Michael Cera is an actor, musician, writer, and director with an estimated net worth of $20 to 30 million.
What is Michael Cera's net worth in 2026?
Michael Cera's net worth is an estimated $20 million to $30 million as of 2026, with $20 million the figure most often cited. The 38-year-old Canadian actor earns from film and TV roles in projects such as Barbie, The Phoenician Scheme, and Arrested Development, plus voice work, a rare brand deal with CeraVe, and music. He is married to Nadine, and they have two sons.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Estimated net worth (2026) | $20 million to $30 million |
| Estimated annual income | $1 million to $3.3 million |
| Full name | Michael Austin Cera |
| Date of birth | June 7, 1988 |
| Age | 38 |
| Zodiac sign | Gemini |
| Birthplace | Brampton, Ontario, Canada |
| Height | About 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) |
| Weight | About 143 lb (65 kg) |
| Spouse | Nadine |
| Children | Two sons |
| Education | Heart Lake Secondary School through grade 9; finished high school online |
| Profession | Actor, musician, writer, director |
| Residence | Brooklyn, New York |
| Social media | None; does not use a smartphone |
Michael Cera's net worth is an estimated $20 million to $30 million as of 2026. The most widely cited figure is $20 million, and a few sites list $25 million. We use the wider range because his recent run includes Barbie, The Phoenician Scheme, The Running Man, a Super Bowl campaign, and a leading role in a Hulu series. Cera does not publish his finances, so every number is an estimate.
His wealth is entirely self-built and comes from steady work rather than one big payday. He has been a working actor since childhood, and his income mixes lead and supporting fees, voice roles, residuals from long-running shows, and occasional brand work. He also lives modestly for his income level. In past interviews he has said he spends little beyond food and DVDs, which helps his net worth hold up.
Michael Cera's estimated annual income sits between $1 million and $3.3 million, but it swings widely from year to year because he takes only a few projects at a time.
| Income Source | Estimated Annual Range (USD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Film and TV acting fees | $700,000 to $2 million | Leads and supporting roles, including Hulu's Life & Beth |
| Voice acting and animation | $100,000 to $400,000 | Lego Batman, Sausage Party, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off |
| Brand partnerships | $100,000 to $500,000 | Rare; CeraVe in 2024 |
| Music, writing, producing, and residuals | $100,000 to $400,000 | Arrested Development, streaming, album royalties |
| Total estimated annual income | $1 million to $3.3 million | Analyst estimate, not confirmed by Cera |
Some of his television pay is known. For the Netflix revival of Arrested Development, main cast members were reportedly paid $100,000 for episodes built around them, $50,000 for smaller parts, and $25,000 for brief appearances. That is a useful benchmark for a ceiling on his TV fees in the 2010s.
His fortune grew in three stages: a child actor's steady pay, a sudden jump in 2007, and a slower build through supporting roles, stage work, and voice acting.
| Year | Estimated Net Worth (USD) | Key Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 to 2006 | Under $1 million | Cast in Arrested Development at 15 |
| 2007 | $1 million to $3 million | Superbad and Juno both release |
| 2008 to 2010 | $3 million to $8 million | Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Youth in Revolt, Scott Pilgrim |
| 2013 | $8 million to $12 million | Arrested Development on Netflix, This Is the End |
| 2017 to 2019 | $12 million to $18 million | Lego Batman, Molly's Game, Lobby Hero, Brooklyn townhouse |
| 2023 | $18 million to $25 million | Barbie, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Dream Scenario |
| 2024 to 2025 | $20 million to $28 million | CeraVe Super Bowl ad, The Phoenician Scheme, The Running Man |
| 2026 | $20 million to $30 million | Directs his first feature |
These are analyst estimates. Cera has never confirmed any year's figure.
Michael Cera was born in Brampton, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. His father, Luigi Cera, is a technician of Sicilian descent, and his mother is Linda (née Cockman). Both parents worked for Xerox. He has an older sister, Jordan, and a younger sister, Molly.
