Net Worth | $40,000,000 |
---|---|
Full Name | Robert McElhenney |
Date of Birth/Age | April 14, 1977 (age 42) |
Height | 5’10” |
Source of wealth | Actor, Director, Producer, Writer, Dancer |
Country of origin | U.S. |
State/City of origin | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Last Updated | 2019 |
What Is Rob McElhenney’s Net Worth?
Rob McElhenney’s net worth is $40 million.
How Did Rob McElhenney Make His Money?
He is an actor, writer, producer, and director. McElhenney is best known as the character Mac on the offbeat sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
McElhenney came up with the idea while he was working as a waiter between acting jobs. He pitched his idea to several studios and ended up signing with FX.
McElhenney is a star, writer and director of the show. He signed on his longtime friends Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day as co-stars and fellow producers.
McElhenney has had small roles in other movies and TV shows, but his success is large with the TV show Always Sunny.
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Rob McElhenney Early Life and Career
McElhenney was born in Philadelphia. His parents divorced when he was eight years old. He once explained that his parents’ marriage fell apart when his mother came out as gay.
The divorce was not acrimonious. His parents remained close friends, and McElhenney was raised largely by his father.
McElhenney attended St. John’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia.
Early Life
After graduating from high school, McElhenney moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. He worked there for a few years without attaining any notable success. He audited some classes at Fordham University but decided against enrolling full-time as a student.
He met and befriended Charlie Day while he was in New York.
When he was 25, he decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue better options. He was able to get small roles in movies that included The Devil’s Own, Wonder Boys, A Civil Action, Latter Days and Tollbooth. He also had some small TV roles. He appeared on Law and Order and ER.
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Always Sunny
McElhenney had been toying around with the idea of a sitcom based on his observations of the friends he met as a struggling actor.
Along with Day and Howerton, he shot a short version of a sitcom pilot based on this idea. The video was made with a budget of $200. McElhenney said they had a hard time scraping the money together.
McElhenney showed the video to various studio agents. He received several offers but chose to go with FX because they offered him more creative freedom. He wanted to have the ability to write, direct and produce. FX gave him that opportunity.
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Some Minor Changes
McElhenney has said that the cable network wanted one change to the show. McElhenney had pitched a show about out-of-work actors hanging aimlessly around Los Angeles as they waited for jobs and tried to scrape out a living.
According to McElhenney, he figured his hometown would be a good substitute for Hollywood:
“The network came to us and said, ‘We don’t want a show about actors,’ and we said, ‘Fine, let’s put it somewhere else. I’m from Philly, let’s put it in Philly, and we’ll make it about a bar because that’s a job where you can have lots of free time and still have income that could explain how these people can sustain themselves.”
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An Instant Hit
The show debuted in 2005 and was an instant cult hit. Viewers appreciated its dark, twisted sense of humor. The show has been renewed for 14 seasons. This makes it one of the longest-running live-action sitcoms in TV history.
The show centers on a pair of brothers who own a seedy bar in a rundown part of South Philadelphia.
It features the doings of a group of their friends that call themselves “the Gang.” They are all aimless, self-centered and lacking in any ambition or drive.
Many viewers and critics compared it to Seinfeld, another immensely popular sitcom that featured a group of self-centered friends.
When Jonathan Storm of the Philadelphia Enquirer called it “Seinfeld on crack,” the line went viral. FX even started using the line “Seinfeld on crack” as its tagline to advertise the show.
In 2014, Entertainment Weekly listed the show at number 7 in its “26 Best Cult TV Shows Ever” lineup.
The sitcom continues to be a top hit for FX. It won a 2011 Satellite Award for Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical and a 2016 People’s Choice Award.
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A New Show
In 2019, Apple TV announced that it had signed a new show from McElhenney. The show is titled Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. It is about a group of friends who work as game developers for a major video game company.
Relationships
McElhenney is married to Kaitlin Olson, who is his co-star on Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Olson is known for her starring roles on the Scary Movie franchise and in the movie House Bunny.
They have two children.
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A Childhood Dream
In 2019, McElhenney got to see another dream come true.
In a 2005 episode of Always Sunny, McElhenney’s character Mac wrote an adoring fan letter to Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Chase Utley. During the show, he read the letter aloud, which said in part,
“I’d like to meet you one day. It would be great to have a catch. I know I can’t throw as fast as you, but I think you’d be impressed by my speed.” He also said, “I hope you write back to me, and we can be friends. I think our relationship would be a real home run!”
During Utley’s retirement ceremony at Phillies stadium, the legendary pitcher brought McElhenney out onto the field for a game of catch. The crowd cheered as the two tossed the ball a few times.
McElhenney wrote on his Instagram, “What an amazing night. Thanks to the Phillies for making a dream come true for a little boy trapped in a grown man’s body.
A special thanks and congratulations to Chase Utley for an amazing career. You earned every second of that adoration from the fans at the park and at home. And of course, from my despicable and sad onscreen persona.”
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Favorite Quotes from Rob McElhenney
“I feel like it’s a dangerous and dark world if ‘Sunny’ becomes mainstream comedy. If you were to turn on CBS at 8:00 on Thursday and see an episode of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,’ I don’t know if I want to live in that world.”
“It just so happens that people aren’t doing comedy about abortion or cannibalism or waterboarding. And that, to me, doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t aspects to those subjects that are funny, it just means that people are too uptight.”