How much is Seth Macfarlane worth?
| Net Worth: | $250 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Producer & Director |
| Date of Birth: | October 26, 1973 (age 49) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.79 m) |
About Seth Macfarlane
Seth Macfarlane’s voice may be more recognizable than his face, as the actor is known for voicing several iconic animated characters including Stewie and Peter Griffin in Family Guy, Stan Smith in American Dad, and the potty mouthed Ted in the record breaking film series of the same name. Not only does he lend his voice to those shows, but he has created and executive produces most of the projects he works on. On top of his flexible vocal chords, MacFarlene has successfully turned in roles in live action movies, and the writer’s comedy chops have opened doors for him that lead to hosting The 85th Academy Awards and guest hosting an episode of Saturday Night Live.
It didn’t take long for MacFarlane to find success, as Family Guy, which began as a student project under the name of The Life of Larry (and was despised by his teacher), was funded by 20th Century Fox after they saw the student film. Though it may have had a helping hand from being aired immediately after the thirty third Super Bowl, the very first episode of Family Guy was watched in over 22 million households.
Since then, Family guy is 350 episodes deep and is still airing new episodes on a yearly basis. The series has spawned a spin-off, The Cleveland Show, which MacFarlane also features in and executive produces.
It may come as a surprise, but with the amount of upcoming seasons that have been green lit, MacFarlane’s second animated outing for Fox, American Dad, has just as many seasons as Family Guy and over 200 episodes. In the interim between the inception of American Dad and now, MacFarlane has lent his voice to Johnny Bravo, Robot Chicken, and Will & Grace, in which he plays a pencil sharpener. But his biggest, most financially successful role was in the movie Ted, a movie in which he wrote, directed, and starred in.
He played the titular character who looks cute and harmless, but is foul mouthed, takes drugs, and starts fights. Starring alongside Mark Wahlberg, the movie was the biggest success of MacFarlane’s career.
Along with a successful voice acting career, MacFarlane has found a lot of success in hosting television specials. Starting out hosting Comedy Central Roasts, where David Hasselhoff, Charlie Sheen, and even the president himself, Donald Trump, was in the spotlight, he soon went on to host Saturday Night Live, and after that, The 85th Academy Awards.
As the Academy were influenced by Ricky Gervais’ hosting The Golden Globes and grilling all of those in attendance, they thought MacFarlene, also being from an envelope pushing unapologetic TV show, would stir up enough controversy for the younger generation to tune in and bring in the numbers, and he did. The ceremony was watched by over 40 million households and viewership was up over 3% from the previous year.
The bulk of MacFarlane’s wealth comes from his salary for Family Guy, as he has made tens of millions of dollars thanks to his deal with Fox. It is estimated that the writer earns an estimated $50,000-250,000 per episode of the show, he also executive produces the show and is also the creator and so will also earn additional salary and dividends. He also gets an addition estimated $2 million a year as a direct salary from the Fox network.
MacFarlane also receives a flat two million dollars a year from Fox, and considering his other shows are in heavy syndication, such as American Dad and The Cleveland Show, it’s likely that Fox hand over tens of millions to the producer ever year. There have been over 17 seasons of Family Guy, and two more have been green lit, so that money tree isn’t getting chopped down any time soon.
In 2012, MacFarlane went on to write, direct, produce, and star in Ted, a movie that had a budget of $65 million, but went on to make $549.4 million dollars in box office earnings. The sequel, Ted 2, had a similar budget of $68 and, though not as successful as its predecessor, earned $216.7 million worldwide. As MacFarlane was the executive producer on both movies, we speculate that he would have gotten a big slice of the box office profit.
Not only has MacFarlane made a ton of money from the movies’ box office success, but Ted has since become so iconic and embedded in pop culture, that the bear is being sold in toy shops hand over fist.
Family Guy has become successful for its similar format to The Simpsons while adding its twist of somewhat risky, adult comedy. This kind of adult animated comedy style has gone on to influence dozens of shows that have become popular today, such as Rick & Morty, and has even come full circle by influencing The Simpsons itself, as the show has been known to borrow Family Guy’s formula.
Despite there being a notorious feud between creators of Family Guy and The Simpsons, they have seemingly squashed their beef as MacFarlane has guest featured in both The Simpsons and Futurama, the sci-fi series developed by The Simpsons creator, Matt Groening.
MacFarlane has a unique writing style that has been relentlessly copied on TV. Family Guy is unique among animated comedies not only due to its rebellious nature but because of it’s main use of comedy through cutaway gags, which begins with a character telling a story, then cutting to the action of the story. The cutaway often appears to be completely random that is unrelated to the plot of the episode, such as Hitler riding a unicycle and juggling fish. This kind of gag has become the main appeal of the show and though it has been imitated in many other comedies, few do it as successfully as Family Guy.
Summing-Up
Having a penchant for turning cute and adorable characters like babies and teddy bears in to horrific villainous characters, Seth MacFarlane has transformed his unique comedic writing in to a cash cow. The actor now reportedly has an estimated net worth of $250 million.
With new seasons of American Dad and Family Guy on the way, Fox will soon be writing another massive check in MacFarlane’s name. In the live action realm, it’s likely that MacFarlane will return to his passion project, the sci-fi satire The Orville, for a third season.
