Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler has revealed that contact details belonging to Hollywood figures including Angelina Jolie and Robert De Niro were left publicly exposed online, in what he describes as the largest celebrity data leak he has ever encountered.
Angelina Jolie is among a number of Hollywood stars whose personal contact details were left exposed online in what a cybersecurity expert has called a “huge data breach.” Researcher Jeremiah Fowler said phone numbers and private email addresses had been made publicly accessible, discovered among 666,369 records connected to New York’s Tribeca Film Festival, the annual event founded in 2002 by Robert De Niro. Fowler said he personally viewed exposed details belonging to both Jolie and De Niro, describing the leak as the biggest of its kind he has come across.
Other stars affected
Alongside Jolie and De Niro, Fowler said the exposed records also included contact details for British filmmaker Danny Boyle, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Douglas, Rami Malek and Sharon Stone, as well as directors George Lucas and Martin Scorsese.
A source familiar with the incident said the majority of the exposed contact details actually belonged to agents, managers and other industry professionals, rather than the celebrities themselves.
How the breach occurred
Fowler discovered three exposed databases linked to the Tribeca Film Festival, which he believes resulted from human error. Most of the affected records, spanning 2019 to 2026, consisted of marketing materials such as press releases stored on a cloud system. However, one of the databases contained a back-up file with a folder labelled “contacts,” which held personal information.
According to Fowler, no password was required to access the databases, meaning anyone with an internet connection could potentially have viewed the exposed information before it was secured. He also found that the databases included device information linked to some contacts, such as iPhone models, operating system versions and web browser details, information he warned could be used by cybercriminals to craft highly targeted phishing attacks. Fowler noted that many of the leaked email addresses used personal services such as Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail, rather than professional company domains, raising further concerns that private contact information may have been exposed.
Fowler said he found no evidence that hackers or ransomware groups had accessed or exploited the exposed database, though he stressed this possibility could not be entirely ruled out.
Response from Tribeca
Fowler said he contacted festival organisers after discovering the breach just days before this year’s film festival began last month. Tribeca Enterprises acknowledged his report and confirmed it was actively investigating the matter, and the exposed database was subsequently removed from public access. Tribeca Film Festival has been contacted for a further statement.
A pattern of high-profile discoveries
This is not the first major celebrity data exposure uncovered by Fowler this year. Earlier in 2026, he identified what appeared to be stalkerware being used to track a celebrity victim, discovering a database containing 86,859 images believed to be screenshots taken from a targeted individual’s device. That database, which Fowler found to be publicly accessible and without password protection, appeared to belong to someone targeting a specific celebrity, described as a notable European entrepreneur and media personality. The screenshots reportedly captured communications with business associates, models, influencers and other celebrities, along with intimate conversations and private photos.
Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, Fowler, a researcher with US-based firm Black Hills Information Security, described his latest discovery as “by far the biggest collection of celebrity data I’ve ever seen.” He added: “There were many, many household names in the records who could have been targeted with malware. There were names, phone numbers and email addresses.”
