Hollywood Black Actresses Are Richer Than You Think
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NewsTranscript
00:00From Oprah Winfrey turning a $235,000 movie check into $3.4 billion to Halle Berry whose
00:08Oscar film paid $600,000 while her flop paid $14 million to Lupita Nyong'o with an Oscar a $1
00:17.34
00:18billion hit and receives about $10 million per contract. These are 15 top black actresses who
00:26have way more money than you ever imagined. Oprah Winfrey start at the very top because nobody else
00:32on this list is even close. As of mid-September 2026, Forbes puts Oprah Winfrey at about $3.4 billion.
00:41Earlier in the year, on the 2026 Celebrity Billionaires list, she sat at about $3.2 billion.
00:48Either way, that is billions with a B. Now here is the part that surprises people.
00:53Oprah is known as an actress. She was in The Color Purple. She was in Beloved.
00:59She was in The Butler. But acting is a tiny slice of the pie. For the original Color Purple,
01:05she was paid about $235,000. That experience pushed her lawyer to give her advice that changed
01:12everything. Do not just host the show. Own the show. She listened. Through Harpo,
01:18she owned The Oprah Winfrey Show instead of taking a salary for it.
01:22Forbes says the talk show profits and Harpo's film and TV work, reinvested into the company and real
01:29estate, built more than an estimated $2.8 billion, then came Own, her cable network,
01:36launched in 2011. In 2020, she sold most of her stake to Warner Bros Discovery and kept a smaller piece.
01:43And then there is the land. Forbes counts homes in California and over a dozen properties,
01:49including 2,100 acres in Hawaii. That is not a vacation home. That is a small country. In 2026,
01:59she ranked number 16 among America's richest self-made women. She is still the richest black woman in
02:05America. But she is not on the 2026 Forbes 400 because the cutoff jumped to about $4.4 billion.
02:15Think about that. A woman worth over $3 billion was not rich enough to make that list.
02:21So is Oprah an actress who got rich? Not really. She is an owner who also acts. And that one
02:28choice,
02:29to own instead of rent, is the lesson every other woman on this list will teach us in her own
02:35way.
02:36Halle Berry. Halle Berry made history. She was the first black woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress
02:42for Monsters Ball. Today, both Celebrity Net Worth and Parade hold her at $90 million. That number has
02:51barely moved in years. And there is a reason for that. Look at how Hollywood paid her. In 1996,
02:58Executive Decision paid her $1 million. Swordfish paid $2.5 million. Die Another Day paid $4 million.
03:08Gothica paid $6 million. And then came Catwoman in 2004 with a career-high check of $14 million.
03:16Now hold on. Guess what the Oscar movie paid? Monsters Ball, the film that made her a legend,
03:22paid just $600,000. And Catwoman, the film that paid her the most, it earned about $82 million worldwide
03:31on a budget of around $100 million. The flop paid more than 20 times the Oscar winner.
03:37Hollywood math is strange. So where does the rest of the $90 million come from? Beauty for one. Halle
03:44signed with Revlon back in 1996 in one of the longest celebrity beauty deals in the business.
03:50Early on, it was about $3 million a year, with a bump to around $5 million after the Oscar.
03:58She also has a Netflix overall deal and her own producing company, 606 Films.
04:04Then there are the houses. In 2004, she bought a Malibu oceanfront home for $8.5 million. In October
04:132023, she listed it for $18 million, then pulled the listing. In 2006, she bought a Los Angeles home
04:21from actor Frankie Muniz for about $6 million. But money also flows out. After her divorce from
04:29Olivier Martinez, she was reported to owe $8,000 a month, plus 4.3% of her yearly income above
04:36$2 million.
