What Is Billy Porter's Net Worth?
Billy Porter is an American actor, singer, director, producer, and writer who has a net worth of $1 million.
Billy Porter has been an esteemed Broadway performer since the early '90s, appearing in productions of "Miss Saigon" (1991; 1998–1999), "Five Guys Named Moe" (1992–1993), "Grease" (1994–1998), "Smokey Joe's Cafe" (1995–2000), "Kinky Boots" (2013–2019), and "Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed" (2016). Billy co-produced the musical "A Strange Loop" (2022–2023), which won a Tony for Best Musical in 2022. Porter also won a Tony, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance in "Kinky Boots." Billy starred as Pray Tell on the FX series "Pose," which earned him a Primetime Emmy in 2019. He has more than 30 acting credits to his name, including the films "The First Wives Club" (1996), "Like a Boss" (2020), "Cinderella" (2021), and "80 for Brady" (2023) and the television series "American Horror Story: Apocalypse" (2018), "The Twilight Zone" (2020), and "That Damn Michael Che" (2021).
Porter directed and executive produced the 2022 film "Anything's Possible," and he also directed the "Robyn's Story" episode of the Fox series "Accused" (2023) and produced the 2016 miniseries "Mess," the 2022 films "Black as U R" and "A Tree of Life," and the 2023 BET documentary series "Black + Iconic: Style God." Billy has released the albums "Billy Porter" (1997), "At the Corner of Broadway + Soul" (2005), "Billy's Back on Broadway" (2014), and "Billy Porter Presents the Soul of Richard Rodgers" (2017), and he published the memoir "Unprotected" in 2021. In 2020, "Time" magazine included Billy on its list of the world's 100 most influential people. Porter is also known for his fashion sense, and he can always be counted on to be one of the best-dressed celebrities on any red carpet. In 2019, the Council of Fashion Designers of America named him an Official Ambassador for New York Fashion Week: Mens.
Strike-Induced Financial Problems
In August 2023, after 100 days of the WGA strike and several weeks of the SAG strike, Billy claimed lack of work was forcing him to put his house up for sale. Elaborating:
"The life of an artist, until you make fuck-you money — which I haven't made yet — is still check to check. I was supposed to be in a new movie, and on a new television show starting in September. None of that is happening. So to the person who said 'we're going to starve them out until they have to sell their apartments… you've already starved me out."
In the same interview Billy complained about how the streaming model ruined everything because studios don't have to be transparent with their ratings. He also complained about Disney CEO Bob Iger suggesting that actors and writers demanding to make a living wage was unrealistic while he makes an average of $78,000 a day in salary.
Real Estate
The home Billy was referring to in the above quote is presumably the property on Long Island he purchased in October 2020 for $1.4 million with his then-husband Adam Smith. Billy put this home up for sale in February 2024 for $2.5 million. He sold it in June 2024 for $2.2 million.
Early Life
Billy Porter was born William Ellis Porter II on September 21, 1969, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Cloerinda Jean Johnson Porter Ford and William Ellis Porter, and he has a sister named Mary. Billy grew up in a Pentecostal household, and his family was "very religious." In a 2021 interview with "The Hollywood Reporter," Porter revealed that he was in trauma therapy, stating, "I started peeling back all these layers: having been sent to a psychologist at age 5 because I came out of the womb a big old queen; being sexually abused by my stepfather from the time I was 7 to the time I was 12; coming out at 16 in the middle of the AIDS crisis." Billy attended Reizenstein Middle School, Allderdice High School, and Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, then he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University. Porter later enrolled at UCLA and completed the Professional Program in Screenwriting. From 1985 to 1987, Billy spent his summers performing with the entertainment groups Flash and Spirit at the Kennywood amusement park.
