Chuck Lorre is one of the most successful television creators in the industry right now. He has created eleven different TV comedies including long-running and award-winning hits like The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Mike and Molly, and Mom. While he sometimes casts established stars in his shows, like Ashton Kutcher, Charlie Sheen, and Michael Douglas, he has also turned many actors into Hollywood superstars, like Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki.
Since Chuck Lorre TV shows are often such big hits, it's no surprise that many of the leading actors take home huge paychecks. For example, when The Big Bang Theory first started airing, the five main cast members were earning salaries between $45 thousand and $60 thousand per episode. By the final seasons, some of them were all making $1 million per episode. After 12 seasons and 279 episodes, it's safe to say that the stars of The Big Bang Theory all walked away with quite the fortune.
These are the eight richest main cast members from Chuck Lorre-created TV shows.
8 Jon Cryer Has A Net Worth Of $70 Million
Jon Cryer was the only cast member to appear in all 262 episodes of Two and a Half Men. Charlie Sheen's character was written off after season 8 and Angus T. Jones left the show after season 10, but Cryer was around for all 12 seasons of the show's run. As such, it's no surprise that he has an incredible $70 million fortune. After all, Two and a Half Men was one of the most popular comedies on TV for more than a decade.
Cryer has had a succesful career beyond Two and a Half Men as well. He has his first big role in 1986, when he starred in the John Hughes film Pretty In Pink. Most recently, he played an important supporting role on Supergirl as the villainous Lex Luthor.
7 Paul Reiser Has A Net Worth Of $75 Million
Paul Reiser starred in two seasons of Chuck Lorre's critically acclaimed Netflix comedy The Kominsky Method. He was nominated for an Emmy for this role in 2021 -- the eleventh Emmy nomination of his career. While Reiser was surely well paid for his work on The Kominsky Method, he earned the bulk of his fortune in the 1990s when he starred on the NBC sitcom Mad About You. Mad About You ran for eight seasons, and by the final season, he was earning $1 million per episode.
6 Melissa McCarthy Has A Net Worth Of $90 Million
Melissa McCarthy is one of the biggest movie stars in the world these days, but she got her start on television. After seven years in a supporting role on the comedy-drama Gilmore Girls and two seasons in a supporting role on the ABC sitcom Samantha Who?, McCarthy was cast in a lead role on the Chuck Lorre sitcom Mike & Molly. McCarthy starred in the sitcom for six seasons, despite becoming a major movie star not long after the show premiered. She earned her first Oscar nomination in 2011 for her supporting role in the beloved comedy Bridesmaids, and she has gone on to star in many more hit films.
5 Johnny Galecki Has A Net Worth Of $100 Million
The entire cast of The Big Bang Theory earned a lot of money over the course of the show's twelve-year run, and the three lead actors -- Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, and Jim Parsons -- did especially well for themselves. Johnny Galecki now has a net worth in the nine figures, and with the money he must be earning in residuals from The Big Bang Theory, his net worth has nowhere to go but up.
4 Kaley Cuoco Has A Net Worth Of $100 Million
Like her co-star (and ex-boyfriend) Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco is worth $100 million. She earned most of that money from The Big Bang Theory, but she has also starred on several other popular TV shows, including 8 Simple Rules and The Flight Attendant. After earning her first Emmy nominations in 2021, Kaley Cuoco's career is showing no signs of slowing down.
3 Jim Parsons Has A Net Worth Of $160 Million
While he was an unknown name in Hollywood before The Big Bang Theory, Jim Parsons walked away as the richest cast member from the show. He is currently working on another Chuck Lorre show, the Big Bang spinoff Young Sheldon. He is the narrator of the show as well as an executive producer, and he surely earns quite the hefty paycheck for that gig.
2 Ashton Kutcher Has A Net Worth Of $200 Million
Ashton Kutcher was already rich before he became a Chuck Lorre star, thanks to hit work on the long-running sitcom That 70s Show and his successful movie career in the 2000s. However, he was also very well paid for his four seasons on Two and a Half Men. Kutcher was reportedly paid between $700,000 and $800,000 per episode for his role as Walden Schmidt.
1 Michael Douglas Has A Net Worth Of $350 Million
Weighing in as the richest actor to star in a Chuck Lorre-created TV show is legendary actor Michael Douglas, who played the lead role of Sandy Kominsky in The Kominksy Method for all three seasons of the show's run. While Douglad was certainly well paid for his role, he has earned his incredible fortune throughout his fifty-year career in Hollywood.
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