Pittsburgher in Hollywood knows everyone and helps many.
You might have missed this on Nov. 13, given everything else going on then: Sports and entertainment connected in the Steel City that Friday night when Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward randomly dropped a video on Instagram of “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr., shouting him out and offering him a signed infinity gauntlet in exchange for a game-worn Heyward jersey.
In the caption for the post, Mr. Heyward thanked two people for facilitating his dream Marvel collaboration. One was Jimmy Rich, Mr. Downey’s right-hand man, and the other was Brad Lambert, a Pittsburgh native who now lives in Los Angeles and works as a producer and talent manager.
Mr. Lambert, 32, gets immense joy out of improving others’ lives through his many connections, especially with the Steelers and within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All he asks in return is that those folks maintain a relationship with him so he can continue to leverage his insane Rolodex into providing once-in-alifetime experiences, as he did for Mr. Heyward.
“I’m a guy who loves doing surprises for others,” Mr. Lambert said. “If there’s an opportunity to do something really special, I’m going to do it. I get so much out of it. That’s the beautiful thing about kindness — it’s contagious.”
Here are a few examples of what Mr. Lambert is capable of:
• Getting hip-hop dancer and choreographer Kida the Great, a huge Steelers fan, to his first game at Heinz Field.
• Giving a friend of his with cerebral palsy “the most insane surprise of her life” by getting her backstage to meet singer David Archuleta at a concert in Greensboro, N.C.
• Helping a three-time cancer survivor and Marvel fanatic get a Los Angeles internship with Mr. Downey’s production company, Team Downey, and taking him to the “Spider-Man: Far From Home” premiere.
• Setting up a meeting between then-Steelers running back Willie Parker and his idol, NBA legend Michael Jordan, in 2008 when Mr. Parker was at his lowest point after suffering a gruesome leg injury.
“He puts other people first,” Mr. Parker said of Mr. Lambert. “If he reaches out to you, he doesn’t have any ulterior motives. He brings you into his inner circle . ... He’s a genuinely great guy.”
Origin story
So, who the heck is Brad Lambert, where did he come from and how did he become so well-connected? Really, he’s just a kid from PineRichland who grew up a Pittsburgh sports fan and attended Pine-Richland Middle School before moving with his family to Charlotte, N.C., when he was in sixth grade.
From a young age, he always valued fostering relationships more than material gain. He would go to Steelers training camp, and instead of asking for autographs, he would charm players into giving their contact information. Mr. Parker was one of the first players who became intrigued enough by him to give him a chance at a friendship, which clearly paid dividends for him down the road.
“[H]e was just a kid who was overwhelmed,” Mr. Parker said of their first meeting more than a decade ago. “After that first encounter, we kept getting closer and closer.”
Working in the entertainment industry was always Mr. Lambert’s passion, and he got his break and a chance to move to Los Angeles when he was hired by Team Downey, where he spent a year and got a “shotgun introduction to Hollywood” and how to became a player there. After leaving Team Downey, he worked on marketing campaigns with Warner Bros. and led three Clio award-winning campaigns (given out for excellence in advertising) for the company’s promotional efforts on “Kong: Skull Island,” “The Lego Batman Movie” and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”
These days, Mr. Lambert considers himself an entrepreneur and has continued working on campaigns for multiple studios, including ones for “Endgame” and “Far From Home” with Disney, “Bad Boys for Life” with Sony and “Dolittle” (which starred Mr. Downey) with Universal. He also served as a co-executive producer on the 2017 horror film “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” written by “Friday the 13th” scribe Victor Miller.
He has continued to make connections wherever he goes, including with Hollywood’s large community of relocated Pittsburghers.
“That’s what I love about the city,” Mr. Lambert said. “It’s a family. Wherever you live, if you say you’re from Pittsburgh or a Steelers fan, it’s an easy bond. That’s what makes Pittsburgh so unique and powerful.”
