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How Winona Ryder Achieved a Net Worth of $18 Million

Winona Ryder

Winona Ryder is an American actress who began her career in the film industry in 1985. Her successful career in film has now spanned five decades, and she has also worked as a producer, on television, and in music videos. This talented actress has won multiple awards throughout her career, including a Golden Globe Award. Due to the length of her career and her talents as an actress, she is now a wealthy woman with an estimated net worth of $18 million. Here is how Winona Ryder became so rich.

Winona Ryder’s Early Life

According to IMDb, Winona Ryder was born in Olmsted County in Minnesota on October 29, 1971, and her parents named her after a local town. Ryder took her first acting lessons at the age of 12 when she enrolled in the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco after her family had moved to California.

Her Career from 1985 to 2000

Winona Ryder’s career began in 1985 after an unsuccessful audition for the film ‘Desert Bloom’ brought her to the attention of director David Seltzer. He thought she was a talented young actress, so he cast her in the film ‘Lucas’. Two years later she landed a role in the movie ‘Square Dance’. However, it was her third film that put Ryder in the limelight. She played teenager Lydia Deetz in the blockbuster 1988 film ‘Beetlejuice’, which was directed by Tim Burton. In the same year, she had roles in ‘1969’ and ‘Heathers’.

Between then and 1990, Ryder had roles in a further four successful movies. These included ‘Great Balls of Fire!’, ‘Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael’, ‘Edward Scissorhands’, and ‘Mermaids. Her success then continued throughout the first half of the 1990s, as she appeared in films including ‘Night on Earth’, ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’, ‘The House of the Spirits’, ‘The Age of Innocence’, ‘Little Women’, ‘Reality Bites’, and ‘How to Make an American Quilt’.

1996 was another successful year for Ryder, as she appeared in three films in one year. These included ‘Boys’, ‘Looking for Richard’, and ‘The Crucible’. Throughout the latter half of the 1990s, she also had roles in ‘Alien Resurrection’, ‘Girl, Interrupted’, ‘Celebrity’, and Being John Malkovich’. Ryder began the new Millennium by appearing in two movies. She played Charlotte Fielding in ‘Autumn in New York’ and then Maya Larkin in ‘Lost Souls’.

Ryder’s Career from 2001 to the Present

2001 marked the beginning of an unusual period in Winona Ryder’s life. Although she had a small role playing herself in the 2001 film ‘Zoolander’, her personal life had gone on a downward spiral. She was caught shoplifting and faced a court case that attracted a lot of negative attention to her, so she chose to take a brief hiatus from her acting career.

She had already filmed two movies prior to her arrest, both of which were released in 2002 while she was taking a break in her acting career. These were ‘Mr. Deeds’ and ‘Simone’. Although she narrated a film in 2003 and had a small, uncredited role in a film in 2004, it was 2006 before Ryder’s career took off again.

He comeback film was ‘The Darwin Awards’, followed by ‘A Scanner Darkly’ in the same year. Between then and 2010, she had roles in movies including ‘The Ten’, ‘Sex and Death 101’, ‘The Last Word’, ‘The Informers’, ‘The Private Lives of Pippa Lee’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘Stay Cool’, and ‘Black Swan’.

Over the last decade, some of Ryder’s films have included ‘The Dilemma’, ‘Frankenweenie’, ‘The Letter’, ‘The Iceman’, ‘Homefront’, and ‘Experimenter’. Her most recent role was playing Lindsay in the 2018 film ‘Destination Wedding’, which was directed by Victor Levin. Since then, Ryder has focused more on her television career and has taken a break from films.

Stranger Things Success

Ryder is back in the spotlight with a starring role (and excellent payday) in the Netflix hit "Stranger Things."  Ryder's making over $400,000 per episode on the show that's going into its 5th and final season. 

Television and Music Videos

Although Winona Ryder is predominantly a film actress, she has also worked to a lesser extent on television. Her first television job was providing the voice of Alison Taylor in an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ in 1994. She went on to voice characters or appear in single episodes of several more television series. Ryder’s longest-standing television role is playing Joyce Byers in ‘Stranger Things’. She has appeared in 24 episodes between 2016 and the present day. She has also appeared in six episodes of ‘The Plot Against America’ in 2020, playing the role of Evelyn Finkel.

During her career, Winona Ryder has had roles in two television films. The first of these was the 2010 film ‘When Love Is Not Enough’ in the role of Lois Wilson. She also played Melanie Fall in the 2014 television film ‘Turks & Caicos’. Ryder has also appeared in multiple music videos. The first music video in which she appeared was the video for the 1989 Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper single ‘Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child.’ She has since appeared in five further music videos, with the most recent being the 2012 The Killers single ‘Here with Me.’

Winona Ryder’s Net Worth

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Winona Ryder has an estimated net worth of $18 million. She has made her fortune as an actress, predominantly working in the film industry. However, she has also had small roles in television and has appeared in music videos.

Her Personal Life

In her personal life, Winona Ryder was engaged to actor Johnny Depp from 1990 until 1993. She then dated Dave Pirner, a member of Soul Asylum, for several years. Even after they had split, Ryder and Pirner remained close friends. Ryder’s next serious relationship was with actor Matt Damon. The couple started dating at the end of the 1990s, and they were together for several years. The actress is now with Scott Mackinlay Hahn, whom she has been with since 2011.

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Allen Lee

Written by Allen Lee

Allen Lee is a Toronto-based freelance writer who studied business in school but has since turned to other pursuits. He spends more time than is perhaps wise with his eyes fixed on a screen either reading history books, keeping up with international news, or playing the latest releases on the Steam platform, which serve as the subject matter for much of his writing output. Currently, Lee is practicing the smidgen of Chinese that he picked up while visiting the Chinese mainland in hopes of someday being able to read certain historical texts in their original language.

Read more posts by Allen Lee

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