What Is Gavin McInnes' Net Worth?
Gavin McInnes is a Scottish-Canadian writer, creative director, and actor who has a net worth of $10 million. Gavin McInnes is a co-founder of "Vice" and the host of the podcast "Get Off My Lawn." He has drawn attention for his far-right politics and commentary, as well as his involvement in the extremist neo-fascist organization the Proud Boys, which is considered a designated terrorist group in Canada.
Early Life
Gavin McInnes was born on July 17, 1970, in Hitchin, England. The only son of Scottish parents James and Loraine McInnes, Gavin's family moved to Canada when he was four years old. He graduated from Ottawa's Carleton University in 1992. He played in the punk band Anal Chinook as a teenager.
"Vice"
In 1994, Gavin co-founded the magazine "Vice" with Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi and served as an editor, earning the nickname "the Godfather of hipsterdom." While working at "Vice," he contributed articles like "The VICE Guide to Happiness" and "The VICE Guide to Picking Up Chicks."
He co-authored two books during his tenure: "The Vice Guide to Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" and "Vice Dos and Don'ts: 10 Years of VICE Magazine's Street Fashion." He was featured in a "New York Times" article in 2003, where his political views were described as "closer to a white supremacist's." In 2006, McInnes was featured in "The Vice Guide to Travel" with comedian David Cross in China.
McInnes left "Vice" in 2007 due to creative differences. He was reportedly paid several million dollars to walk away, perhaps $10 – $20 million. That's a large sum, but at one point after his departure, "Vice" was worth $5.7 billion on paper. At that level, Gavin would have been a billionaire on paper. Furthermore, he would have likely cashed out $50-100 million over the course of various funding rounds. On the plus side, that $5.7 billion valuation would eventually fall apart, and by the middle of 2023, "Vice" was reportedly near bankruptcy.
After "Vice"
After cashing out, Gavin co-founded the advertising agency Rooster NY and started the website StreetCarnage.com. He wrote a book called "How to Piss in Public" in 2012. He was asked to take a leave of absence as CCO of Rooster after he published a transphobic essay. In June 2015, he hosted a show called "The Gavin McInnes Show" on Compound Media. He began contributing regularly to the Canadian far-right publication "The Rebel Media." McInnes is a regular on several conspiracy theorist shows like Infowars' "The Alex Jones Show." He wrote for "Taki Magazine" from 2015 to 2017. He left rebel media in August 2017 and joined CRTV. On September 22, 2017, his podcast "Get Off My Lawn" launched.
As far as on-screen work, he has directed, written, and produced the short "Sophie Can Walk." He directed and wrote the short "Are Women as Horny as Men?" and wrote, produced, and starred in "How to Be a Man." He also directed the 2013 documentary "The Brotherhood of the Traveling Rants," about his tour as a standup comedian. He starred as Mark McCarthy in the 2013 movie "How to Be a Man." In 2010, Gavin was featured in Season 3 of the Canadian reality TV show "Kenny vs. Spenny." He also appeared in an episode of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." He has also appeared in the films "Soul Quest Overdrive," "Creative Control," and "One More Time."
Proud Boys
In August 2018, McInnes (along with the account for the Proud Boys) was permanently suspended by Twitter as a result of Twitter enforcing their rules against violent extremist groups. A few months later, Gavin took part in a reenactment of the 1960 assassination of socialist politician Inejiro Asanuma. Afterward, the Proud Boys were caught on video beating a protester after they had gotten a water bottle thrown at them. The FBI classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group "with ties to white nationalists." McInnes was banned from entering Australia due to immigration authorities deciding "he was judged to be of bad character." On December 10, 2018, McInnes was banned from YouTube. He launched Censored.TV in 2019, originally named FreeSpeechTV but was forced to change the title for copyright purposes. The platform features "Get Off My Lawn," his main podcast, as well as "Free Speech with Gavin McInnes."
Views
McInnes said in 2003, "I love being white and I think it's something to be very proud of. I don't want our culture diluted. We need to close the borders now and let everyone assimilate to a Western, white, English-speaking way of life." He has often been accused of racism and as a proponent of white supremacist speech. On his podcast, he has made racial slurs against Susan Rice and Jada Pinkett Smith. In 2016, he was listed as a contributor to the book "Black Lies Matter," a critical take on the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2017, Gavin made comments defending Holocaust deniers and other anti-semitic statements. He also produced a video for Rebel called "Ten Things I Hate about Jews," later retitled "Ten Things I Hate About Israel." He is anti-Islam. McInnes has also been guilty of making plenty of sexist comments, saying that "95 percent of women would be happier at home." He has been accused of sexism by "The Hollywood Reporter," "Slate," "Chicago-Sun Times," "Salon," "Independent Journal Review," and more. Gavin said during a panel interview in October 2013 that "people would be happier if women would stop pretending to be men" and that feminism "has made women less happy."
Personal Life
McInnes lives in the U.S. on a green card. He married New York-based publicist Emily Jendrisak in 2005. They have three children. The family resides in Larchmont, New York.