04:37That is a leak that never makes the flashy lists. So Halle is rich. Very rich. Just not rich in
04:44the
04:45way her Oscar suggests. Her biggest money came from the movies critics forgot and the makeup deal
04:50everyone ignored. Zoe Saldana
04:53If you judged Zoe Saldana by box office alone, you would think she was a billionaire. As of January
05:002026, her movies had earned about $15.47 billion worldwide. She is the only person to appear in four
05:09films that each made over $2 billion. Avatar, Avatar The Way of Water, Avengers Infinity War,
05:18Endgame. Four of the biggest movies ever made. So how rich is she? Parade and several 2026 pieces
05:26say about $80 million. Others say $60 million. That is a lot of money. But it is nowhere near $15
05:36billion. Here is why. The money a movie makes is not the money an actor makes. For the first Avatar
05:42in 2009,
05:44Zoe was reportedly paid about $4 million. For the first Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014,
05:51the figure often cited is about $100,000. Yes, you heard that right. $100,000 for a Marvel movie that
06:00made the world fall in love with Gamora. Things got better as the franchises grew. Infinity War
06:06reportedly paid her about $3 million. Endgame paid about $11 million. The Way of Water,
06:14doubled her Avatar check to around $8 million. Meanwhile, James Cameron's own take from The Way
06:20of Water was reported near $95 million. That gap tells you everything. Cameron owns a piece of the
06:27machine. Zoe mostly gets paid up front. She has more than blockbusters too. She won the Oscar for
06:35Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Perez in 2025. She played Uhura in the Star Trek reboot. And she has
06:42worked with brands like Calvin Klein, L'Oreal, Lenscrafters, and Nintendo. So Zoe is richer than you think
06:50because she sits inside two of the biggest movie machines of the last 20 years. And she is poorer than
06:56the headline because $15 billion in tickets was never hers to keep. She is proof that being in the room
07:04is
07:04not the same as owning the room. Queen Latifah. Queen Latifah may be the smartest business mind on this
07:10list after Oprah. Celebrity Net Worth and Parade put her at $60 million. One magazine goes even higher,
07:18placing her near $100 million. Either way, she beats many actresses with bigger awards. And the reason is
07:25simple. She did not build one career. She built four businesses. And she kept them running for over 30
07:31years. First, the music. She came up as a rapper with All Hail the Queen and won a Grammy for
07:38UNITY.
07:39That catalog still pays. Second, her company. With Shaquem Compere, she runs Flavor Unit Entertainment.
07:47That means on projects like Just Right, Bessie, and The Equalizer, she was not only the star.
07:53She was also an owner. Stars get paid once, owners keep getting paid. Third, television. The Equalizer,
08:02the CBS reboot, ran five seasons before it was canceled in 2025. Her salary per episode was never
08:10made public. But the show lives on through streaming, with all five seasons on Paramount and early seasons
08:16on Netflix. Fourth, brands. She has been with CoverGirl since 2001, including The Queen Collection
08:26launched in 2006 for Deeper Skin Shades. That is over two decades with one beauty brand. And then there is
08:33something most stars never do. Queen Latifah put her money back into her home area. She was reported to
08:40be involved in an affordable housing project in Newark, worth about $14 million around 2019.
08:47That is not a mansion flex. That is building something for the people who watched her grow up.
08:52So when you see a famous dramatic actress with a golden statue and a smaller bank account,
08:58remember Queen Latifah. She stacked music, a company, a hit show, and a beauty deal on top of each other.
09:05Each one fed the next. That is how a rapper from New Jersey became one of the richest women on
09:11this list.
09:12Kerry Washington. Kerry Washington is worth about $50 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
09:19With her husband, former NFL star Nnamdi Asomuga, some outlets put the couple near $80 million. But how
09:26she got there is not the story most people tell. Most people think of scandal. And scandal was huge.
09:33Kerry became the first black woman to lead a network drama in about 40 years. But in the early days,
09:40she earned about $80,000 per episode. At the show's peak that climbed to about $250,000 per episode.
09:48Good money, but not the whole story. The quiet giant was endorsements. Between 2016 and 2018,
09:55brands like Neutrogena, Apple, and Movado helped her earn $13 million, then $11 million, then $12
10:04million across those three years. In 2018, Forbes ranked her the 8th highest paid TV actress.
10:12Then came the Million Dollar episode. For the Hulu limited series Little Fires everywhere in 2020,
10:18Kerry was paid $1.1 million per episode. And she was not just the star. She was also an executive
10:25producer. That points to her real engine. In 2016, she started her company, Simpson Street,
10:33named after the Bronx Street where her father grew up. Right after scandal, it landed a first-look TV deal
10:39with ABC Studios. Through it, she produced shows like Confirmation, American Son, and Reasonable Doubt.
