What Is Neal Brennan's Net Worth?
Neal Brennan is an American writer, stand-up comedian, actor, director, and producer who has a net worth of $5 million. Neal Brennan is best known for co-creating and co-writing the Comedy Central series "Chappelle's Show," which aired from 2003 to 2006. He co-created the show along with its namesake, Dave Chappelle.
Early Life
Neal Brennan was born on October 19, 1973, in Villanova, Pennsylvania. He comes from an Irish Catholic family. Neal grew up as the youngest of 10 children and lived in Villanova until he was six years old when the family moved to Wilmette, Illinois. He grew up often performing for his family and friends and has said his older siblings and father's side of the family were all funny. He watched a large amount of comedy on television while in high school, often staying up to watch "Late Night with David Letterman" and "The Arsenio Hall Show."
Neal's older brother, Kevin, became a comedian and writer who started doing stand-up comedy while Brennan was in high school. He would spend weekends attending his brother's sets at The Improv in New York City. Neal met many working comedians and comics during this time, like Dave Attell, Ray Romano, David Juskow, and Mike Royce. It was during this time that he realized it was possible to make a living doing comedy and began developing his own interest in the career. Neal moved to New York to attend film school at NYU, though he dropped out after a year. He then began working as a doorman at the Boston Comedy Club in Greenwich Village. There, he met frequent performer Dave Chappelle and the two became friends.
Career
After six months of working as the doorman, Brennan first performed stand-up in 1992 when he was 18 years old. However, he did not get any laughs and did not perform stand-up again for five years. Around this time, he was also working as a writer for "The Source" magazine. In the mid-1990s, Brennan moved to Los Angeles. In 1995, he became a writer for the dating show "Singled Out." The show was hosted by Jenny McCarthy and Chris Hardwick. Neal later landed writing jobs for the game show "Buzz!" and then for "All That" and "Kenan & Kel."
In 1997, Brennan and Dave Chappelle decided to collaborate for the first time on the screenplay for the film "Half Baked." The film starred Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams, and Guillermo Diaz and was released in January 1998. The film was a commercial failure and was not well-reviewed, though it later became a cult classic. Brennan has described that period of his life, surrounding the film's release and initial failure, as the worst year of his life. Chappelle and Brennan also lost touch with each other after the film's release.
However, the duo reunited a few years later to co-create, co-write, and co-executive produce the eponymous sketch comedy show "Chappelle's Show." The show premiered in January 2003, and the sketches were written by Chappelle and Brennan with very little outside help and agreed to never divulge which one of them was responsible for which sketches.
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Brennan directed some sketches in the show's second season. He was nominated for three Emmy Awards in 2004 for his work on the shows as a director, writer, and producer. By the end of its second season, "Chappelle's Show" was Comedy Central's highest-rated program. During the second and third seasons of the show, members of the musical group The Roots worked as musical directors for the show. In 2004, the show was doing so well that Chappelle had signed a $50 million deal to produce two more seasons. However, he abruptly left the show in April of 2005, prior to the premiere of the show's third season. He left without warning Brennan or anyone else on the show's crew. As a result, the third season's premiere was delayed and Neal later worked to compile the sketches and aired them in July 2006.
In 2011, Brennan started a podcast called "The Champs" along with comedian Moshe Kasher and DJ Douggpound. The show features several guests every week, including Chris Rock, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, and Wayne Brady. In 2014, the podcast was named the "Best Podcast" as part of the "LA Weekly" "Best of L.A." issue. The podcast ended in 2016.
In 2015, Neal began developing his own comedy show, "3 Mics." He originally performed it in Los Angeles before moving it to New York City in 2016. The show features Brennan alternating between three microphones and performing different types of material on each. In 2017, "3 Mics" was released on Netflix as an original comedy special. In 2016, Neal became a regular writer and contributor to "The Daily Show," hosted by Trevor Noah.
In 2019, he started another podcast with his friend and actress Bianca Siavashy called "How Neal Feel." The podcast focuses on discussing current events and the hosts' personal lives. In 2021, he debuted his one-man show "Unacceptable" in New York City. The show was released on Netflix in 2022 under the title "Neal Brennan Blocks."
Personal Life
Brennan has reportedly been in a relationship with his girlfriend since around 2006, but he has not divulged much information about her. Neal described himself as an atheist in July 2011 but stated in November 2020 that he no longer considers himself to be an atheist after having done ayahuasca several times.