His interest in acting began at three, when he watched Ghostbusters repeatedly while sick with chicken pox. He memorized the dialogue and idolized Bill Murray.
Cera attended Conestoga Public School, Robert H. Lagerquist Senior Public School, and Heart Lake Secondary School until grade nine. Once his acting work picked up, he completed grades ten through twelve online. He also took improvisation classes at The Second City in Toronto.
His first job was an unpaid appearance in a Tim Hortons summer camp commercial. That led to a Pillsbury commercial in which he poked the Doughboy, his first role with lines. In 1999, he joined the Canadian children's series I Was a Sixth Grade Alien, and in 2000 he made his film debut in Frequency.
Through the early 2000s he voiced characters in animated series including Braceface and The Berenstain Bears and played the young Chuck Barris in the 2002 film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, directed by George Clooney.
At 15, Cera won the role of George Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, playing the son of Jason Bateman's character. Fox canceled the show in 2006, but it became a cult favorite. Netflix revived it in 2013, with Cera returning and also working in the writers' room as a consulting producer. He appeared again in the fifth season in 2018.
His film breakout came in 2007. In Superbad, he starred opposite Jonah Hill in a comedy written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and the film topped the US box office for two weeks. The same year, he played Paulie Bleeker in Juno alongside Elliot Page. Juno grossed about $232 million on a $7.5 million budget. He followed those hits with Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Youth in Revolt, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World in 2010. Scott Pilgrim lost money in theaters, earning $47.7 million against a budget of $85 million to $90 million, but it later became a cult classic and led to the 2023 Netflix series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, in which he voiced the lead again.
Cera turned to the stage and independent film in the 2010s. He starred in Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth on Broadway in 2014 alongside Kieran Culkin. In 2018, he earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Lobby Hero, which also starred Chris Evans. He returned to Broadway later that year in The Waverly Gallery.
On screen, he voiced Robin in The Lego Batman Movie in 2017, Barry in Sausage Party in 2016, and Hank in Paws of Fury in 2022. He played a poker player in Molly's Game, appeared in Twin Peaks in 2017, and starred in the Hulu comedy Life & Beth from 2022 to 2024.
His biggest box office credit is Barbie in 2023, in which he played Allan opposite Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The film grossed about $1.45 billion worldwide, and the cast earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination. His salary for the film has not been disclosed. In early 2024, he and Colman Domingo opened the SAG Awards ceremony with a pair of "I'm an actor" monologues. In 2025, he drew strong reviews as a Norwegian entomologist in Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme and also appeared in The Running Man.
Cera is also a working musician. He released his debut album, True That, on Bandcamp on August 8, 2014, with 19 original songs plus two covers. He plays bass in the touring lineup of the indie band Mister Heavenly, belongs to the band The Long Goodbye with Clark Duke, and contributed mandolin and backing vocals to Weezer's song "Hang On" in 2010. Music adds little to his income, but it is a long-running side career.
By one tally, Michael Cera's films have grossed about $2.6 billion worldwide. Barbie is the first film of his career to pass $1 billion, and his voice work in Lego Batman and Sausage Party also ranks among his biggest hits. Juno stands out for return on investment, earning about $232 million on a $7.5 million budget.
| Rank | Movie | Worldwide Gross (approx.) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barbie | $1.45 billion | 2023 |
| 2 | The Lego Batman Movie | $312 million | 2017 |
| 3 | Juno | $232 million | 2007 |
| 4 | Superbad | $171 million | 2007 |
| 5 | Sausage Party | $141 million | 2016 |
| 6 | This Is the End | $126 million | 2013 |
| 7 | Frequency | $68 million | 2000 |
| 8 | How to Be a Latin Lover | $63 million | 2017 |
| 9 | Year One | $62 million | 2009 |
| 10 | Molly's Game | $59 million | 2017 |
Box office gross is not his pay, since actors earn a fee and sometimes a small backend rather than a share of ticket sales, but a strong box office record supports his asking price.
