How Michael Cera Achieved a Net Worth of $20 Million

Michael Cera grew up in front of his audience as a teenager in “Arrested Development,” and with time, he stopped being pigeonholed. He has proven to producers that he is a great actor who puts his all into whatever he does. Therefore, it is no surprise that he has never been out of work since he had a breakout role, and it has translated to Michael Cera’s net worth climbing to $20 million. Achieving the wealth began with a dream to be an actor as you shall read below.

Fulfilling His Childhood Dream

Cera was born in Ontario, and according to Independent, his Canadian mother and Italian father worked at Xerox. When he was three, Cera suffered a bad case of chickenpox which had him bedridden for a while. He spent so much time watching “Ghostbusters” that when Cera was four, he could recite the entire movie word for word. The film piqued the young boy’s interest, and he realized the people on the screen were playing a game. Bill Murray became the funniest person to young Cera, and “Ghostbusters” shaped his life. Years later, Cera got the chance to meet Ernie Hudson, who played Winston in the movie, and even paid $20 for a signed headshot reading “Michael, who are you going to call?” Young Cera figured that the people in the movie were being paid to play a game; thus, he knew from then on that he wanted to be an actor and be like Murray. He, therefore, began taking improv classes during the weekends. At nine years old, Cera took drama classes. A teacher spotted some talent in the young student; hence, she advised Cera to get an agent. The actor followed the advice and started auditioning for roles even in commercials hoping for a breakthrough. As he revealed to The Guardian, auditioning for advertisements was discouraging because kids who booked the gigs had to be over the top, and Cera was not. He observed the same kids kept getting roles until he asked his mother if they could stop attending the auditions.

TV and Film Acting

Although Cera had landed his first role in an advert, it was unpaid, which was disheartening. Things started looking up in 1999 when he booked the role of Larrabe Hicks in “I Was A Sixth Garde Alien,” a Canadian Kids television series. It ran for two seasons, and in 2001, Cera thought his fortune had changed for the better when he landed another role in “The Grubbs.” Unfortunately, the show was canceled after eight episodes, and it never saw the light of day. His efforts did not go down the drain because his acting in “The Grubbs” got him an audition in another show: “Arrested Development.” Cera had gotten used to things not going his way, so he still was skeptical about the new show. Fortunately, it started airing in 2003, and Cera was cast as George Michael Bluth. It ran for three seasons and wound up being the big break that Cera had been waiting for so long. When “Arrested Development” returned to the screen for the fourth and fifth seasons, Cera became not only a cast member but also a producer too. There was a new arrangement regarding cast salaries, and the actor starring in a certain episode would pocket $125,000. If the actor appeared for at least 90 seconds but was not the star, then he would earn $50,000. Being on the screen for less than 90 seconds meant receiving a $10,000 paycheck for that episode. If a clip of an actor from another episode was shown, that actor would receive $1,000. In light of this, Cera must have earned handsomely, considering that he was in 80 episodes of this television series.

TV Production and Directing

Doubling as a producer in the show also helped to increase his earnings. According to New York Times, Cera was proactive and asked to be part of the writing team for “Arrested Development.” The creator, Mitchell Hurwitz, could tell that Cera would make a great writer, and the actor proved him right. The show’s producer described Cera as a gifted guy, but the actor had learned from the best, after watching the writers in the writing room do and being intrigued. He has been said to be someone who can do anything he puts his mind to, and the several credits in his name are evidence. Therefore in 2007, as he continued filming “Arrested Development,” Cera still found time to be a co-creator, writer, producer, actor, and director in “Clark and Michael.” The original Web series features his friend Clark Duke, and the storyline is about two clueless guys hoping to have their first TV series produced. They worked on it while Duke was at Loyola Marymount University. Since they shared an apartment in Marina del Rey, they spent a lot of time together and started writing the series but never had any ambitions. It turned out to be a lucrative opportunity after it was picked by CBS. Besides his youthful looks, his voice is a great asset that landed him work as a voice actor. He voices Barry in “Sausage Party,” an R-rated movie that became the highest-grossing adult animated film at the time after raking in $140.7 million on a production budget of $19 million. It is safe to say that Cera was well compensated after such a successful release. He has also been cast as a voice actor in “The Lego Batman Movie,” “Paws of Fury,” “The Legend of Hank,” and “Cryptozoo. As the actor’s net worth continued to soar high, he accumulated more assets and in 2019, splurged $2.4 million on a townhouse in Brooklyn. Cera is far from retiring, and his wealth will match his efforts soon; after all, for someone who has been in the industry for two decades, Cera should have a higher net worth.