What Is Ben Mezrich's Net Worth?
Ben Mezrich is an American author who has a net worth of $6 million. Ben Mezrich is probably most famous for writing the books "The Accidental Billionaires," "Bringing Down the House," "Rigged," and "Ugly Americans." "The Accidental Billionaires," which told the story of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, was eventually turned into the hit David Fincher movie "The Social Network." "Bringing Down the House" was turned into the Kevin Spacey movie "21." Mezrich has also branched out into the world of fiction, writing several novels. One of them is "Reaper," which deals with a computer virus. As has become seemingly standard practice, this book was also turned into a movie; this one was made for TV and called "Fatal Error." In 2019, Ben released "Bitcoin Billionaires," which led to him working as a consulting producer on the Showtime series "Billions."
Early Years
Ben Mezrich was born on February 7, 1969, in Princeton, New Jersey. He is the son of Reuben Mezrich – chairman of radiology at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine – and Molli (Newman) – an attorney. Raised in the Jewish faith, Mezrich attended the private Princeton Day School and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1991 with a degree in Social Studies.
The Novels
In 1997, Mezrich's novel "Threshold" was released by Grand Central Publishing. The thriller concerns a man who has 72 hours to genetically rewire the human race. The following year, HarperTorch released his novel "Reaper," a techno-thriller about a biological virus that spreads electronically.
Ben's 1999 thriller "Fertile Ground," released by Harper Collins, centers on a mysterious compound that causes healthy young men to lose their fertility and bleed to death.
The 2000 novel "The X-Files: Skin" was based on the hit television series "The X-Files" and revolves around the harvesting of skin from corpses. Mezrich agreed to write the novel after he turned down an offer from the show's producers to do scriptwriting, which would have required him to relocate. That same year, under the alias Holden Scott, Ben penned the novel "Skeptic," about life after death. Also published under the pen name was the 2001 novel "The Carrier," which follows a Harvard student as he attempts to train flesh-eating bacteria to attack tumors.
Mezrich's 2014 adventurous suspense thriller "Seven Wonders" involved the Seven Wonders of the World as the hunt for a missing reclusive mathematician turns up a historic conspiracy.
In 2022, Grand Central Publishing released Ben's suspenseful action thriller "The Midnight Ride," a story of casinos, card-counting, and corpses.
(Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Non-Fiction Works
Mezrich released his first work of non-fiction in 2003, "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions," about a group of individuals who used a card counting system to help them win a fortune at casinos across America and the Caribbean. A "New York Times" bestseller rating along with the 2008 Sony Pictures film adaption resulted.
In 2004, Mezrich's "Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions" about an American taking advantage of the stock market in Japan was released.
Mezrich's 2005 book "Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees" was a continuance of a previous book, telling the story of yet another student involved in outsmarting casinos. Semyon Dukach, a former blackjack player and the book's main character, has stated that Mezrich's book is not completely factual.
"Rigged: The True Story of a Wall Street Novice Who Changed the World of Oil Forever," in which Ben details the beginnings of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange, was released in 2007.
Mezrich remained in the world of bestselling authors with his 2009 work "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal. The book, which concerned the founding of the social networking site Facebook, debuted at #4 on the "New York Times" Nonfiction Bestseller List and at #1 on the Boston Globe Nonfiction Bestseller List. In 2010, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin adapted the book into a screenplay for the film "The Social Network," which was nominated for eight Oscars, three of which it won.
A 2011 book by Mezrich entitled "Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History" concerns the theft and attempted sale of lunar samples and a meteorite from the NASA-owned Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Ben went on to release "Straight Flush: The Story of Six College Friends Who Dealt Their Way to a Billion-Dollar Online Poker Empire – and How It All Came Crashing Down" in 2013 and "Once Upon a Time In Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs – A True Story of Ambition, Wealthy, Betrayal and Murder" in 2015.
Atria Books published Mezrich's "The 37th Parallel" The Secret Truth Behind America's UFO Highway" in 2016 and, the following year, his "Wooly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History's Most Iconic Extinct Creatures."
A sequel to Mezrich's "Accidental Billionaires," "Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal and Redemption" was released in 2019, followed by "The Anti-Social Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtop Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees" in 2021. The 2023 film "Dumb Money," starring Pete Davidson and Seth Rogan, was based on "Bitcoin Billionaires."
In Mezrich's 2023 book "Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History," he delves into Musk's acquisition of the social networking service Twitter.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Fact vs Fiction
Semyon Dukach, a former blackjack player and the main character in "Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos To Their Knees," has stated that the book is not completely factual. Others have claimed that many of Mezrich's "true" stories are literary frauds whereby he discards facts, fudges details, and pushes outright lies. Despite that reputation for side-stepping reality and releasing biased and inaccurate depictions of real-life events, the size of Mezrich's reading audience doesn't shrink.
Juvenile Fiction
Ben co-writes the children's book series "The Charlie Numbers Adventures" with his wife, a former dentist and current lifestyle editor of "Boston Magazine." Published by Simon & Schuster, the series concerns a boy named Charlie Numbers and his gang of Whiz Kids in Boston, who are always getting into trouble and must use their smarts and math skills to find their way out. The series includes 2014's "Bringing Down the Mouse," 2017's "Charlie Numbers and the Man in the Moon," 2019's "Charlie Numbers and the Wooly Mammoth," and 2023's "Charlie Numbers and the UFO Bash."
Personal Life
On September 9, 2006, Ben married Dr. Tonya Chen at the Harbor View Hotel on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. They have two children and split their time between Vermont and Boston, Massachusetts.
