Billy Porter Net Worth
$1 Million dollars
Billy Porter Bio
| Full Name | William Ellis Porter II |
|---|---|
| Category | Celebrities |
| Net Worth | $1 Million |
| Date of Birth | September 21, 1969 (age 54) |
| Birth Place | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Actor, Singer, Writer, Vocal coach |
| Parents | William Ellis Porter (Father) Cloerinda Jean Johnson Porter Ford (Mother) |
| Spouse(s) | Adam Smith (Separated) |
| Relative(s) | Mary (Sister) |
| Years active | 1992–present |
How much is Billy Porter net worth?
Billy Porter is an American actor, singer, producer, director, and writer. Billy Porter net worth is a whopping $1 million.
Since the early ’90s, Billy Porter has been an esteemed Broadway performer. He appeared in many productions like “Miss Saigon,” “Five Guys Named Moe,” “Grease,” “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” “Kinky Boots,” and “Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed.”
Billy co-produced a musical named “A Strange Loop,” and it was superb! It won a Tony in 2022 for Best Musical. For his superb acting in “Kinky Boots,” he won a Tony, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Drama Desk Award.
You might have seen him starred as Pray Tell in the FX series “Pose.” That role earned him a Primetime Emmy in the year 2019.
Billy has done more than 30 acting credits, including movies like “The First Wives Club,” “Like a Boss,” “Cinderella,” and “80 for Brady.”
He has also performed on TV in shows like “American Horror Story: Apocalypse,” “The Twilight Zone,” and “That Damn Michael Che.”
Billy Porter was not just an actor; he also directed and was doing an executive role for the 2022 movie “Anything’s Possible.” Also, he directed the “Robyn’s Story” episode in 2023 on the Fox show “Accused.”
He has made things happen behind the scenes too, like producing the miniseries “Mess,” in 2016, two films “Black as U R” and “A Tree of Life,” in 2022, and BET documentary series “Black + Iconic: Style God” in 2023.
Billy Porter isn’t just about acting in and producing movies and TV shows; he’s got some extraordinary music vibes too. Check out his musical albums like “Billy Porter,” “At the Corner of Broadway + Soul,” “Billy’s Back on Broadway,” and “Billy Porter Presents the Soul of Richard Rodgers.” Oh, and don’t forget his memoir “Unprotected” that was published in 2021.
“Time” magazine included Billy Porter on their list of the world’s 100 most influential people. He’s not just known for his acting and directing; this guy has a very good fashion sense!
With his killer fashion sense, you can count on him among best-dressed celebrities on the red carpet. The Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2019 selected him as Official Ambassador for New York Fashion Week: Mens.
Financial Problems
Things got really tough for Billy in August 2023. There was a strike going on for a 100 days with the WGA, and then the SAG strike came after that for a few weeks.
Because of all these strikes, Billy had to sell his house because there was lack of work. Here is what he said:
“The life of an artist, until you make f**k-you money — which I haven’t made yet — is still check to check. I was supposed to be in a new movie, and on a new television show starting in September. None of that is happening. So to the person who said ‘we’re going to starve them out until they have to sell their apartments… you’ve already starved me out.”
In that interview, Billy discussed some complaints. He complained about how the whole streaming model messed everything up because the studios don’t have to be transparent with their ratings.
He even had complaints with Disney CEO Bob Iger. Billy thought it was quite unfair for Iger to say it’s unrealistic for actors and writers to demand a living wage while he is earning an average of $78,000 every single day.
Real Estate
When Billy told about his home, he was presumably talking about his property on Long Island he bought in October 2020. He spent a whopping $1.4 million for it with his then-husband Adam Smith.
That property now on a 1-acre is valued nearly at $2 million. Just to share with you, as of this writing (the day after he commented), the home isn’t on the market yet.
Early Life
Billy Porter full name is William Ellis Porter II. He was born on in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 21, 1969.
His mother name is Cloerinda Jean Johnson Porter Ford, and his father name is William Ellis Porter. The name of his sister is Mary. Billy grew up in a religious family, all about that Pentecostal household.