Career
In 1992, Porter competed on "Star Search" and won $100,000, and in 1994, he played Teen Angel in "Grease" on Broadway. He made his film debut in 1996's "Twisted," and that year his song "Love Is on the Way" was featured in the hit comedy "The First Wives Club." Billy lent his voice to the 1997 animated film "Anastasia," then he appeared on the soap opera "Another World" (1998) and portrayed Little Richard in the TV movie "Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story" (1999). He appeared in the films "The Intern" (2000), "The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy" (2000), and "Noel" (2004), and he guest-starred on "Law & Order" in 2004. In March 2005, Porter performed the autobiographical one-man show "Ghetto Superstar (The Man That I Am)" at Joe's Pub in Manhattan and earned a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway & Off Broadway Award. In 2010, he played Belize in a Signature Theatre Company production of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" in celebration of the play's 20th anniversary. In 2013, Billy began starring as Lola in the new Broadway musical "Kinky Boots," winning a Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.
Porter guest-starred on "The Big C" (2012), "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (2013), and "The Get Down" (2016), and he hosted "Land of Lola: Backstage at Kinky Boots" (2013) and starred in the special "Billy Porter: Broad & Soul" (2015). In 2014, he co-starred with Al Pacino and Dianne Wiest in the film "The Humbling," and his play "While I Yet Live" (which he wrote) premiered at Primary Stages in New York City. From 2018 to 2021, Billy starred as Pray Tell on the FX series "Pose," a drama about NYC's ballroom culture in the '80s and '90s. Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals and featuring several transgender actors, "Pose" aired 26 episodes over three seasons and earned Porter a Primetime Emmy and several other awards and nominations. Billy also worked with Murphy and Falchuk on FX's "American Horror Story: Apocalypse," playing Behold Chablis in five episodes.
Porter co-starred with Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Coolidge, and Salma Hayek in 2020's "Like a Boss," and he played the Fabulous Godmother in 2021's "Cinderella." He guest-starred on "The Twilight Zone" (2020), "That Damn Michael Che" (2021), and "Gossip Girl" (2021), and he began voicing Randall Leibowitz-Jenkins on the Disney+ animated series "The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder" in 2022. He directed and produced the 2022 Amazon Prime Video film "Anything's Possible," and in 2023, he appeared in "80 for Brady" alongside Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field, and Tom Brady.
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Personal Life
Billy became engaged to Adam Smith on December 29, 2016. The couple married on January 14, 2017, so they could wed "while Obama was still president." In July 2023 they broke up.
Porter spoke about race in a 2020 "Vanity Fair" interview, stating:
"The reason why our country is in the mess we're in is simply because of whiteness. White supremacy. White people choke-holding power and sucking the life out of humanity. Orangina 45, that cancer that is in our White House, has been handed the power, without consequence, to have his hate metastasize all over the people."
In a May 2021 interview with "The Hollywood Reporter," Billy revealed that he had been diagnosed with HIV in 2007, the same year he was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes and filed for bankruptcy. In September 2021, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation honored Porter with the Elizabeth Taylor Commitment to End AIDS award.
Awards and Nominations
Porter earned three Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for "Pose," winning in 2019. He received numerous nominations for "Pose," including three Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama, and he won a Black Reel Award for Television (2019), a Gold Derby Award (2019), and a Hollywood Critics Association Television Award (2021). Billy has earned five nominations from GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, winning TV Performance of the Year – Actor for "Pose" in 2019 and 2020 and TV Musical Performance of the Year (shared with his "Pose" co-star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez for "Home") in 2019. His other nominations were for Wilde Wit of the Year and Wilde Artist of the Decade (2020). In 2017, the GLAAD Media Awards honored him with the Vito Russo Award, which is given to "an openly LGBTQ media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equality and acceptance."
Billy has received five NAACP Image Award nominations: Entertainer of the Year Award (2020), Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for "Pose" (2020 and 2022), and Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance (Television) for "Fairfax" (2022) and "The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder" (2023). In 2020, he was named Badass of the Year at The Queerties, and he earned a Dorian TV Award nomination for Best TV Musical Performance (shared with Janelle Monáe) for the opening number of "The Oscars." In 2021, Porter received a Saturn Award nomination (from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films) for Best Guest Performance in a Television Series for "The Twilight Zone," and "Smoke, Lilies and Jade" (which he narrated) earned a Best Short Film nomination at the OUTshine Film Festival. Billy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2022.