10:47She also stepped behind the camera to direct. Her homes tell a quieter story of smart money.
10:54In 2013, she bought a Los Angeles house for $1.9 million and sold it for $2.7 million in
11:022016.
11:03Later came a Beverly Hills home at $6.75 million, plus a compound next door for under $4 million.
11:11So Kerry did not get rich from one hit show. She got rich by turning that hit show into brand
11:17deals,
11:18a producing company, and a pipeline of work she owns. The show opened the door. The company kept it
11:25open. Zendaya. Zendaya is one of the most famous faces on the planet right now. As of August 2026,
11:32Celebrity Net Worth puts her at $40 million. You may have seen viral posts saying $100 million.
11:40Those do not come from the same kind of source, still. $40 million is remarkable when you look
11:46at how quickly she built it. She started as a Disney kid on Shake It Up, reportedly earning somewhere
11:52around $140,000 to $200,000 a season. In the early years, that is a nice check for a teenager.
12:00But it is not movie star money. Then her career exploded. Spider-Man, Dune, Euphoria.
12:07And here is a surprise. Her pay for the early Spider-Man and Dune films was never solidly reported.
12:13The first widely reported eight-figure film check came with Challengers in 2024. She got $10 million to
12:21star in and produce it. On TV, she renegotiated Euphoria for season three to about $1 million per
12:28episode. And since she is also an executive producer on the show, her real earnings can
12:34go beyond that acting line. But the part people miss is fashion. Zendaya works with Louis Vuitton,
12:39Lancome, Valentino, Bulgari, and on. One breakdown puts that luxury stack at $5 million to $8 million a
12:49year. That is steady money that shows up whether a movie hits or misses. It is how a young star
12:54can
12:55reach $40 million without 20 years of huge film checks. So Zendaya is two things at once. She is
13:02richer than you think because she is already in the same money range as stars decades older than her.
13:08And she is poorer than the hype because the billions her movies made at the box office
13:13were never her paycheck. The good news for her is simple. The biggest checks of her life are probably
13:20still ahead. Gabrielle Union. Gabrielle Union is worth about $40 million, but in her house,
13:27she is not the richest person. Her husband, NBA legend Dwyane Wade, is estimated at $170 million
13:35to $210 million, with about $196 million from NBA salary alone. So when people call the couple a $210
13:45million household, most of that is his. Her own career is long and strong. Bring it on.
13:52Bad boys too. Deliver us from Eva, being Mary Jane on bet. On the business side, she has Flawless by
14:01Gabrielle Union, a hair care line, and proudly, a baby care brand she built with Wade, around their
14:08daughter Kaavia. The couple also sold a Miami waterfront home for a reported $22 million. But
14:16the real story is what Gabrielle keeps telling people. She has said openly that stars do not get
14:23paid what fans think they get paid, and that every check gets split many ways. Endorsements exist because
14:30acting alone does not pay for the year. She has also said she still gets nervous. When a movie does
14:36not do
14:37well, and wonders if she will have enough to hold everybody up, that fear has roots. In her first marriage,
14:44she was the one paying the bills. And today, she covers costly memory care for her father.
14:50So here's a woman, who is truly wealthy, married to an even wealthier man, and who still worries
14:56about money. That sounds strange until you add it up. Taxes, agents, managers, family, staff. The number
15:04on a list does not tell you how the money feels month to month. Gabrielle Union is richer than you
15:10think,
15:11but she wants you to know. It is not as easy as you think either. Viola Davis.
15:16Viola Davis has won almost everything an actor can win. A Tony. An Oscar for Fences in 2017.
