What Is Michael Che's Net Worth and Salary?
Michael Che is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer who has a net worth of $10 million. Michael Che is best known for being a cast member and co-head writer on the NBC sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live," which he joined in 2013, and he has co-anchored "Weekend Update" with Colin Jost since 2014.
Michael has starred in the Netflix comedy specials "Michael Che Matters" (2016) and "Michael Che: Shame the Devil" (2021) and he created the HBO Max sketch comedy series "That Damn Michael Che," which began airing in 2021. He has executive produced "That Damn Michael Che" and "Michael Che Matters," and he has written for the TV series "Above Average Presents" (2012) and "Detroiters" (2017) as well as the The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards, which he co-hosted with Jost in 2018. Che has also appeared in the films "Chinese Puzzle" (2013), "Lyle" (2014), and "Top Five" (2014).
"Saturday Night Live" Salary
As a main cast member and writer who has been with the show since 2014, Michael earns $25,000 per episode of SNL. Assuming he makes at least one appearance on all 21 episodes per year, Colin would make around $525,000 per season of SNL.
Early Life
Michael Che was born Michael Che Campbell on May 19, 1983, in Manhattan, New York City. The youngest child of Nathaniel and Rose Campbell, Michael was named after Che Guevara. Michael and his six siblings grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side and lived in public housing. In a 2019 interview with "The New York Times," Che stated, "You go without heat. You go without food. You go without doorknobs. You go without everything." Michael attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, then he spent two years as a customer service representative for a Toyota dealership. Che also designed t-shirts featuring acrylic portraits of celebrities and sold them in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. His designs caught the attention of Tommy Hilfiger, who offered Michael freelance work designing logos. Che never turned in any designs and has said that he blew the opportunity "just from being scared." He soon became depressed and stopped painting, then he decided to try comedy because he had loved it since he "was in diapers."
Career
In 2009, Michael began performing stand-up comedy at the age of 26. He started out at open mic nights at NYC comedy clubs, then he began performing at the Comedy Cellar and Caroline's. In 2012, he won a New York's Funniest Stand-Up competition and made his late-night talk show debut on the "Late Show with David Letterman." In 2013, he was named one of "The 50 Funniest People" by "Rolling Stone" magazine and one of "10 Comics to Watch" by "Variety." That year he also was hired to write for "Saturday Night Live," and in 2014, he was briefly a correspondent for Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." Che also appeared in the Chris Rock film "Top Five" that year, and in September 2014, he replaced Cecily Strong on the "Weekend Update" desk, becoming the first African-American co-anchor in "SNL" history. In late 2017, Michael became a co-head writer on the show, along with Colin Jost. One of Che and Jost's most popular "Weekend Update" segments involves the duo writing jokes for each other, which they then have to deliver without having read the jokes ahead of time. Though the bit was originally Colin's idea, Michael's jokes are meant to make Jost say "really, really racist stuff," and Colin has said of the segment, "I'm seeing all of them for the first time on air. It's really a pretty terrifying moment. It's thrilling, in a way, but also terrifying."
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In 2014, Che starred in his own "The Half Hour" special (now known as "Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents"), followed by his first Netflix special, "Michael Che Matters," in 2016. In 2019, he guest-starred as himself on "Sesame Street" and on the Comedy Central series "The Other Two," and he and Jost appeared on "WWE Raw" and "WrestleMania 35." In 2021, Michael starred in the Netflix special "Michael Che: Shame the Devil," and he got his own show on HBO Max, "That Damn Michael Che." The first season consists of six episodes featuring appearances from his "SNL" co-stars Jost, Cecily Strong, and Heidi Gardner as well as guest stars such as Colin Quinn, Ellen Cleghorne, Billy Porter, and Method Man. The show was renewed for a second season in July 2021, with HBO Max's Head of Original Content, Sarah Aubrey, stating, "Michael's comedic style is truly unique and his ability to convey provocative subject matter through a comedic lens is the reason why Season 1 of 'That Damn Michael Che' was such a success. We look forward to working with him again on a second season."
Personal Life
In April 2020, Michael revealed in an Instagram post that he had lost his grandmother to COVID-19. A few days later, he posted, "It's crazy to me that residents of public housing are still expected to pay their rent when so many New Yorkers can't even work. Obviously, I can't offer much help by myself. But in the spirit and memory of my late grandmother, I'm paying one month's rent for all 160 apartments in the NYCHA building she lived in." In 2019, he hosted the benefit "A Night for NYCHA with Michael Che & Friends," which raised more than $110,000.
Che is close friends with his " Weekend Update" co-anchor Colin Jost, and the two often give each other "interesting" gifts. When the duo appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in April 2018, Colin said that the previous year Michael sent a party clown to his intimate birthday dinner at a restaurant. Jost also said that for Christmas, Che sent him a "full, realistic Hawkeye costume," with Michael explaining, "Because your girlfriend's Black Widow." Che attended Jost's 2020 wedding to Scarlett Johansson, and in February 2021, Colin told Ellen DeGeneres, "He was well behaved, so the whole time I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop and to see what his long con was gonna be. The other day he just kinda came up to me in the hallway and he's like, 'Hey, uh, I got you something.' I was like, 'What do you mean?' And he's like, 'Wedding present. I'll bring it by sometime.' … So I'm waiting to find out what this thing is. But we're both pretty concerned for our wellbeing."
Awards and Nominations
Che has shared five consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series with his fellow "Saturday Night Live" writers, beginning in 2017. "That Damn Michael Che" earned him three Black Reel Awards for Television nominations in 2021 – Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Actor, Comedy Series, and Outstanding Writing, Comedy Series. Michael has received nine Writers Guild of America Award nominations, winning Comedy/Variety Sketch Series for "Saturday Night Live" in 2017 and 2018. He earned six other nominations for "SNL" in that category, and in 2022, he earned a Comedy/Variety Sketch Series nomination for "That Damn Michael Che" as well.
