The Dictator's Riches: Here's How Sacha Baron Cohen Earns And Spends His $160 Million Fortune
Born in London, England in 1971 to his mother Daniella, of Israeli descent, and his father Gerald, who was born in London, Sacha Baron Cohen took up acting while he was a student at Cambridge University. He grew up in a Jewish household, greatly influenced by his mother's Israeli tradition, and even studied History with a focus on antisemitism while attending Christ's Church College in Cambridge. After becoming a member of the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, Sacha went on to perform in shows such as Fiddler on the Roof and other European plays.
He's most famous for his role as the fictional satirical personalities of Ali G Indahouse and Borat and has also starred in movies such as The Dictator, starring Megan Fox and the English actor, Ben Kingsley, and Anchorman 2 together with Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, and Steve Carrell. From 1995 until today, Cohen has amassed a $160 million net worth. Let's take a look at eight ways he earns and spends his massive fortune.
8 Ali G Television Show
Ever since he graduated from Cambridge University, Cohen had his sights set on a career as a comedian which turned out to be one of the best decisions of his life. With over twenty years of preparation with his best jokes and television characters, he was ready to unleash his arsenal on a variety of different comedic television ventures which would cast him as a solo performer and helped t0 garner him much attention.
His big break came in 1998 when he became a cast member on The 11 O'Clock Show on Channel Four in the U.K. which gave him the opportunity to showcase his talent and television personality. This happened much in the same way that Saturday Night Live gave some of the world's most successful comedians like Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, and Adam Sandler. In taking his act literally to the streets, he debuted to the world his first satirical character, Ali G, who he presented as a thick-skulled, superficial hip-hop journalist. Cohen used the hit persona to prank high-profile politicians and celebrities such as Buzz Aldrin, Newt Gingrich, and Donald Trump.
7 HBO Television
With Channel 4's ratings skyrocketing, they decided to give Cohen his own show in the year 2000 titled the Ali G Show, where he would also debut the Kazakhstani journalist, Borat, and a gay Austrian fashion reporter named Bruno Gehard. After one season on the 11 O'Clock Show, the Ali G Show was dropped and so did the channel's viewers, according to The Guardian. Subsequently, it was taken up by HBO Television where it ran for two more seasons from 2003-2004. The show also won a British Academy Television Award for Best Comedy Performance.
6 Computer-Animated Films
Following his successful two-year run on HBO with the Ali G Show, it spawned a movie with the same name which was released in the U.K. in 2002 and grossed $25.9 million at the box office. While the film was a success, it was only a drop in the bucket from what his later films would gross. One of his biggest box office hits came in 2005 with the computer-animated movie series, Madagascar, where he lent his voice to one of the main characters, King Julian, and worked alongside Ben Stiller, comedy king Chris Rock, Friends star actor David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith for box office gross of $556.6 million. Cohen also reprised his role in the second film franchise, Madagascar: Back 2 Africa (2008) and again Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) which grossed $603.9 million and $746.9 million at the box office respectively.
5 Various Films
His 2006 mockumentary, Borat, also hit the proverbial ball out of the park with $262 million earned at the box office and featured Pamela Anderson as a cast member. In the same year, he took a lead role in Talladega Knights: The Ballas of Rick Bobby starring Will Ferrell which grossed $163.4 million at the box office. According to Parade, a few of his other box office hits includes his character in Bruno (2009) which grossed $139 million, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) starring the Hollywood legend Johnny Depp and grossing $153.4 million, and Les Misérables (2012) which grossed $442 million.
The millionaire prankster also released a Borat sequel in 2020 called Borat Subsequent Moviefilm did exceptionally well on Amazon Prime, reportedly earning Cohen an $80 million paycheck. Over the course of his acting, writing, and producing career, he has banked hundreds of millions in paychecks.
4 Real Estate Purchases
Taken from Celebrity Net Worth, Cohen purchased a 2,800-square-foot mansion in the residential area of Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California for $2.43 million. Then, before being sold to a Seattle-based church in 2016 for $2.5 million, he listed the house for rent in 2011 for $10,995 per month. In 2010, Cohen and his actress wife Isla Fisher bought another estate in Beverly Hills for $14 million. The same year, he was also said to have purchased a Mediterranean spread in the Loyal Canyon region of Los Angeles for $18.9 million to add to his portfolio.
3 Luxury Cars
Hollywood actor and director Mel Gibson may not have escaped with his antisemitic remarks, but Sacha Cohen has gotten away with being America's most charming racist and homophobic comedian, building quite a comfortable life for himself in the process. Borat only parks the best whips in his mansion garage and, according to Hotcars, they include the Audi A8 L, priced between $84,800 and $123,000; a Mini Cooper S priced between $31,400 and $36,400; and a top-class performance Land Rover Discovery starting at $56,600. This may not be as extensive a car collection as Adam Sandler, but nevertheless, Cohen is just another example of the posh life of a professional jokester.
2 Syrian Refugee Donation of $1 Million
It's great to know that despite the millions of dollars that comedians and actors as accomplished as Sasha Baron Cohen have accumulated, some of them are ready and willing to give back for a worthy cause. And now we know that Bill Gates isn't the only one capable of philanthropic gestures. In December 2015, Cohen donated $1 million to help children in Syria. According to Save The Children, he split the money equally and gave $500,000 to the Save The Children foundation and the other half to the International Rescue Committee to support victims affected by the Syrian conflict. The money was used to fund a program vaccinating over 250,000 children against a potential measles outbreak in Northern Syria among other health care, sanitation, shelter, and education initiatives.
1 Healthcare And Multiple Charity Donations
His $1 million donations to Save The Children and the International Rescue Committee were just the tips of the iceberg. Both Cohen and Isla have continued to donate to multiple charitable organizations throughout the years. A few of the most popular charities include the Anti-Defamation League, UNICEF, Charity Projects Entertainment Fund, Clothes Off Our Back, Project Hope, and Feeding America. Most recently, Cohen teamed up with multi-billionaire Marc Benioff to donate personal protective equipment to healthcare workers in the U.K. in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, he has also appeared on BBC's Comic Relief Show multiple times as well as on fellow comedian Seth Rogen's Netflix show, Hilarity For Charity, which is intent on raising awareness for Alzheimer's disease.
Sources: Celebrity Net Worth, Parade, The Guardian, Hotcars, Save The Children,
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