15:24An Emmy for How to Get Away with Murder, where she became the first black woman to win lead actress
15:31in a drama and a Grammy for an audiobook. So how rich is the queen of prestige? Celebrity net worth
15:38now
15:38says $35 million. Older lists said $25 million. In one stretch from 2019 to 2020, Forbes counted her
15:48earnings at about $15.5 million. But to understand her money, you have to start at the bottom. For the
15:56film,
15:56Antoine Fisher, early in her career, Viola was paid just $671. Not $671,671. That one number shows how far
16:09she climbed. TV changed everything on how to get away with murder. She started at about $250,000 per episode,
16:17over six seasons that added up to millions later for Showtime's The First Lady. She reportedly earned
16:24$600,000 per episode. And one breakdown puts her pay for Netflix's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at about
16:32$3 million. Her other engine is family business. In 2011, she and her husband, Julius Tennant,
16:40started Juvie Productions. It has made projects like Troop Zero and The First Lady. And in July,
16:462026, Juvie signed a first-look deal with Universal Global Television, with a series called Pawn as the
16:53first project under that deal. Now here's the honest part. Awards do not print money on their own. They
17:00raise an actor's price, but they are not a paycheck. Viola's wealth comes from long TV runs, strong
17:07streaming checks, and a company that keeps her projects in her own hands. So she is not a billion-dollar
17:13brand. But she went from $671 to tens of millions, while collecting every major award along the way.
17:22That is not just a career. That is a climb. Jennifer Hudson. Jennifer Hudson did not win American Idol.
17:30In season three, in 2004, she finished in seventh place. And yet today, celebrity net worth puts her at
17:38$30 million, which makes her one of the richest people that show ever produced. Losing was the best
17:45thing that ever happened to her. Two years later came Dreamgirls. She played Effie White and won the
17:52Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. But here's the surprise. One report puts her acting check for that
17:59film at around $400,000. An Oscar performance for a price that would not buy a big house in Los
18:06Angeles.
18:07Then she did something rare. She collected all four major awards. The Grammys came from her music.
18:14In 2022, she won an Emmy as an executive producer of the virtual reality film Baba Yaga.
18:20That same year, she won a Tony as a producer of the Broadway show A Strange Loop. That is how
18:27she
18:27finished her EGOT. Not with a starring role, but with a producer's credit. Today, her main moneymaker is
18:34Daytime TV. The Jennifer Hudson show launched in 2022 with Warner Bros. One Breakdown puts her yearly
18:41host earnings at about $5 million to $6 million earlier. Her time as a coach on The Voice was
18:49estimated in one bio at about $8 million. Add in music royalties, her Aretha Franklin biopic respect
18:57and endorsement deals. And you can see how the money stacks up. So why only $30 million for someone
19:04with all four trophies? Because she built three strong income streams. Music, movies and daytime TV.
19:11Without owning the whole machine like Oprah did. Daytime shows cost a lot to run. Staff, a house band,
19:18hair and wardrobe. So Jennifer Hudson earns steadily. Year after year. She just has not had one giant sale that
19:26would change the number overnight. Whoopi Goldberg. Whoopi Goldberg's net worth depends on who you ask.
19:34Celebrity net worth says $25 million. Other sites print $20 million, $30 million or as high as $60
19:43million. That widespread is a clue. Her salary is huge. What she has kept is harder to see. Her awards
19:51shelf is legendary. She won a Grammy for comedy in 1986. She won an Oscar for Ghost. She won a
19:59Tony as
20:00a producer of Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2002. And she won an Emmy too. She is one of the rare
20:07EGOT
20:08winners. Her film career had big peaks. The Color Purple made her a star. Sister Act made more than $230
20:16million worldwide. And for Sister Act 2, in 1993, she was widely reported to earn between $7 million
20:24and $12 million. Which at the time put her among the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. But her real
20:31money machine is The View. She joined in 2007. Around 2016 reports put her pay at $5 million to $6
20:40million a
20:41year. Today, celebrity net worth says about $8 million a year and estimates she has likely earned
20:48well over $100 million from the show. And it may be even more. In August 2026, on Keke Palmer's podcast,
20:57Whoopi refused to name her number. She said viewers would be shocked and that The View is not even her
21:04highest paying gig. Her homes show smart timing too. She bought a Pacific Palisades house for about
21:10$2.6 million in 1993 and sold it for $8.8 million in 2018. In 2009, she bought a 23
21:20-room house in West
21:21Orange, New Jersey for $2.8 million. So how can someone earn $8 million a year and be listed at
21:29$25
21:30million? Taxes, houses, staff and a 40-year career all take their share. Whoopi is proof that a massive
21:38salary and a massive fortune are not always the same thing. Angela Bassett. Here's a detail most
21:45lists get wrong. Parade says Angela Bassett's $25 million is a combined number, shared with her
21:53husband, actor Courtney B. Vance. So that figure is not hers alone. It covers two whole careers in
22:01one household. Angela's breakthrough came playing Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It in 1993.
