What Is Billy Eichner's Net Worth and Salary?
Billy Eichner is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer who has a net worth of $8 million. Billy Eichner is best known for being the creator, star, and executive producer of the Funny Or Die game show "Billy on the Street," which began airing in 2011. Billy wrote, executive produced, and starred in the 2022 film "Bros," which is the first gay romantic comedy released by a major studio that features a principal cast made up entirely of LGBTQ actors. Eichner has played Craig Middlebrooks on NBC's "Parks and Recreation" (2013–2015), Billy Epstein on Hulu's "Difficult People" (2015–2017), Dr. Felix Forzenheim on Netflix's "Friends from College" (2017–2019), and Harrison Wilton on FX's "American Horror Story: Cult" (2017). Billy has more than 25 acting credits to his name, including the films "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" (2016) and "Most Likely to Murder" (2018) and the television series "American Horror Story: Apocalypse" (2018) and "Impeachment: American Crime Story" (2021). Eichner has lent his voice to the films "Penguins of Madagascar" (2014), "The Angry Birds Movie" (2016), and "The Lion King" (2019) and the TV shows "Bob's Burgers" (2013–2021), "The Awesomes" (2015), "The Simpsons" (2018), "Family Guy" (2018), and "Green Eggs and Ham" (2019). Eichner also wrote and produced the 2013 short "Billy & Rachel's Halloween Adventure" and wrote the shorts "The Charlie Sheen Is Too Damn High" (2010) and "Glitter and Ribs" (2013).
Early Life
Billy Eichner was born on September 18, 1978, in New York City. His mother, Debbie, was a phone company employee, and his father, Jay, worked as a rent tax auditor. Billy grew up in a Jewish household in Forest Hills, and his bar mitzvah was both pop music-themed and Broadway-themed, featuring life-size cutouts of Madonna and the Phantom of the Opera. During an appearance on the podcast "You Made It Weird," Eichner stated, "I could not decide whether the theme should be Broadway, which I was very into at the time and still am, or pop music, which I was very into at the time and still am….So, the theme became Broadway meets pop music." Billy later got to meet Madonna while filming a remote for "Conan" at Yankee Stadium during the Queen of Pop's MDNA tour. Eichner has a older half-brother, and he attended Stuyvesant High School, graduating in 1996. Billy then earned a BS degree in Theater from Northwestern University in 2000, and his roommate was actor Robin Lord Taylor.
Career
Eichner first gained attention as the host/writer of the New York stage show "Creation Nation: A Live Talk Show," and in 2007, he appeared in the Bravo web series "My Life on the Z-List: Jen's Vlog." He made his big screen debut in 2008's "What Happens in Vegas," and in 2012, he began appearing in remotes on "Conan." In 2011, he began starring on "Billy on the Street," which aired on Fuse until 2014, then on TruTV from 2015 to 2017. Some short episodes were released on digital platforms in 2018 and 2019, and in 2022, Eichner released a few new short episodes to promote the release of "Bros." "Billy on the Street" has earned Eichner three Primetime Emmy nominations as well as a Daytime Emmy nomination. From 2013 to 2015, Billy played Craig Middlebrooks on the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation," and around this time, he guest-starred on "The Millers" (2014) and "New Girl" (2014) and began voicing Mr. Ambrose on the animated Fox series "Bob's Burgers" (2013–2021). Eichner appeared in the films "Sleeping With Other People" (2015), "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" (2016), and "Most Likely to Murder" (2018), and from 2015 to 2017, he starred as Billy Epstein on Hulu's "Difficult People," which aired 28 episodes over three seasons and was executive produced by Eichner's "Parks and Recreation" co-star Amy Poehler.
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In 2016, Billy guest-starred on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and played Rob Barker in the NBC special "Hairspray Live!," and from 2017 to 2019, he had a recurring role as Dr. Felix Forzenheim on Netflix's "Friends from College." In 2017, he played Harrison Wilton on "American Horror Story: Cult," and he portrayed Tex Watson in the episode "Charles (Manson) in Charge." Eichner would work with Ryan Murphy again as Mutt Nutter and Brock on "American Horror Story: Apocalypse" (2018) and Matt Drudge on "Impeachment: American Crime Story" (2021). In 2019, Billy voiced Timon in the live-action version of "The Lion King," which grossed $1.663 billion at the box office. In September 2022, it was revealed that Eichner would be reprising his role in the prequel, "Mufasa: The Lion King," when a preview of the film was shown at Disney's D23 Expo. Billy co-starred with Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader in the 2019 holiday film "Noelle," and in 2020, he guest-hosted two episodes of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and appeared in "Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special."
Eichner portrayed Walt Whitman in a 2021 episode of the Apple TV+ series "Dickinson," and in 2022, he co-starred with Luke Macfarlane in "Bros," which he also wrote and produced. Alonso Duralde of "TheWrap" said of the film, "'Bros' matters because it cracks the corporate glass ceiling just a little bit more. It matters because it's informed by gay trauma and takes a chance at transforming that agony into something joyful. It matters because it knows its place in history, the work of everyone who made this moment possible and all the work still left to do. And within the confines of cinema walls, it matters because it allows queer love, a swooning romance, to flourish and win on its own terms." As of this writing, "Bros" has earned three Hollywood Music In Media Award nominations and a Queerty nomination for Next Big Thing.
Personal Life
Billy is openly gay, and during a 2015 appearance on "Conan," he taught Conan O'Brien how to use the gay dating app Grindr. Eichner has been kicked off of another dating app, Tinder, twice, and during a 2019 "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" interview, he said that it was because someone reported his profile as fake. Once Billy explained that it actually was him on the app, Tinder sent him a care package that included mugs and t-shirts that said "Happy Valentine's Day … to Me" and "World's Hottest Single." In a 2022 "Variety" interview, Eichner spoke about being kicked off Tinder a second time, stating, "I'm not going through this again. I can't book a late-night talk show appearance just to get reinstated on Tinder. I'll stick to Hinge and Grindr and everything else. I do not need another mug telling me it's OK to be alone."
Billy is a Democrat, and in 2018, he was involved in the Funny or Die initiative "Glam Up the Midterms," along with celebrities such as Conan O'Brien, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel, Chelsea Handler, and Seth Meyers. The initiative was launched because only 12% of millennials had voted in 2014's midterm elections, and its purpose was to raise awareness of the midterms and register new voters. In 2019, Eichner became a senior advisor for Swing Left, a progressive political organization.
Awards and Nominations
Eichner has earned three Primetime Emmy nominations for "Billy on the Street," Outstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program in 2015, Outstanding Variety Sketch Series in 2017, and Outstanding Short Form Variety Series in 2018. He received a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Game Show Host for the show in 2013, and the series has also earned him a Webby Award for Online Film & Video: Comedy, Individual Short or Episode (2016) and a Gold Derby Award nomination for Variety Performer of the Decade (2019). In 2016, Billy received a Wilde Wit of the Year nomination from the GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. In 2019, he earned an Indiana Film Journalists Association Award nomination for Best Vocal/Motion Capture Performance and a Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award nomination for Best Voice Performance for "The Lion King." In 2022, Eichner and Marc Shaiman were nominated for a Hollywood Music In Media Award for Best Original Song – Feature Film for "Love Is Not Love" from "Bros," and the song also earned Billy a nomination for Song – Onscreen Performance (Film).
