Melissa McCarthy is nothing if not a comedic genius and, of course, a wild commercial success.
The actress and comedian first graced our screens on the hit drama Gilmore Girls as the loveable and hilarious Suki St. James. It’s unclear how much she made in the regular supporting role, but according to The Things the titular characters Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham made $50,000 each per episode, so her cut was probably a touch lower than that.
Following her success in Gilmore Girls, McCarthy earned the starring spot on her very own sitcom. She graced our screens as Molly in Mike & Molly in 2010. While she was playing the sweet and likable Molly Flynn, she made her most famous film appearance in the hit comedy Bridesmaids. Her messy, obnoxious, and hilarious character was the first time America truly saw her comedic chops and it certainly paid off. McCarthy got herself an Oscar nomination and a spot on Forbes Highest Paid TV Actresses of 2012. Her total earnings? $6 million.
Following the success of Bridesmaids, McCarthy’s career kept moving on up. She earned multiple Emmy nominations, and one Emmy, for Mike & Molly before it ended in 2016. She made Forbes again in 2016, now earning a whopping $10 million for her TV role. Then another time in 2015 with earnings as high as $23 million from the success of her comedy movies Spy and Tammy.
Ghostbusters, Life of the Party, The Happytime Murders, and Can You Ever Forgive Me? earned Melissa a collective $63 million between 2016 and 2018, according to Forbes, maintaining her spot on the Highest paid actresses list.
Not only are her acting and comedic skills making her bank, McCarthy has also dabbled in many other projects throughout the years. She and her husband have a production company called On the Day Production, she has an all-inclusive clothing line called Seven7, and she seems to be spokesmodel extraordinaire for Booking.com.
She also has invested her money in real estate. According to Architectural Digest she owns a $7 million Manhattan penthouse in Little Italy. She also reportedly rents out her 2,000-square-foot home in Los Angeles for $10,000 a month. Not too shabby considering she bought it in 2009 for almost $800,000.
Melissa’s investments and a never-ending stream of projects have given her and her family a nice little nest egg to fall back on in case she’s ever out of work (like that would ever happen.) According to Celebrity Net Worth, that nest egg is currently sitting at $90 million. No wonder she keeps making Forbes.