Highlights
- Ricky Gervais is the 21st richest comedian despite having a fortune of $160 million.
- There are questionable inclusions on the list of the richest comedians, such as Matt Groening.
- Gervais has earned a significant portion of his fortune through syndication and licensing deals for The Office.
In the world, there are a lot of people who know Ricky Gervais mostly as the co-creator of The Office. While Gervais certainly should be proud of The Office, there is a lot more to his career than that beloved sitcom.
A comedian who doesn’t pull punches, Gervais isn’t afraid to call out a talk show host like Jimmy Fallon or debate religion with Stephen Colbert. However, Gervais seems to love making money as a standup comedian the most. Thanks to his fame and success as a comedian, Gervais has become very wealthy, but how does his fortune stack up among his peers?
From the moment that Ricky Gervais rose to fame, the comedian, actor, and creator has been outspoken. One example of that is the fact that Gervais once went on a rant against “multi-millionaire” “celebs” who judge healthcare workers who struggle to get by.
To Gervais’ credit, it turns out that he was speaking out against his own during that rant. After all, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Gervais has a $160 million fortune as of January 2024.
In 2009, Ricky Gervais was interviewed by Lesley Stahl for a segment that aired on 60 Minutes. During the resulting conversation, Gervais stated that he was “not proud of being rich”.
Given how wealthy Gervais reportedly is, he would be the richest person by far if he walked into most rooms in the world. However, while Gervais is wealthy, to say the least, that doesn’t necessarily mean he is one of the richest comedians in the world.
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On the website Celebrity Net Worth, there are pages dedicated to the majority of the most famous people in the world. On top of that, the website also includes some pages that rank celebrities from various categories by their fortunes.
On one Celebrity Net Worth page, the people behind the website rank the “Top 50 Richest Comedians”. As of the time of this writing, Gervais is included as a part of the list, but he is only ranked as the 21st richest comedian.
Given that Gervais is worth $160 million, the idea that Gervais could only be the 21st richest comedian may seem hard to believe. Well, if people look closer at who else is on the list, there definitely are some questionable inclusions who are ranked above Gervais.
Who are the ten richest comedians, according to Celebrity Net Worth?
|
Ranking: |
Celebrity: |
Net Worth: |
|---|---|---|
|
#10 |
Adam Sandler |
$440 million |
|
#9 |
Larry David |
$450 million |
|
#8 |
Kevin Hart |
$450 million |
|
#7 |
Jay Leno |
$450 million |
|
#6 |
Ellen DeGeneres |
$500 million |
|
#5 |
Trey Parker |
$600 million |
|
#4 |
Matt Groening |
$600 million |
|
#3 |
Matt Stone |
$700 million |
|
#2 |
Byron Allen |
$800 million |
|
#1 |
Jerry Seinfeld |
$925 million |
Right off the hop, the most obvious name on Celebrity Net Worth’s list that is going to jump out to most people first is Matt Groening. As the person who is most closely linked to The Simpsons, Groening’s work has made generations of fans laugh uproariously.
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While Groening definitely has a great sense of humor, calling him a comedian seems wrong since he doesn’t go up on stage in front of crowds. As a result, it is very easy to argue that Groening shouldn’t be included in Celebrity Net Worth’s list.
Just like Groening, there are other very questionable inclusions in Celebrity Net Worth’s list. Some examples of that include Byron Allen, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, David Letterman, Johnny Carson, Seth MacFarlane, Conan O’Brien, and Bill Murray.
Even if Celebrity Net Worth removed all of those names from their list, Gervais still wouldn’t be one of the ten richest comedians. Instead, Gervais would move up to the number thirteen slot. While that is impressive by any measure, it still can be argued that Gervais isn’t one of the richest comedians.
For anyone who considers Gervais to be the thirteenth richest comedian, it is fascinating to see which of his peers are wealthier. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres, Jay Leno, Kevin Hart, Larry David, Adam Sandler, Bill Cosby, Dan Aykroyd, Ray Ramano, Steve Harvey, and Drew Carey are all richer than Gervais.
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As a part of Celebrity Net Worth’s article about Ricky Gervais, they break down some of the ways he has made his fortune. One example of that is the fact that the website claims Gervais has made an incredible amount of money from his Netflix comedy specials.
“Ricky also continues to earn millions through his comedy tours and Netflix standup specials. Netflix has been known to pay Ricky $20 million for a single standup special from Ricky and his 2023 “Armageddon” special grossed over $30 million.”
Even though Gervais reportedly makes a fortune from standup comedy, that isn’t the most interesting part of his Celebrity Net Worth page. Instead, it could easily be argued that the most fascinating thing is learning how much Gervais makes from the American version of The Office.
Even though Gervais did barely any direct work on the American version of The Office, it was based on ideas he came up with. Given that Gervais and Stephen Merchant created the original version of The Office, they clearly deserve to cash in on every adaptation. Still, it is amazing to see how much Gervais reportedly has made from the American version.
“Gervais and his co-creator Stephen Merchant have earned tens of millions of dollars during the original run of The Office through various producer and creator credits. Ricky’s true windfall has come thanks to extremely lucrative syndication and licensing deals in more recent years. Ricky owns at least 10% of The Office’s syndication equity points. In other words, he earns 10% of all profits generated by the show. To date, Ricky Gervais has easily earned north of $100 million before taxes through syndication sales.”
Source: NewsFinale
