Julia Louis-Dreyfus Net Worth

Julia Louis-Dreyfus net worth and salary: Julia Louis-Dreyfus is an American actress who has a net worth of $250 million. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is probably most famous for playing the role of Elaine Benes on the long-running television sitcom "Seinfeld." She played the role of Elaine on Seinfeld for nine seasons between 1989 and 1998.

Early Life: Born January 13, 1961, in New York City, Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus is the eldest daughter of billionaire financier Gerard Louis-Dreyfus. Gerard is the French-born former Chairman of the Louis-Dreyfus Group. He is worth $4 billion. Julia's great-great-grandfather, Léopold Louis-Dreyfus, founded the Louis-Dreyfus Group, an international commodities and shipping conglomerate, in 1851. Julia's parents divorced when she was one. Her mother remarried L. Thompson Bowles, Dean of George Washington Medical School, and relocated her to Washington, DC when Julia was four. Julia spent her childhood moving between different states and countries, including Columbia and Tunisia, in connection with her stepfather's work with Project HOPE. In 1979 she graduated from Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland.

Early Career: She attended Northwestern University but dropped out before graduating to pursue an acting career. She appeared in Chicago's improv group The Second City as part of her comedic training. At the age of 21, she landed a spot on the cast of Saturday Night Live after being discovered while performing with The Practical Theatre Company at their Golden 50th Anniversary Jubilee. At that time, Louis-Dreyfus was the youngest female cast member in the history of the show. She stayed with the show from 1982-1985. In her third and final year on SNL, she met Larry David (who would later co-create "Seinfeld") during his only year on the show. After she left the show, she appeared in several high-profile movies, including Woody Allen's 1986 "Hannah and Her Sisters." She appeared alongside Chevy Chase in 1989's "Christmas Vacation." Julia also appeared in a couple of television pilots that never made it to fruition.

Seinfeld: Louis-Dreyfus became a household name in the early '90s when she began appearing on NBC's "Seinfeld" as Elaine Benes. She appeared in almost every single episode, minus three, for nine seasons. She didn't appear in the pilot because her character wasn't originally supposed to be in the show. It was only after the pilot that NBC execs felt Seinfeld was too male-centric and requested that Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld write a role for a woman. Louis-Dreyfus was met with universal critical acclaim for her performance. She regularly won and was nominated for prestigious awards. In 1996, she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, after being nominated seven times. On May 14th, 1998, Seinfeld's series finale aired and was one of the most-watched television events in history.

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Life after Seinfeld: In the years after "Seinfeld," Julia experienced what the media nicknamed the "Seinfeld Curse" – cancellations of pilots and short-lived television shows. The Seinfeld Curse was a general speculation that none of the former Seinfeld actors could ever achieve that level of success again. She dismissed the phenomenon as ridiculous, as did Larry David. Julia finally found short-term success with a guest role on "Arrested Development" in 2005.

Things began to look way up for Louis-Dreyfus in 2005 when she was cast in a new CBS sitcom, "The New Adventures of Old Christine." It was a ratings winner and Louis-Dreyfus won another Emmy for her performance, along with several other nominations. The show was canceled after five seasons, in May 2010.

Next up, Julia played Vice President Selina Meyer in the comedy "Veep," which ran from 2012 to 2019. The show was wildly successful and was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedies on HBO. Louis-Dreyfus won six consecutive Emmy awards for her portrayal of the vice president. In 2020, it was announced that Julia had signed a deal with Apple TV+. Under her deal, she will be developing new content and projects for Apple TV, as well as working as an executive producer and actress.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus starred in 2020's comedy-drama "Downhill" alongside Will Ferrell. The film was released in February and premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. She also voiced the elf mother in Pixar's "Onward" that featured Tom Holland and Chris Pratt.

In 2021, Louis-Dreyfus hit the Marvel universe appearing in the Disney+ series "The Falcon and the WInter Soldier" as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. She reprised the role in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" in 2022 and is set to appear in the upcoming "Thunderbolts" film in 2024.

Is Julia Louis-Dreyfus a Billionaire?

Technically, at this exact moment, Julia is not a billionaire. Furthermore, when she does end up receiving an inheritance from her father's estate she will have to split the money with several siblings and a stepmother. When combined with her current net worth, future royalties, and real estate, it's very likely that Julia will be worth well over $1 billion at some point in her life. Perhaps not the reported $3 billion, but enough to give Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld a literal run for their money. When Rolling Stone Magazine asked about Julia's future inheritance, she denied reports of her 10-figure net worth but acknowledged that her father's business was indeed worth billions.

Gerard Louis-Dreyfus died on September 16, 2016, at the age of 84. During his lifetime he was married twice. His first marriage, to Julia's mother Judith LeFever Bowles, lasted from 1959 to 1962. He married Phyllis Blakenship in 1965. They had two daughters.

Personal Life: Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been married to comedian Brad Hall since 1987. They met while studying at Northwestern University and today they have two children together, sons Henry and Charlie. Henry Hall is a singer/songwriter who has performed on "The Tonight Show," and Charlie Hall is a television actor. Julia recently revealed that her first pregnancy, around the time "Seinfeld" premiered, ended in a miscarriage.

Louis-Dreyfus' maternal half-sister, Lauren Bowles, is also an actress. Julia also has two paternal half-sisters, Phoebe and Emma. Emma passed away in August of 2018. Julia's cousin, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, is the former CEO of Adidias and the owner of the Olympique de Marseille football club.

In September 2017, Louis-Dreyfus was diagnosed with breast cancer. She received her diagnosis just one day after winning an Emmy for her role in "Veep" and announced it via Twitter. In October 2018, during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" she announced she was cancer-free. As far as her political beliefs, she endorsed the presidential campaigns of Al Gore, Barack Obama both times, and Hillary Clinton.

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Seinfeld Salary: For the first several seasons of "Seinfeld," supporting cast members Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards, and Jason Alexander earned a nominal amount of money for their work on the show. They successfully negotiated raises before season 5 in 1993 that had them each earning $150,000 per episode, roughly $3.8 million per season. In May 1997, the supporting cast members held out for a massive raise, hoping for $1 million per episode. The network countered with $200,000, then $400,000. They ended up receiving $600,000 per episode for the show's final season, which worked out to around $15 million apiece. That's the same as earning around $24 million today. In total, before inflation, the supporting cast members earned approximately $45 million in base salary from "Seinfeld."

Seinfeld Syndication Earnings: Contrary to popular belief, Julia, Michael, and Jason do not make significant amounts of money from "Seinfeld's" syndication deals which have totaled nearly $4 billion as of this writing. In order to make money from syndication sales, one needs to have equity ownership percentage points on the show. The supporting cast did not ever receive backend points on the show. They do receive royalties from when the show airs, but these payments equate to hundreds of thousands per year at most, not millions as many assume. By contrast, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld each earned $250 million in 1998 alone from syndication sales. Even a full decade later, Larry and Jerry were earning at least $50 million per year from syndication points. While they were denied backend points in 1997, they were able to negotiate profit-sharing points on the DVD sales which resulted in a moderate windfall back when people bought DVDs.

Veep Salary: For the final seasons of "Veep," Julia was paid $500,000 per episode. With endorsement deals and other income sources, she earned around $8 million per year in recent years, enough to make her one of the five highest-paid TV actresses in the world.