Back in 2021, in an interview with “The Hollywood Reporter,” Billy told about some tough times that he had in the past. He shared that he was in trauma therapy. He told:
“I started peeling back all these layers: having been sent to a psychologist at age 5 because I came out of the womb a big old queen; being se*ually ab*sed by my stepfather from the time I was 7 to the time I was 12; coming out at 16 in the middle of the AIDS crisis.”
Billy studied in Reizenstein Middle School, Allderdice High School, and after that Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School. Then, he acquired a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama degree from Carnegie Mellon University.
Later on, Billy Porter attended UCLA and finished his Professional Program in Screenwriting. Billy spent his summers performing with an entertainment group known as Flash and Spirit at Kennywood amusement park from 1985 to 1987.
Career
Billy completed on “Star Search” in 1992 and earned $100,000. After next two years, in 1994, he played Broadway as Teen Angel in “Grease.”
Billy made his movie debut with “Twisted,” and his song “Love Is on the Way” in 1996. He was featured in the hit comedy that same year named “The First Wives Club.” In 1997, Billy also voiced in the animated film “Anastasia.”
After that, in 1998, Billy performed on the soap opera land with “Another World” and portrayed himself as Little Richard in the TV movie named “Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story” in 1999.
You probably watched him in films like “The Intern,” “The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy,” and “Noel.” And in 2004, he did a guest-starred on “Law & Order.”
March 2005 was an extraordinary year for him. Billy Porter performed in the one-man show “Ghetto Superstar (The Man That I Am)” in Manhattan at Joe’s Pub. He was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.
Moving forward to 2010, and he played Belize in Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” for the 20th-anniversary celebration by the Signature Theatre Company.
Then, in 2013, Billy came out as Lola in the hot new Broadway musical named “Kinky Boots,” earning him a Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. What a journey that was!
Billy had some awesome projects on TV. He made guest-starred appearances on “The Big C” in 2012, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in 2013, and “The Get Down” in 2016.
In 2013, he even hosted “Land of Lola: Backstage at Kinky Boots” and in 2015, he appeared the special “Billy Porter: Broad & Soul.”
In 2014, he worked with famous celebrities like Al Pacino and Dianne Wiest in the movie named “The Humbling.” Also, Billy Porter wrote a play called “While I Yet Live,” which was premiered at Primary Stages in New York City.
From 2018 to 2021, Billy Porter appeared as Pray Tell on the FX series “Pose.” During the ‘80s and ‘90s, it’s a drama about the ballroom culture in NYC. “Pose” was created by Ryan Murphy, Steven Canals, and Brad Falchuk, it completed 26 episodes over three seasons and earned Billy a Primetime Emmy and many other awards and nominations.
He also co-worked with Murphy and Falchuk on FX’s “American Horror Story: Apocalypse,” where he played in five episodes of Behold Chablis.
In 2020, Billy Porter worked with Tiffany Haddish, Jennifer Coolidge, Rose Byrne, and Salma Hayek for the movie named “Like a Boss.” Then, he played as the Fabulous Godmother in “Cinderella” in 2021.
Billy also guest-starred on “The Twilight Zone” in 2020, “That Damn Michael Che” in 2021, and “Gossip Girl” in 2021. And in 2022, on Disney+’s animated series “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” he voiced Randall Leibowitz-Jenkins.
In 2022, he directed and produced the movie on Amazon Prime Video named “Anything’s Possible.”
And in 2023, he was see in “80 for Brady,” alongside with famous stars like Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, and, of course, Tom Brady. That’s about his career!
Personal Life
On December 29, 2016, Billy Porter got engaged to Adam Smith. They married on January 14, 2017, making sure to do it “while Obama was still president.”
But life takes its turns and you know it. In July 2023, they decided to break their marriage.
In a 2020 “Vanity Fair” interview, Porter stated about race:
“The reason why our country is in the mess we’re in is simply because of whiteness. White supremacy. White people choke-holding power and sucking the life out of humanity. Orangina 45, that cancer that is in our White House, has been handed the power, without consequence, to have his hate metastasize all over the people.”
In an interview with “The Hollywood Reporter” in May 2021, Billy shared that in 2007, he had been diagnosed with HIV, and that same year, he had been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes and also filed for bankruptcy.
Then, in September 2021, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation gave Billy honor by awarding him the Elizabeth Taylor Commitment to End AIDS award.
