What is Aaron McGruder's Net Worth?
Aaron McGruder is an American writer, cartoonist, and producer who has a net worth of $5 million. Aaron McGruder is best known for creating the daily syndicated comic strip The Boondocks, which was published from 1996 to 2006 on the music website Hitlist.com and in the American monthly hip-hop and entertainment magazine The Source. Satirizing politics and African-American culture, the strip began distribution by the Universal Press Syndicate in 1999 and, before long, was appearing in approximately 200 newspapers.
Early Years
Aaron Vincent McGruder was born on May 29, 1974, in Chicago, Illinois, to Bill and Elaine McGruder. At the age of six, he and his older brother Dedric moved with their parents to Columbia, Maryland, when his father became employed by the National Transportation Safety Board. McGruder attended Loyola Blakefield – a private Catholic preparatory school in Towson, Maryland. He later transferred to Oakland Mills High School – a public school in Columbia. Upon graduation, he enrolled at the University of Maryland in College Park, where he earned a degree in African American studies.
McGruder was working as a deejay on the University of Maryland's student-run radio station WMUC-FM in 1996 when a comic strip he had created – The Boondocks – debuted on the music website Hitlist.com, where it continued to run until 2006. Ten months later, it appeared in the college's independent student newspaper, The Diamondback. The monthly hip-hop magazine The Source ran the strip in 1997, and during the spring of 1999, it was picked up by the Universal Press Syndicate.
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The Boondocks
The Boondocks focuses on African American brothers Huey and Riley Freeman and satirizes American politics and African American culture. As natives of Chicago's West Side, the two boys are sent to live with their grandfather in the fictional predominantly white suburb of Woodcrest. While Huey is devoted to the idea of black radicalism, Riley is immersed in the gangsta rap culture. Their grandfather is opposed to both their lifestyles. Highly political and controversial, the strip was eventually moved to the opinion section of some newspapers and entirely canceled by others. Some of the more disturbing strips were pulled out of circulation, including one in which American singer Whitney Houston is mocked for her drug addiction. Another strip, in which the brothers create a dating site ad for United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, resulted in the strip being suspended from publication in the American daily newspaper The Washington Post.
In 2003, McGruder hired artist Jennifer Seng to produce the art for the strip while he continued to do the writing. The following year, illustrator Carl Jones took over artistic duties.
Television
On November 6, 2005, The Boondocks appeared on the Cartoon Network's late-night programming Adult Swim as an adult animated sitcom. The series contained 55 episodes and ran until June 23, 2014.
In 2008, Aaron McGruder developed The Super Rumble Mix Show, featuring sketch comedies and racially charged humor. He next developed the American live-action sitcom "Black Jesus," which premiered on Adult Swim on August 7, 2014, and ended its run in 2019. The show featured an African American Jesus Christ residing in modern-day California. As the show portrayed the main character imbibing drugs and alcohol, as well as using profanity, some unsuccessfully petitioned the network to remove the show from the air.
(Photo by L. Cohen/WireImage for Temp Account)
Public Speaking
At a 2002 Hackers on Planet Earth conference, Aaron McGruder announced that he believed President George W. Bush had been involved, either directly or indirectly, in the attacks of September 11. The following year, during a reception hosted by the American monthly magazine The Nation, McGruder announced his support for presidential hopeful Ralph Nader, thereby causing some attendees to boo him and others to leave the event.
McGruder claimed that while face-to-face with politician Condoleezza Rice during the 2002 NAACP Image Awards, he called her a mass murderer. Years later, he was reported in the American daily newspaper Palladium-Item to have described Barack Obama as "not black" during a Martin Luther King celebration held at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana – later arguing that he was misquoted.
Writing
In 2004, McGruder co-authored the graphic novel "Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel."
In 2010, served as a screenwriter on the final treatment of the American war film "Red Tails" – based on the Tuskegee Airmen combat pilots during World War II.
McGruder's Boondocks books include "The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read the Newspaper" from 2000, "Fresh For '01… You Suckas!" from 2001, "A Right To Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury" from 2003, "Public Enemy #2: An All-New Boondocks Collection" from 2005 and "All The Rage: Boondocks Past and Present" from 2007.
Awards
The Boondocks television series garnered a 2000 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series as well as a 2006 Peabody Award.
Personal Life
Aaron McGruder resides in Los Angeles, California, and keeps information concerning his personal life closely guarded.
