Nika King, who is perhaps most notably know as Leslie Bennett—the mother to Zendaya’s character on “Euphoria,” is getting all the way real about the price to make it in Hollywood. Specifically, she’s breaking down the exact cost that actors have to be responsible for if they’re wanting to have a real shot at success in the industry.
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If you’ll remember, in July 2025, King made headlines when she responded to reports that she wouldn’t be returning for the long-awaited third season of “Euphoria.” As a joke, she posted a video of her cleaning a restaurant that she co-owns with her mom in Florida, alluding to that being her new reality since she wasn’t coming back. (She would later be confirmed for the third season after all).
Once that started making the rounds on social media, she later clarified that while there’s nothing wrong with “honest work” like cleaning kitchens, sometimes actors have to do what they have to do as only “2 percent of actors are really getting the bag.”
Fast forward to February 2026 and is back at it again and shedding light on the cost breakdown of what those working in Hollywood would be fiscally responsible for if they want to truly position themselves for more work and opportunities.
“They don’t tell us that you gotta stay relevant. In order to stay relevant, you gotta have visibility. And in order to be visible, you need a good publicist,” she explained in a video to Instagram.
She went on to share the minimum cost of getting a good publicist on retainer and further dissected how one check has to get split between multiple members on the actors team like their manager, lawyer, and more.
“[A publicist is] gonna run you about $6,500. Yep, times three months minimum. That’s the minimum,” she said. “That’s gonna be a lot of money. That’s gonna be money you ain’t gonna have as an actor.”
King continued: “You gotta pay your agent 10 percent, your manager another 10 percent, your lawyer 5 percent, then Uncle Sam gonna get the hot 30 percent. And then you got your mama talking about, ‘I need five on my light bill,’ So now you out here on Tubi, because that’s all you can afford. You’re out here struggling. See, that’s what they don’t tell you. This is show business.”
King’s words come just one week after “The Color Purple” star Danielle Brooks and “The Paper” star Melvin Gregg recently went viral for revealing a similar monetary breakdown for working actors.
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