Cera rarely does brand work, which made his 2024 partnership with CeraVe stand out. Over three weeks before Super Bowl LVIII, the skincare brand seeded a joke that Cera had invented its products, and the campaign ended with a 30-second Super Bowl ad in which Cera pitched himself as the brand's mastermind. More than 120 million people watched the game, which was the most-watched US telecast at the time. One ad research firm ranked the campaign the most effective of the night's Super Bowl campaigns on TikTok. The agency behind it credits the campaign with a 25 percent sales lift, though that figure comes from the agency's own case study.
The deal is notable because Cera is not on social media and does not own a smartphone, which is unusual for a modern brand ambassador. His fee has not been disclosed.
Cera's next big step is behind the camera. He wrote and is directing his first feature, Love Is Not the Answer, an absurdist comedy starring Pamela Anderson, Steve Coogan, Jamie Dornan, and Fred Hechinger, with Lucas Hedges also joining the cast. He is also a producer on the film, which filmed in Ontario. A festival premiere is expected, but no release date has been announced. A directing and producing role can bring a larger stake in a project than an acting fee alone, so it is the most likely source of upside for his net worth.
In September 2019, Cera bought a four-story townhouse near the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Clinton Hill border in Brooklyn for about $2.4 million. The home was built in 1899, covers roughly 2,500 square feet, and is arranged as two units with a garden-level apartment. Listing details mention original features such as marble mantles and a mahogany staircase. Public-record estimates put its value near $3 million today, though his mortgage details are not public. He has never been known for a luxury property portfolio.
Cera is married to Nadine, who is German. They met by chance at a bar in Paris while he was on a press tour for Arrested Development, likely around the 2013 revival. She was studying theater at the time and later moved into production work. The couple were first seen wearing wedding bands in early 2018 and have been married since around then. He keeps his family life private, and they rarely appear together in public. In March 2022, Amy Schumer accidentally revealed that he had become a father, and he later confirmed that the baby was a six-month-old boy, born in 2021. In February 2024, he announced on The Tonight Show that the couple had a second son.
He previously dated Aubrey Plaza for about 18 months after they filmed Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and the two remain friends. The family lives in Brooklyn.
Michael Cera's net worth is estimated at $20 million to $30 million as of 2026. The most commonly cited figure is $20 million.
Michael Cera was born on June 7, 1988, in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. He is 38 years old as of 2026.
Michael Cera is married to Nadine, who is German. They met in a Paris bar during an Arrested Development press tour and have been married since around 2018. They keep their family life private.
Michael Cera has two sons. His first child was born around 2021, and he announced the second in February 2024.
Michael Cera is about 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) tall, based on publicly listed figures.
Michael Cera is best known for playing George Michael Bluth on Arrested Development and for the 2007 comedies Superbad and Juno. He also played Scott Pilgrim and Allan in Barbie.
Main cast members were reportedly paid $100,000 for lead episodes, $50,000 for smaller parts, and $25,000 for brief appearances in the Netflix revival's fourth season. His earlier Fox salary was not disclosed.
His salary for Barbie has not been publicly disclosed. The film grossed about $1.45 billion worldwide.
No. Michael Cera is not on social media and does not own a smartphone, according to his own interviews.
Michael Cera lives in Brooklyn, New York. He bought a townhouse in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area in September 2019 for about $2.4 million.
Yes. Michael Cera wrote and is directing his first feature, Love Is Not the Answer, with a cast that includes Pamela Anderson, Steve Coogan, and Jamie Dornan.
Michael Cera's net worth is an estimated $20 million to $30 million as of 2026, built over more than two decades on Arrested Development, the 2007 comedy hits, stage work, voice roles, and steady supporting parts in films like Barbie. His income moves with the projects he chooses rather than any single contract, and he keeps a low profile off screen. The upside case depends on how his directing debut and his current run of prestige roles pay off.
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