Jay Shetty hosted the second annual Variety Faith & Spirituality in Entertainment Honors — presented by the Coalition for Faith & Media — an event for which he was an honoree last year.

“When Variety asked me to host this year, I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. Last year at this event I got an award; this year I’m hosting. In any other industry, that’s a demotion. In Hollywood, it’s called momentum,” he said with a smile.

“This is the better side of it to be on,” he added. “I feel so grateful and excited to honor all the amazing honorees tonight and to acknowledge their work, celebrate it, remind people that this work matters, and hopefully empower lots of new creators to do the same.”

Inspiring and empowering are two of Shetty’s superpowers. Earlier this year, he kicked off his inaugural live podcast “On Purpose Live Tour” across North America, discussing a broad range of topics, ranging from mental health to relationship advice.

It’s not really so much about religion as it is about all the different ways that faith and spirituality come into storytelling.

“That’s the best part about it,” he said. “It feels like it’s all about the message. It’s all about the mission. And I think the truth is, we’ve told stories since the beginning of time in order to pass down wisdom. So why should we stop now? That’s how we learned for hundreds and 1000s of years, and so we’re just using the most modern microphone and the most modern screen in order to tell it. Instead of having drawings on the wall, we can make movies and film. And if those can help future generations to live better, brighter lives, then that’s the right investment.

“In a world where we’re promised all these false Gods, there’s a deep need for storytellers who explore faith, spirituality, and the universal search for purpose. And yet, these narratives remain profoundly underrepresented in film and television. Think about it,” he said. “We have 10 shows about murderers, five about dragons, three about wealthy families destroying each other, and 17 about people selling houses in Los Angeles — but stories that explore inner life? Identity? Belonging? Healing? Almost none. … It takes visionary executives to make room for stories.”

Jay Shetty at the Variety 2025 Faith & Spirituality Honors held at Four Seasons Beverly Hills on December 04, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Alberto Rodriguez/Variety via Getty Images) Variety via Getty Images

Shetty believes that is why events like Faith & Spirituality matter. “When we recognize and elevate the individuals who are courageous enough to bring these themes to the forefront, we help shift the culture toward greater authenticity, diversity and depth. The visionaries we honor this evening are expanding what spiritual storytelling looks like — offering depictions that are rich, diverse and true to the complexities of real life. They’ve showed us messy faith, complicated faith, losing faith and finding it again at unexpected moments.”

He has found that the most exciting thing for him has been having conversations that people haven’t seen iconic people have.

“This year, we had Madonna on the podcast talk about her 28 year journey of studying Kabbalah. We had Orlando Bloom talk about how Buddhism helped him deal with the fame that inevitably came. And we had Cardi B talk about being best friends with God and talking to God every day. And so to me, being able to see that side of some of these people that we all know and love, we all follow, that’s what I’m excited to bring more next year, is trying to find these parts of people that we don’t people that we don’t see and bring them into the forefront and the mainstream.”