Kevin Hart calls on celebrity friends to join his Hurricane Harvey Relief Challenge

Comedian Kevin Hart has challenged celebrity pals including Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Justin Timberlake to join him in donating $25,000 to the Hurricane Harvey relief effort.

The hurricane made landfall in Texas late on Friday (25Aug17), causing serious damage to buildings and homes across cities such as Houston and Galveston, and leaving thousands of residents displaced as they battled serious flooding.

A number of stars like Lady Gaga have already made financial contributions to help emergency services and other aid organizations deal with the aftermath of the natural disaster, and on Sunday (27Aug17), Kevin decided to launch a social media challenge to encourage his peers to send cheques to benefit the Red Cross relief efforts.

"I've just been caught up to speed on everything that's going on in Houston with Hurricane Harvey, and this is unbelievable," the Ride Along actor said in a video post on Instagram.

"I think we've participated in a lot of challenges on the Internet. Some meaningful, some meaningless, but we've all done 'em...," Hart continued, as he unveiled plans for the Hurricane Harvey Relief Challenge. "At this point, I'm gonna start a real challenge. I'm challenging a lot of my celebrity friends to follow my lead in donating $25,000 to... the Red Cross. At this point it's a serious matter. People are in bad shape and they're gonna need help."

Kevin then reeled off a string of big names to help him make a difference, calling on Dwayne Johnson, Steve Harvey, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, JAY-Z, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, and Jerry Seinfeld.

The stars have yet to respond to the challenge, but on Sunday, Houston native Beyonce posted a photo of a Texas flag with the message: "Texas you are in my prayers".

Meanwhile, rapper Drake, who is currently in London, has also revealed he is working out ways to help in the recovery process.

"Myself and @futuretheprince (his DJ) are working with local relief groups to aid and assist the people of Texas in anyway (sic) we can and in the most immediate way possible," he posted on Instagram, before publicly thanking emergency services and aid volunteers for their "courageous efforts".

Drake added, "I encourage everyone to do what they can to assist the people of Texas knowing whatever effort you can make to help will go a long way."