22:07It earned her an Oscar nomination. Her pay? About $250,000. Then her price climbed fast. Waiting to
22:16exhale paid her $2.5 million. Supernova and the score paid her $3.5 million each. Later came Marvel.
22:25She played Queen Ramonda in Black Panther and Wakanda Forever. That was a cultural high point.
22:31But supporting roles in Marvel movies rarely have their pay made public. Her modern money machine is
22:38in the world's television. On 9 to 1-1, going into season five in 2021, she was reported to earn
22:44more
22:44than $450,000 per episode, plus producing on the franchise. That rate was described as possibly the
22:52highest for a black woman on network TV at the time. Do the simple math, a 14-episode season at
23:00that rate
23:00is about $6.3 million before any bonus. And her rate since 2021 has not been reported again,
23:08so $450,000 is likely the floor, not the ceiling. So why does the household number look small?
23:15Because it squeezes two careers into one line. Courtney B. Vance has his own long record,
23:21including 111 episodes of Law & Order, Criminal Intent, The People vs. O.J. Simpson,
23:28and a Tony for Lucky Guy. All of that sits inside the same $25 million. Then add taxes,
23:36agents, raising twins, and life in Los Angeles. Angela Bassett has been a star for over 30 years.
23:43Her fortune is real, but the published number hides just how much she has earned,
23:48because it counts a whole family under one roof. Raven Simonet. Raven Simonet has one of the wildest
23:55money myths in Hollywood. Back in 2009, a magazine called her the $400 million woman. People believed
24:02it for years, but that number was never her bank account. It was an estimate of Disney merchandise
24:08sales for the whole That's So Raven franchise. Dolls? DVDs? Games? Disney's money, not hers.
24:16So what is she really worth? Celebrity Net Worth says $20 million, and a 2026 Yahoo piece uses the same
24:24figure. Older lists still print $50 million or more, which is why she looks richer than you think on some
24:31lists and less rich than the rumor on others. Her story starts when she was a small child on The
24:37Cosby
24:37Show. And here's the most surprising detail about her money. In May 2020, she said she has never
24:44spent her Cosby Show earnings. Those checks still arrive, and she treats them as a locked safety net.
24:50For a child star, that kind of discipline is rare. Many kids who got famous young lost everything.
24:58Raven kept her first money untouched. Then came That's So Raven on Disney Channel. Her pay is
25:05commonly cited at about $20,000 per episode early on, rising to $35,000 around 2003. The show ran four
25:14seasons and 100 episodes. The steady money came from reruns, royalties, and her share of the franchise,
25:22not the weekly check. After Disney, she kept working. She was a co-host on The View. She had
25:28a recurring role on Black-ish. And she is produced and directed on the sequel, Raven's Home. So Raven
25:35Simonet is not a $400 million woman, but she is something harder to find. A child star who grew up
25:42kept
25:42working, kept her early money safe, and outlasted almost everyone from that Disney era. Issa Rae.
