were looking for healthier options, like vegan toppings and healthier crusts. He thought, "I’m going to continue to invest in [other] companies that are doing this." In 2015, almost eight years after his first investment, Patrick sold his shares of Blaze for at least $2 million. He paid his parents back. Then he invested in other healthier brands. These included Liquid IV, a hydration powder, and two prebiotic sodas, Olipop and Poppi. Poppi even sold for $2 billion earlier this year. This shows he has a real knack for spotting trends in the health and wellness industry. He seems to be very good at picking winning companies.

Balancing Hollywood Ambition With Entrepreneurial Drive In Patrick's Career Path

From Acting Classes To Launching Mosh, He Is Charting His Own Course

As Patrick's investment portfolio grew, so did his acting roles. While he was at USC, he started taking acting classes. This was a weekly commitment he kept up for the next ten years. He got some small TV and movie roles early on, like in Grown Ups 2 and the TV series Scream Queens. But none of them felt like a big career moment. Then the pandemic hit in 2020. The film industry stopped. He moved in with his mother, and they started Mosh. This is a protein bar company that promotes brain health. Maria Shriver has been a long-time supporter of Alzheimer’s research because her late father had the disease. Mosh bars have ingredients like citicoline, lion’s mane mushrooms, and omega-3s, which some believe can help with thinking. This seems like a very personal project for them both.

Patrick sees his mother as the "visionary." He is the one who makes her dream a reality and plays the role of "devil’s advocate" on the business side. They have personally invested almost $1 million to grow Mosh so far. He said, "It wasn’t like some celebrity-backed brand where we raised money or hired an agency. We made the bars with a doctor and formulator; we did everything." He also mentioned that they started during Covid, when the supply chain was terrible. He felt everything that could go wrong did go wrong. But in another way, their timing was perfect. The protein bar industry grew a lot after 2020 as people were less limited by Covid rules. Mosh had $4 million in sales in its first full year, 2022. This shows that even with challenges, they found success.

His mother, Maria Shriver, praised his calm and knowledgeable approach to business. She wanted to put the bars in Target in the first year. But Patrick said, "No, we have to build; we have to get to know our consumer." In 2023, Mosh raised $3 million to help with retail expansion. It made $7 million in revenue. By 2024, Mosh was being sold in Erewhon and Sprouts, and it ended the year with $12 million in sales. It has not made a profit yet, but the growth is clear.

Patrick's Journey Through Hollywood And The Challenge Of Filming While Running A Business

From Early Roles To White Lotus, He Has Shown Dedication To His Craft

Patrick never fully gave up on acting. But there was a time when Mosh first started that he thought about leaving Hollywood "if acting didn’t take off." Then he got a role in an HBO Max miniseries with Colin Firth. Later, he played a main character in a spin-off of Amazon Prime’s The Boys in 2023. Then he landed The White Lotus. He went to Thailand to film Mike White’s popular series in early 2024. Doing both acting and business at the same time took a toll on him. He said, "It was near impossible to try to work on Mosh while filming in Thailand." He recalled nights when he had to wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. for meetings with Sprouts or Kroger on Zoom. This shows how much effort he puts into both his careers.

Patrick's father, Arnold, had a funny reaction to seeing his son in a nude scene in The White Lotus. Arnold said he "couldn’t believe" what he was seeing. He joked with Patrick, "I’m watching your show, and I’m watching your butt sticking out there. And all of a sudden, I see the weenie." Arnold then remembered he did the same in Conan and Terminator, so he could not complain. He told Patrick it was a shock to see him following his footsteps so closely. Arnold also gave high praise for Patrick’s acting. He said, "Your acting surprised the hell out of me. I didn’t recognize you. I was blown away." This kind of praise from his famous father must feel good, showing Patrick is truly succeeding on his own terms.

Patrick denies that he got his role in The White Lotus just because of his father. He told The Sunday Times, "I know there are people who’ll say I only got this role because of who my dad is." He pointed out that people do not see he had ten years of acting classes. They do not see the school plays he did every week. They do not see the hours he spent working on characters or the hundreds of auditions he was rejected from. This makes it clear that he works very hard for his roles. He is not just relying on his family name. He is truly putting in the effort. He is building his own career step by step.

What's Next For Patrick Schwarzenegger As He Continues To Forge His Own Path?

More Growth For Mosh And A Deeper Understanding Of The Show Business World

For now, Patrick does not plan to leave Mosh. He already reached his first small goal, which was to grow the business past $10 million in revenue. He said, "That was my goal, to be the one running the ship to get it there." He believes it is very different to build a business from zero to $10 million compared to $10 million to $100 million. He feels you need someone "in the streets every day, all day" to grow it to the next level. This year, Mosh aims to make more than $20 million in revenue. They are looking to raise more money this summer to speed up retail growth and become profitable. They want to expand into Costco and Walmart. These are big plans for the company.

Life is only getting busier for Patrick. But for him, busier is almost always better. He shared a story about a studio executive telling him he needed to stop the business side of things. This executive said it was too much to have "one foot in one area and one foot in another." But Patrick thinks there is a lot that is similar between film and business. He believes that as his own brand grows, his acting career will also grow. He sees an actor as a business and a brand. This way of thinking helps him connect his different interests. It sounds like he has a clear vision for his future, where he can use his talents in both Hollywood and the business world.