While it’s easy to think that some of our favorite actors and actresses are rolling in the dough now, how soon we forget that when they were just starting out—the money wasn’t rolling in as much. This was especially true for actors Melvin Gregg and Oscar-nominee Danielle Brooks who recently peeled back the layers of how little working actors get paid in the beginning.
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Gregg’s admission came in a recent interview on the “All the Smoke” podcast with hosts Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. During their chat, “The Paper” actor recounted his rise from social media stardom on Vine to now being a regular actor in major projects like “Snowfall,” “The Blackening” and more. Speaking on his experience working on “Snowfall” at a time where his character “Manboy” was a major player during seasons three and four, Gregg shared that despite the show’s popularity—he wasn’t bringing home that much money.
“I was probably getting like five, $5,000 an episode for ‘Snowfall.’ And it’s a great show but $5,000 ain’t nothing in LA,” Gregg said.
He went on to break down how after receiving the $5,000 check: his agent gets 10 percent; his manager gets 10 percent; the lawyers get five percent; and the government gets another 30 percent. So, by the time it’s all said and done, an actor is left with 45 percent of actual take home money.
“I’m working for free. I might be over $2,200 an episode. That ain’t great money, you know what I mean? So make sure you in the right financial position so you can make the best creative choices,” Gregg explained.
In a different interview with Keke Palmer, “The Color Purple” star Danielle Brooks chatted about the common misconception that actors get paid way more than they actually do. She echoed several of Gregg points, detailing how little she received while she was working on the 2013 hit show “Orange Is the New Black” and how a check from the actor has to get split between their agent, manager, lawyer, business manager, makeup artists and hairstylists, wardrobe stylist and also taxes.
“When you break it down—and then your taxes— you really getting probably 20 percent out of your check. It is crazy, so when I was first coming out, ‘Orange’ did not pay much. I probably got, them first few episodes, $5,000 an episode…your girl was out here broke, broke, broke phi broke,” Brooks said.
What’s more is that doing a deeper dive on Backstage, one of the top casting platforms for actors, the breakdown for pay for TV series and films paints an equally unfortunate picture. For instance, for series regulars, they can expect to take home $4,019 a week for 13 episodes in half-hour programs and about $4,836 a week for one-hour programs.
For film actors, they usually start out with a day rate before figuring out if they’ll be needed longer and if so, their rate goes to weekly and then a run-of-the-picture rate. If you’re a lead actor, you can expect a run-of-the-picture rate of a minimum of $80,000. However, if you’re just a background actor, you’ll probably only take home a little over $200.
What’s more is that in 2024, the average actor salary clocked in at nearly $57,000 with ZipRecruiter noting that a lot of the pay is based off what actors can negotiate and that it’s a project-by-project basis.
Of course, when you add in the Black angle, that adds a whole other barrier.
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