Jalen Brunson and Keke Palmer Lead Ebony’s 2026 Power 100 Honorees

Keke Palmer and Jalen Brunson are helping set the pace for Ebony’s 2026 Power 100. The multihyphenate entertainer and New York Knicks captain headline a stacked class that also includes Jay-Z, Megan Thee Stallion, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Naomi Osaka, Common, and several of Brunson’s Knicks teammates.

According to Variety, Palmer landed in the Entertainment Powerhouses category alongside Prince-Bythewood, Questlove, Warner Bros. Television Group chairman Channing Dungey, and NBCUniversal executive Pearlena Igbokwe. Brunson was named a Leader in Sports with Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, and Mikal Bridges, recognizing the Knicks core that helped bring championship basketball back to New York.

The honor caps another major year for Palmer, whose résumé keeps expanding in every direction. She will take over for Carson Daly as host of NBC’s The Voice: Celebrity, where she will work alongside coaches Queen Latifah, Joe Jonas, and Riley Green when the spinoff premieres in 2027.

She has also been selected for the Hollywood Walk of Fame’s 2027 class and recently fronted Panera’s playful “Refreshingly Loyal” campaign.

Palmer’s staying power has been a recurring topic in her recent interviews. On Raven-Symoné and Miranda Pearman-Maday’s Tea Time podcast, she reflected on the entertainers who made room for the generation behind them—including Raven, whose Disney Channel success helped change what was possible for young Black actors on television.

“Remember those that came before you,” Palmer said. “People get so caught up in this clout thing. It doesn’t mean anything.”

She added that lasting influence is not always measured by visibility. “Impact does not always include people looking at you,” Palmer said.

That perspective fits squarely with this year’s Power 100 theme, “The Stories We Shape.” Ebony said the 2026 class recognizes figures taking ownership of their narratives while expanding representation, driving business, and moving culture across entertainment, sports, media, activism, science, and technology.

“For generations, Ebony has been where Black excellence is named, documented, and celebrated, and the Power 100 carries that responsibility forward,” Ebony CEO Eden Bridgeman said. “This year’s honorees are shaping culture in real time, from the stage and the screen to the boardroom, the lab and the neighborhoods they serve.”

Brunson’s place on the list comes after his emergence as the face of the Knicks’ resurgence. Rather than recognizing him alone, Ebony honored the group effort by including Hart, Towns, Anunoby, and Bridges alongside him.

The Knicks share the sports category with Osaka, WNBA Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike, broadcaster and former WNBA champion Renee Montgomery, and Olympic bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor.

The rest of the class is just as loaded. Jay-Z, Megan Thee Stallion, T.I., Gamma co-founder Larry Jackson, and HarbourView Equity Partners founder Sherrese Clarke were named Music Innovators.

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz appear among the Artists in Residence, while Victor Wembanyama leads the Generation Next selections. Common and Vic Mensa were honored as Community Crusaders.

The 2026 class will be celebrated Nov. 9 at Ebony’s invite-only Power 100 Gala at the Hollywood Palladium. Jesse Collins Entertainment, the company behind the BET Awards and the Super Bowl Halftime Show, will produce the ceremony.

“This is more than a night of recognition,” Bridgeman said. “It is the annual convening of the people shaping the story of what’s next.”