What is Jorja Fox's Net Worth and Salary?
Jorja Fox is an actress and singer who has a net worth of $12 million. Jorja Fox is best known for her roles on the television series "ER," "The West Wing," and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." In 2021, she reprised her "CSI" role on the follow-up series "CSI: Vegas." Fox has also acted in some films, including "Forever Fabulous," "The Hungry Bachelors Club," "Memento," and "3022."
Early Life and Education
Jorja Fox was born on July 7, 1968 in New York City to Montreal-born parents Marilyn and Edward. With her older brother Jeff, she was raised on a narrow barrier island in Melbourne Beach, Florida. After spending two years at Melbourne High School, Fox started modeling. She went on to study drama at the Lee Strasberg Institute back in New York City.
Television Career
Fox began her television acting career in some episodes of "ABC Afterschool Special" in 1992. She landed her first substantial role the following year, playing Officer Connie Karadzic on the ABC Chicago-set crime drama series "Missing Persons." The series ran for a single season until 1994. After that, Fox appeared in the pilot episode of the short-lived CBS series "Courthouse," and was in the television film "Alchemy." She gained her greatest recognition yet in 1996, when she joined the medical drama series "ER" in its third season as the recurring character Dr. Maggie Doyle. Fox remained on the show for the fourth and fifth seasons, concluding her run in 1999. During her time on "ER," she appeared in the miniseries "House of Frankenstein" and had an uncredited part in the infamous "Puppy Episode" of the sitcom "Ellen."
In 2000, Fox played the recurring role of Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano on the political drama series "The West Wing." The same year, she began her longest-running role: forensic scientist Sara Sidle on the CBS police procedural series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Fox was part of the main cast of the show through the seventh season in 2007; she later returned as a guest star in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Fox was once again made a main cast member on "CSI," remaining as such through the fifteenth season in 2015. She later reprised her role as Sara Sidle on the follow-up series "CSI: Vegas," which premiered in 2021 as the fifth series in the "CSI" franchise. Among her other television credits, Fox guest-starred on the Lifetime legal dramedy series "Drop Dead Diva" in 2009.
Getty Images
CSI Salary Dispute
In 2004, Jorja and her CSI co-star George Eads were fired after they both stopped coming to set during a salary negotiation dispute. At the time they were both five years into seven-year contracts which paid them both $100,000 per episode, which worked out to around $2.5 million per season. CBS had offered both Eads and FOX one-year extensions that would immediately have upped their salaries to $120,000 per episode. In protest they both did not show up to set on the first day of filming for the show's fifth season. They were both fired for the protest.
CBS ultimately agreed to take the actors back, but at the former $100,000 per episode rate.
Assuming they made $100,000 for the roughly 300 episodes they both respectively appeared on (296 for Jorja and 335 for him), they both earned around $30 million before royalties for their work on the series.
Film Career
Fox made her film debut in the 1989 crime drama "The Kill-Off," playing Myra Pavlov. In the early 1990s, she appeared in the Canadian slasher film "Happy Hell Night" and the independent drama "Dead Funny." At the end of the decade, Fox had supporting roles in "How to Make the Cruelest Month" and "Forever Fabulous" and a leading role in "The Hungry Bachelors Club." Commencing the new millennium, she played Catherine Shelby, the wife of Guy Pearce's amnesiac protagonist, in Christopher Nolan's acclaimed psychological thriller "Memento." Fox's subsequent credits included "Down with the Joneses" and "Next Exit." She has also appeared in the science-fiction films "3022" and "The Map of Tiny Perfect Things," the latter based on Lev Grossman's short story of the same name.
Other Endeavors
In addition to acting, Fox runs Honeypot Productions, an independent avant-garde theater company in Los Angeles she co-founded with singer-songwriter Heather Reid. Fox also sings and writes songs herself, including "Lullabye," which was featured in the film "Traveling Companion." She sometimes plays guitar and drums, as well.
Elsewhere, Fox is involved in activism. A devout vegetarian, she has worked with PETA and ADI, and has partnered with the vegan purse company Matt & Nat. Additionally, Fox has worked with the nonprofit Orangutan Outreach, which supports orangutan survival, and is a supporter of the LGBTQ political lobbying group the Human Rights Campaign.
Personal Life
Fox has been romantically linked to a few actors over the years, including Lelah Foster, Gary Dourdan, and Suzanne Mara. For the most part, she prefers to keep her private life under wraps.
