How 'Gilmore Girls' Star Lauren Graham Really Built Her Massive Net Worth

August 2024 · 4 minute read

After visiting a small town, Amy Sherman-Palladino got the idea for Gilmore Girls, and fans are so grateful for this wonderful series. For seven seasons and the revival A Year In The Life, the connection that Rory and Lorelai shared was always fun, hilarious, and heartwarming, and the quirky characters really rounded out the story. Fans wonder about season 2 of the revival and it gets harder to patiently wait all the time.

Lauren Graham has a $15 million net worth, which is impressive. Let's take a look at how she made her money.

'Gilmore Girls'

Season 7 of Gilmore Girls wasn't great but fans were still psyched to learn that more episodes were coming to Netflix. It turns out that the revival paid so well that it's no wonder Lauren Graham has such a high net worth.

Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel were paid $3 million to star on Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life. According to Marie Claire, they were each paid $750,000 for each of the four episodes.

That is seriously impressive and has definitely contributed to Lauren Graham's $15 million net worth.

What did Graham get make for the original series? According to Cheat Sheet, she was paid $50,000 for each episode of seasons one to four. The publication notes that Graham must have been given a pay increase after that.

The Huffington Post noted that Graham's salary for the reboot is a "1,400 percent increase" from the original show.

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'Parenthood'

Lauren Graham also starred on Parenthood as Sarah Braverman and she was paid $175,000 per episode, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Since Graham played this role for six seasons, this would have added up quickly.

The series finale of Parenthood led to so many tears. The whole show was emotional but at the end of the Braverman family's story, they said goodbye to their patriarch Zeek, and the family experienced many milestones. Adam and Kristina watched their son Max graduate, Amber fell in love again, Joel and Julia were happily together again, and Sarah was doing well in her marriage to Hank.

In an interview with Time, Graham compared the end of Parenthood to the season 7 finale of Gilmore Girls, noting that they didn't get to wrap the story up properly: she said, "With Gilmore Girls we did an episode that could be the end, but that’s not how you want to say goodbye to characters you’ve lived with for such a long time. Hopefully, this will be satisfying for people." Of course, no one knew yet that there would be a Netflix revival that allowed the characters to continue their stories.

Graham shared that she was attracted to Parenthood but hadn't been certain she would sign on for a TV drama again: she said, "I didn’t plan to do another drama. I didn’t plan to play a single mom. I didn’t plan, even, to do an ensemble show. But I hadn’t found anything I liked as much. I just connected to the show. But that’s the funny thing about this business, you have to make a plan and then be open to it not working out."

RELATED: Lauren Graham Says It’s A ‘Miracle’ That ‘Gilmore Girls’ Had Multiple Seasons

Steady Movie Roles And TV Work

While Lauren Graham is definitely famous for playing Lorelai Gilmore and Sarah Braverman, her acting resume involves many movie roles. She has worked steadily for years, even though these film roles might not be her most well-known. These movie parts definitely contributed to her massive net worth.

Graham starred in the 1998 drama One True Thing, 2003's Bad Santa, 2007's Because I Said So, 2010's It's Kind Of A Funny Story, and the 2014 holiday movie Merry Friggin' Christmas.

Graham has also taken on some TV roles in recent years: she played Grace Tiverton on Web Therapy, Bridget on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Joan on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, and Alex Morrow on The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.

RELATED: What Was The Inspiration Behind ‘Ginny & Georgia’?

Besides acting, Lauren Graham is also a writer. She wrote a novel called Someday, Someday Maybe which was released in 2013, she wrote a memoir called Talking As Fast As I Can that came out in 2016, and she also wrote In Conclusion, Don't Worry About It which came out in 2018. These books contribute to her net worth as well as her acting projects.

Graham told The Hollywood Reporter that when she's busy and hard at work, she can keep this momentum going. She explained, "I feel like work actually begets work. I wrote that book of essays while filming Gilmore Girls for Netflix, and I'm just one of those people who if I have nothing to do all day I look up and I'm watching Survivor and I've done nothing. But if I'm at work, I get more work done."

NEXT: Lauren Graham Opens Up About Joining ‘The Mighty Ducks’ Alongside Emilio Estevez

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