Check In on Jami Gertz, George Clooney and More Celebrity Billionaires

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Fortune favors the bold… and the famous, it seems.

The world’s billionaires aren’t just the usual business giants like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett. Interestingly, many celebrities achieved fame before developing the business skills that led to their wealth, unlike traditional tycoons.

Jami Gertz is a great example of someone with a fascinating career change. Before becoming an owner of the Atlanta Hawks NBA team with her husband, Tony Ressler, she was a popular actress in the 1980s and 90s. She starred in well-known shows like The Facts of Life and Square Pegs, and appeared in movies such as Twister, Sixteen Candles, and The Lost Boys.

People assume I married Tony Resnick for his money,” Gertz explained to The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “Actually, I was already earning significantly more than he was when we met. I covered the costs for our first home and our initial vacation together.”

Indeed, she emphasized, “I married him because I fell in love with him.” 

Gertz isn’t alone in achieving wealth through fame. Stars like Selena Gomez and Rihanna became billionaires by creating successful beauty brands – Rare Beauty and Fenty Beauty, respectively. Taylor Swift also reached billionaire status thanks to her incredibly popular Eras Tour and owning all of her music.

In May 2025, Taylor Swift announced on her website that she had regained ownership of all of her previously released music.

Oprah Winfrey turned her successful talk show into a fortune estimated at $3.2 billion. This wealth comes from her work as an actress, her ownership of the Oprah Winfrey Network, and her real estate investments worldwide.

Despite being a classic Hollywood leading man, George Clooney made a significant portion of his fortune by founding the Casamigos tequila brand, which he later sold for $1 billion.

In a 2017 interview with The Sunday Times, the actor, who was 56 at the time, explained that he’s no longer cast in romantic leading roles. He also shared that while acting was once his primary source of income, he’d recently made enough money – selling a tequila company for a billion dollars – that he no longer needs to work for financial reasons.

Read on to learn more about celebrities you may not have known are billionaires. 

Kim Kardashian is doing very well financially. Her shapewear company, SKIMS, was recently valued at $5 billion, making the reality star worth an estimated $1.9 billion.

Taylor Swift’s song “Wi$h Li$t” playfully mentions wanting a family with Travis Kelce and a neighborhood full of people who look like him, but with a net worth of around $2 billion, she could easily afford a luxurious life of yachts and helicopters.

Everyone knows Taylor Swift’s incredibly successful Eras tour earned her a fortune, but now owning the rights to her own music adds another $900 million to her wealth.

Selena Gomez is incredibly successful financially. While Forbes estimates her net worth around $700 million, Bloomberg and other sources believe it’s closer to $1.3 billion, largely due to her majority ownership (51%) in her makeup brand, Rare Beauty.

She told Entertainment Tonight at the 2024 New York Film Festival that she prefers not to discuss finances, but wants to emphasize her gratitude to her customers. ‘They’re the reason I’ve been able to achieve my dream,’ she said, ‘and I’m incredibly honored and happy.’

Rihanna has clearly worked hard to build her success. While some fans feel she’s paused her music career – her last album, ANTI, came out in 2016 – she’s significantly increased her wealth. Thanks to her cosmetics company, Fenty Beauty, created in partnership with LVMH, she’s now estimated to be worth $1 billion.

Jami Gertz is known for her roles in movies and TV shows like Square Pegs, Sixteen Candles, Lost Boys, and Twister. However, her most successful venture has been an investment she and her husband, Tony Ressler, made in 2015: purchasing the NBA team, the Atlanta Hawks.

Despite the common assumption that she married Tony Ressler for his wealth – he’s worth over $10 billion – she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 that she was actually the wealthier one when they met. She revealed she financed their first home and vacation, and ultimately married him because of love, not money.

Oprah Winfrey began with a popular talk show, which grew into a hugely successful media company. Combining the earnings from her 25-year-long series with her work on films like The Color Purple, Beloved, and Selma, she’s built a net worth of $3.2 billion. This allows her to own a vast property portfolio, including 2,100 acres in Hawaii.

