Meet billionaire Guy Laliberté, Cirque du Soleil founder who travels to space and was arrested for growing cannabis on his very own island

Guy Laliberté isn’t a typical circus performer. With a mind for both business and performance, Laliberté grew his Montreal-based circus troupe into a multibillion-dollar entertainment empire, starting with a US$1 million arts grant, according to Forbes.

Since selling a majority stake in Cirque du Soleil in 2015, Laliberté has spent part of his US$1.2 billion fortune on a US$35 million trip to space, a sprawling network of real estate (including a private island in French Polynesia) and propping up his new entertainment venture that puts on hi-tech shows inside giant pyramids. A representative for Laliberté did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on Laliberté’s background, net worth, involvement in Cirque du Soleil or Lune Rouge or 2019 arrest.

Here’s everything we know about Laliberté’s rise and how he spends his time and money.

Laliberté, 60, began his career as a stilt walker, fire eater and accordion player

Laliberté became a street performer after he dropped out of college in 1978, The New York Times reported in 2011. He was able to diversify his performances after adding circus skills to his repertoire while hitchhiking through Europe, according to Forbes. “I grew up in this type of very balanced world of business and creativity,” Laliberté told Forbes in 2019. “My mom was very, very creative, eccentric. And my father was a PR guy, a wheeler-dealer.”

Laliberté eventually joined a circus group that put on large scale street performances