‘I’ve never met anyone like him’
Mr. Lambert’s success doesn’t come as a shock to anyone who’s watched him operate.
“The crazy thing is that he’s still climbing,” said Korey McDonald, 31, who grew up with him in North Carolina. “He’s not even a superstar yet. That’s the fun part about it.”
Mr. McDonald, who does his own marketing work in Charlotte, knows that Mr. Lambert can come off as a hustler and understands why some folks may be skeptical of his intentions. But he assures anyone who thinks his friend is too good to be true that his general mode of operation “is not a facade” and “comes from a very authentic place.”
He does leave a trail of happiness in his wake. Chad Trimpey, 32, of Pittsburgh, is a former ball boy for the Steelers who met Mr. Lambert a decade ago when Mr. Lambert was just hanging out around the Steelers facility due to his friendship with Mr. Parker. He credits Mr. Lambert with helping him through a particularly rough patch.
“Meeting Brad changed my life,” Mr. Trimpey said.
“At that time, I didn’t feel like getting up some days. Brad was that spark-plug to really encourage me and influence me. That’s the type of person he is.”
Mr. Trimpey thinks Mr. Lambert is like a “sorcerer” in the way he can just, say, call former Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell just to see if he needs anything, something he witnessed personally. But he also knows Mr. Lambert to be “selfless” and someone who “puts others before himself at all costs.”
There are few examples of people Mr. Lambert has done more for than 23-yearold Mateo Coka, the acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivor who got his internship with Team Downey and the opportunity to meet Marvel studio president Kevin Feige at the “Spider-Man: Far From Home” premiere because of Mr. Lambert’s efforts.
“He’s all about kindness and opportunity,” Mr. Coka said. “Before, I just thought of myself as a kid in the hospital . ... I wanted to grow into a true professional. He gave me that chance. I’ve never met anyone like him before.”
And there’s Mr. Parker, a Clinton, N.C., native who was in a dark mental space after breaking his leg during a Steelers-Rams game in 2007, costing him that season’s rushing title. Mr. Lambert was able to provide him with something even an NFL star couldn’t obtain by himself: an audience with Mr. Jordan, his childhood hero, during a 2008 Charlotte Bobcats (now the Hornets) game.
“When I met Michael Jordan, it was a dream come true ... picking his brain to motivate this guy about what makes a great athlete,” Mr. Parker said. “It was like, ‘Brad did it again!’”
Providing value
This dedication to helping others came from Mr. Lambert’s mom, who instilled in him the ethos that if you can do something nice for someone else, do it, period. That’s why making and nurturing connections is so important to him, because those relationships allow him to continue helping others.
“It’s very important to build genuine relationships with other people,” he said. “... When I connect with someone, it’s not for a specific amount of time. My goal is to have long-term relationships with them.”
Earlier this year, Mr. Lambert broke out the big guns to help promote the Fanatics’ All in Challenge, a charitable initiative benefiting organizations such as Meals on Wheels, World Central Kitchen and Feeding America. He brought on the Steelers and Marvel stars including Tom Holland and Chris Hemsworth to raffle off post-pandemic experiences such as Heinz Field tours and tickets to the “Thor: Love and Thunder” premiere in 2022. The challenge raised more than $59 million.
Mr. Lambert is currently shopping a television show about “helping those in need and bringing happiness to those who need it the most” to various networks and streaming services. He’s also still producing movies and would love to play a part in bringing more film and television projects to Pittsburgh.
“I want to be a huge piece in that puzzle to blow up that market in a good way,” he said. “I want to come back home and be active in the community, bringing jobs back to Pittsburgh and make it more of an entertainment hub.”
His general goal as he continues to further his career is just to “provide value” anywhere he’s needed, whether that takes the form of progressing his own professional ambitions, helping an NFL star in need or giving someone less fortunate a night to remember.
“If you can provide value, identify ways that you can make people’s lives and businesses better, you’ll get opportunities,” he said. “And if you can do that consistently, your phone will always ring.”