Seth MacFarlane Net Worth

Introduction: 

Seth Macfarlane Net Worth, How did the American actor and producer accumulate such wealth? Read on to find out more about Seth Macfarlane Net Worth and his career.

Seth Macfarlane Early Life

He is an American producer, writer, voice actor, singer and comedian. Seth Macfarlane is a distant descendant of Mayflower passenger William Brewster. He developed an interest in illustration as a child thanks to cartoons like Woody

Woodpecker and Fred Flintstone. Seth decided to pursue a career in animation when he was just five years old. At age nine, Seth published his first comic, Walter Crouton which was published weekly in The Kent Good Times Dispatch. 

Seth earned $5 per week from the comic, his first paying gig. During high school, he started making short films using his parents 8mm camera. He then proceeded to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he studied film, video and animation.

He had a classmate named Patrick Henry while at RISD. Patrick later introduced Seth to his brother Mike Henry, an aspiring stand-up comedian/actor who would later collaborated on several MacFarlane projects. Mike Henry later voice the characters Cleveland Brown, Herbert, Consuela and Bruce and also co-created The Cleveland Show in 2009 which ran until 2013.

During Seth’s senior year at RISD, he created a film these called The Life of Larry which his professor submitted to executives at Hanna-Barbera who instantly offered Seth a job.

Seth worked on a number of Hanna-Barbera projects. He created an updated version of The Life of Larry called Larry & Steve in 1996 which featured a lovable/dumb middle-aged character named Larry and his loyal intelligent dog, Steve.

He has been romantically linked to a number of beautiful actresses. Seth dated Eliza Dushku briefly. He also dated Emilia Clarke from 2012 to 2013.

Seth Macfarlane Career

Seth Woodbury MacFarlane was born on the 26th of October, 1973 in Kent, Connecticut. He has managed to create three hit television shot for a major network TV channel with DVDs and merchandise with his smash hit shows Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show.

Seth has also written, directed and produced several films including Ted which grossed over $500 million, Ted 2 which grossed just under $200 million and A Million Ways to Die in the West.

However, after seeing the film ‘Larry & Steve’, executives at Fox asked Seth to pitch them a show idea. Fox initially passed but after the surprise success of their 1997 show King of the Hill, Seth was invited back to pitch again. 

This time around Fox agreed to produce a pilot but offered Seth a scant $50,000 to use as his budget. At the time, most animated prime time shows had a per-episode budget of $1 million.

Seth actually spent six months creating what he would later admit was a crudely animated film ‘The pilot’ which impressed Fox execs who immediately ordered a full season. 

He was the youngest executive producer in television at age 24. Family Guy debuted on January 31, 1999 immediately after Fox broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIII and it was seen by 22 million people. The first season performed well enough to earn a second season.

Unfortunately, during the second season the show faced steep competition at the Thursday, 9PM time slot and ratings subsequently tanked. Fox technically canceled the show in May 2000 after the second season, but after a last-minute reprieve a third season was approved and returned in November 2001.

The show continued to find good ratings and was officially canceled in the summer of 2002. Family Guy found the following when reruns started airing on Cartoon Network. It was actually the networks highest-rated show overall, boosting viewership more than 200%. In 2003 the show first and second seasons were released on DVD.

An astounding (for the time) 400,000 copies sold in the first week. Seasons 1 and 2 sold millions of copies and were the best-selling DVDs of 2003 and 2004. Today the season 1 and 2 set is the second best-selling TV DVD in history behind Chappelle Show. Fox quickly uncancelled the show, bringing back a fourth season in May 2005.

Over the next 15 years, Family Guy would air more than 300 new episodes over an additional 14 seasons. It has been syndicated globally in dozens of countries and languages.

Seth is also the creator/executive producer of American Dad which premiered in 2005 and is still going strong to this day. He co-created The Cleveland show which ran from 2009 to 2013. In 2016 he created the live-action Fox series The Orville.

Seth has released five musical albums and performs regularly as a big band act. From 2005 to 2008 alone, the show generated north of $1 billion in revenue – $400 Million from syndication deals, $400 from DVD sales and $200 million in merchandise sales. To date the show generated several billion in revenue from all income sources.

Seth Macfarlane Net Worth

As of today, Seth Macfarlane Net Worth is $300 Million. Seth Macfarlane Net Worth is acquired from his career as a producer and an actor.

A single syndicated episode sells for $2 million. A single 30-second commercial on the new airings sells for $200,000. The show generates $500 million a year in ad revenue. Over 500 Family Guy-related toys and items have been licensed to major retailers including Wal-Mart and Target, generating $100 million a year in revenue.

From 2005 to 2008, Seth was paid $2 million per year by Fox for his show-running duties. He negotiated a 5-year $100 million dollar deal in 2009 to run his animation empire.

However, it was the largest and priciest contract in television history up to that point. And neither of those salary figures include DVD or merchandise rights which are estimated to earn Seth upwards of $20 million additionally each year!.

Since 2008, Seth’s primary home has been a large mansion in Beverly Hills that he scooped up for $13.5 million. He spent $15.7 million on a home in Malibu, California on 2019.

Summary: 

Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American producer, writer, voice actor, singer and comedian.

He has managed to create three hit television shot for a major network TV channel with DVDs and merchandise with his smash hit shows Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show.

As of 2020, Seth Macfarlane’s net worth is $300 Million.