Tyler Perry remembers a time when Hollywood wasn’t interested in his work, as he told Variety in 2019 while discussing the film adaptation of his play, Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Now, he’s receiving many offers. Because he owns all rights to his creations – writing, producing, and starring in them – the creator of the Madea films has built a $1.4 billion business.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has likely gone through several financial advisors over the years. The former governor has built a $1.2 billion fortune through approximately $500 million in earnings from his films, as well as an investment in Dimensional Fund Advisors, a firm managing over $1 trillion in assets and founded by billionaire David Booth.

Roger Federer, the celebrated tennis star, earned an estimated $1.1 billion during his career – not only through winning 20 Grand Slam titles, but also through lucrative endorsements with brands like Uniqlo, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, and a Swiss athletic apparel company.

As a lifestyle expert, I’ve always been fascinated by success stories, and Jerry Seinfeld’s is a classic! What started as a show about, well, nothing, turned into a huge financial win for him and Larry David. They still earn a reported 15% of the profits from the show’s reruns, and recently landed a massive $500 million deal with Netflix. Let’s just say, it all adds up – he’s now estimated to be worth around $1.1 billion! It’s a great reminder that a unique idea and smart business sense can take you far.

In 2013, George Clooney and Rande Gerber started Casamigos tequila, and just four years later, they sold the company for a remarkable $1 billion.

After a legendary NBA career that earned him a place in the Hall of Fame, Magic Johnson founded Magic Johnson Enterprises to expand his wealth. The company now owns parts of several major businesses, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Commanders, and popular restaurant chains like T.G.I. Friday’s and Burger King, and is estimated to be worth between $1 and $1.5 billion.

Michael Jordan, widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, is also a billionaire, according to Forbes’ 2026 list. While his legendary career certainly contributed to his wealth, his $4.3 billion fortune is also thanks to the enduring success of his Air Jordan brand with Nike and his ownership stake in the Charlotte Hornets basketball team.

LeBron James has earned an estimated $500 million from his salaries while playing for championship teams like the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Los Angeles Lakers. However, the majority of his income – around $1.4 billion – comes from endorsement deals with major brands like PepsiCo, Nike, and Beats by Dre.

Okay, so everyone knows Ashton Kutcher as an actor – and he did pretty well for himself there! But honestly, his real success story is his investment firm, A-Grade. They got in early on some huge tech companies – I’m talking Spotify, Foursquare, Uber, and even Airbnb. That’s where he really made his fortune, and it’s a great example of diversifying your income streams!

The popular TV show Full House featured Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and they’ve now expanded their successful careers by creating a highly regarded fashion brand!

Brands like The Row, Olsenboye, and Elizabeth & James allowed the founders to amass a $1 billion fortune. This valuation was confirmed in September 2024 when they sold a portion of their luxury label, The Row.

U2’s lead singer, Bono, has seen significant financial success through his investment firm, Elevation Partners. Their 2.3% ownership in Facebook has reportedly made Bono a fortune, with the company now valued at around $1.9 billion – a larger source of his wealth than his music career.

Although Tiger Woods has earned $1.9 billion throughout his career, prize money accounts for less than 10% of that total. The vast majority of his income comes from endorsements, fees for appearances, and his work designing golf courses.

As Jay-Z famously said, he doesn’t just do business, he is business. And his success proves it – his net worth has soared to an estimated $2.8 billion, nearly tripling since 2019. This growth is thanks to smart deals like selling half of his champagne brand, Ace of Spades, to LVMH in 2021, and later, selling a majority share of his cognac brand, D’Usse, to Bacardi in 2023.

Beyoncé is contributing another billion dollars to the family wealth, building on her success from years of creating iconic and unique songs.

As a longtime fan, I wasn’t surprised at all when Dr. Dre’s hard work with Beats finally paid off. Seeing Apple buy Beats Electronics for $3 billion back in 2014 was incredible! It cemented his status as a true mogul, and reports say it put his net worth right around $1 billion – seriously impressive!

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2026-04-21 06:18