25:49Issa Rae did not wait for Hollywood to give her a chance. She made her own. It started on YouTube
25:55with a web series called The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. From 2011 to 2013,
26:02the money from it was tiny. But the idea was worth a fortune. Today, celebrity net worth puts her at
26:08$20
26:09million. Some lists say $25 million, but the number that really matters is not what she gets paid to be
26:16on camera. It is what she owns that web series led to Insecure on HBO from 2016 to 2021. Five
26:24seasons,
26:2544 episodes. Issa was the co-creator, writer, executive producer, and star. That show made her
26:32famous. And fame, in her hands, became a business. In 2020, she launched Hooray,
26:39her umbrella company for film, TV, digital work, and music. In 2021, she signed a five-year overall
26:47deal with WarnerMedia, widely reported as eight figures, with several reports saying around $40
26:53million. Then, in January 2026, after about a decade, she left Warner Bros. Discovery and signed
27:01a three-year first-look deal for film and TV with Paramount. A first-look deal means a studio pays
27:08for
27:09the chance. To see her ideas before anyone else. That is power. And HBO still wants her. In August
27:172026, the network gave a pilot order to a new comedy about male friendship, from her and Prentice
27:24Penny, set in the Las Vegas boxing world. She also produced the Sony film One of Them Days, starring
27:31Keiki Palmer and Issa Eza. So Issa Rae is not a $10 million-a-movie actress. She is something better.
27:38She is the owner of a company studio's fight to work with. And she built it. Starting from a camera,
27:45a laptop, and a YouTube channel. Taraji P. Henson. Taraji P. Henson might be the most famous face on
27:53this list, with the smallest match between fame and fortune. As of September 2026, celebrity net worth
28:00puts her at $14 million. She has an Oscar nomination. She was cookie on Empire. And yet,
28:07her fortune sits far below many stars with less fame. The pay history explains why. For the curious
28:14case of Benjamin Button in 2008, she was paid $150,000. She has said the first offer was just
28:22$100,000. That was for a movie with a budget of about $150 million, where the lead stars were paid
28:30in the millions. That same year, Tyler Perry paid her $500,000 for the family that prays. She has said
28:37Perry was the first person to agree to that number, after she had been asking for it for a long
28:42time.
28:43In September 2026, she stood by Perry and said she does not have those pay problems at his studio,
28:50where she likes the zeros on her check. Then came Empire, at about $175,000 per episode across 102
28:58episodes. If that rate held the whole way, that is about $17.85 million before taxes and fees.
29:06And she has explained that when a check is big, taxes and her team take a large share of the
29:11gross.
29:12So a big headline number shrinks fast. In 2026, she also said she has never booked a franchise film
29:20and pointed to politics in the business. So she has been building her own second engine.
29:25Her beauty brand, TPH by Taraji. So she is not relying only on Hollywood's checks.
29:31Taraji's story is the one this whole video has been hinting at. Fame is not wealth. And sometimes,
29:38the loudest voice about the pay gap belongs to the star you assumed had it all.
29:42Lupita Nyong'o. And that brings us to the last name. The one that proves fame and money are not
29:49the same thing. Lupita Nyong'o is worth about $10 million, according to Billionaires Africa and
29:56Biography.com. For someone with her fame, that number stops people in their tracks.
30:02Her rise was like a fairy tale. She trained at the Yale School of Drama, then in her first major
30:08film,
30:0912 Years a Slave. She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2014. Most actors wait a
30:17lifetime for that. She got it at the very start. After that, she chose her roles with care.
30:24Queen of Catway. Maz Kanata in Star Wars. Nakia in Black Panther. A film that earned more than $1.34
30:32billion. Jordan Peele's Us. A Quiet Place. Day One. And in 2026, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.
30:41So why isn't she richer? Here's the key. She has no multi-season TV show where she is also a
30:47producer.
30:48That one fact explains most of the gap between her and stars like Kerry Washington, Viola Davis,
30:55Angela Bassett, and Zendaya. TV shows pay week after week, year after year. Lupita works less often and
31:03picks bigger, rarer films. Her steadiest money comes from beauty and luxury. In 2014, she became a
31:11Lancôme Global Ambassador, the first black woman in that role for the brand. She has also worked with
31:18De Beers, and she wrote Sulwe, a best-selling children's book. So the Oscar opened the door,
31:25endorsements, and a short list of huge movies built her fortune. But she has not built a company
31:30that studios pay millions just to work with. And maybe that is the lesson of this whole list.
31:36From Oprah's billions to Lupita's millions, the women who went furthest were not always the most famous.
31:43They were the ones who owned a piece of what they made. Fame gets you in the room.
31:48Ownership is what lets you keep the house. Click on one of the cards on your screen to see more
31:53videos like this.