What is Paul Reiser's Net Worth and Salary?
Paul Reiser is an American actor, comedian, writer, and musician who has a net worth of $75 million. Paul Reiser earned his net worth from film, television sitcoms, stand-up comedy, and books. He is also a savvy real estate investor. One of his most famous real estate deals involves a house in Beverly Park – a gated community in Beverly Hills. As we detail later in this article, Paul bought the house in 1998 for $6 million and sold it in 2021 to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for $28.7 million.
He got his start in stand-up comedy, then made his big screen debut in the 1982's "Diner." Paul has appeared in more than 30 films, including "Beverly Hills Cop"(1984), "Aliens" (1986), "Bye Bye Love" (1995), and "The Spy Who Dumped Me" (2018). He played Michael Taylor on "My Two Dads" from 1987 to 1990 and Paul Buchman on "Mad About You" from 1992 to 1999. In 2019, Paul reprised his Emmy-nominated role in a revival of "Mad About You" for Spectrum Originals, and in recent years, he has also appeared on the popular Netflix series "Stranger Things" (2017–present) and "The Kominsky Method" (2019). As we detail in a moment, in the last season of "Mad About You" Paul earned $1 million per episode of the series.
Mad About You Salary
In the last season of "Mad About You" Paul Reiser and co-star Helen Hunt each earned $1 million per episode. After adjusting for inflation, that was the same as earning $1.8 million today. They both earned around $22 million for the season, which is the same as around $34 million in today's dollars after adjusting for inflation. That per-episode pay made them both the highest paid television actors in the world at that point.
Early Life
Paul Reiser was born on March 30, 1956, in New York City, New York. His mother, Helen, was a homemaker, and his father, Sam, was a wholesale health food distributor. Paul has three sisters and studied at the East Side Hebrew Institute and Stuyvesant High School. He then enrolled at Binghamton University, majoring in music and appearing in theatrical productions at the Hinman Little Theater. During summer breaks, Reiser performed stand-up comedy at New York City clubs.
Career
In 1982, Paul appeared in the comedy film "Diner" and guest-starred on the NBC crime drama "Remington Steele." "Diner" kicked off a successful movie career, and Reiser soon followed it with 1984's "Beverly Hills Cop," 1986's "Aliens," and 1987's "Beverly Hills Cop II." Both "Beverly Hills Cop" films grossed $300 million or more at the box office, and "Aliens" brought in between $131.3 and 183.3 million. In the 1980s, Reiser also appeared in the films "Odd Jobs" (1986) and "Cross My Heart" (1987) as well as a 1987 episode of "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color." In 1987, he began co-starring with Greg Evigan and Staci Keanan on NBC's "My Two Dads." The sitcom aired 60 episodes over three seasons and won a People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy Program in 1988.
Paul then appeared in the films "Crazy People" (1990) and "The Marrying Man" (1991) before co-creating and starring in the NBC sitcom "Mad About You." The critically-acclaimed show aired 164 episodes during its seven-season run and earned more than 40 awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy (1995). While starring on "Mad About You," Reiser appeared in several films, such as 1995's "Bye Bye Love" and 1999's "The Story of Us." In 1995, he hosted both the 37th Annual Grammy Awards and "Saturday Night Live." In 2001, Paul starred in the TV movie "My Beautiful Son" and the feature films "One Night at McCool's" and "Purpose," then he guest-starred as himself on a 2002 episode of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Reiser then appeared in the 2005 documentary "The Aristocrats" and 2009's "Funny People," which was directed by Judd Apatow and starred Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen as well as a slew of stand-up comics playing themselves.
In 2011, he began starring on NBC's "The Paul Reiser Show," a semi-autobiographical sitcom, but it was canceled after airing just two episodes. Paul has had recurring or regular roles on numerous TV series since, including "Married" (2014–2015) and "Red Oaks" (2014–2017), and he has played Dr. Sam Owens on the sci-fi series "Stranger Things" since 2017. He also appeared in the 2013 HBO movie "Behind the Candelabra" (2013), the 2014 award-winning drama "Whiplash," the 2014 zombie comedy "Life After Beth," and the 2018 comedy/spy thriller "The Spy Who Dumped Me." In 2020, he appeared in the Netflix movie "Horse Girl," and his film "Fatherhood" was set to be released in April but was delayed until 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
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Books
Reiser has written three books about family and being a father – "Couplehood" (1994), "Babyhood" (1997), and "Familyhood" (2011) – and he released the Kindle Single "How To Get To Carnegie Hall" in 2014. He co-wrote the "Mad About You" theme song with Don Was, and in 2010, he released the album "Unusual Suspects" with Julia Fordham. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Paul #77 on their "100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time" list.
Personal Life
Paul wed Paula Ravets on August 21, 1988, and they welcomed sons Ezra and Leon in 1995 and 2000, respectively. Reiser is the cousin of legal scholar Richard Epstein and screenwriter/producer Will Reiser, who wrote the 2011 Seth Rogen-Joseph Gordon-Levitt film "50/50."
Awards and Nominations
"Mad About You" earned Reiser 10 Emmy nominations (six for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and four for Outstanding Comedy Series) as well as four nominations from the Golden Globes, six from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and six from the Viewers for Quality Television Awards (winning Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series in 1994). He also received nominations from the American Comedy Awards, Online Film & Television Association, and Satellite Awards, and he won BMI TV Music Awards (shared with David Kitay) in 1995, 1997, and 1998. In 2018, the cast of "Stranger Things" earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, and two years later, "The Kominsky Method" cast was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Real Estate
Since 1998, Paul's primary residence has been a 14,500 square-foot mansion on 3.6 acres in an exclusive Beverly Hills gated community called Beverly Park. His mansion was built in 1993 by musician Alex Van Halen. Alex sold to Paul for $6 million. Nearby neighbors include Sylvester Stallone, Eddie Murphy and Justin Bieber.
In April 2021 it was revealed that Reiser had sold his Beverly Park home to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for $28.7 million.
In 2007, Reiser purchased a 1,174 square foot condo in Beverly Hills, California, for $755,000.
