Few celebs have a chokehold on Hollywood the way EMMY AWARD WINNER Jennifer Coolidge does. The actor has been racking up credits since the '90s! And clearly her hard work has paid off, because after some *pretty* extensive research, it appears that her bank account rightly reflects all that hustle. So, yeah, while the rest of us (hi, me!) were waiting around for her to make another cameo in an Ariana Grande vid, she's been busy making serious $$$. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Let's talk about her *iconic* American Pie role
Jennifer's breakout role was that of Jeanine Stifler, aka “Stifler’s mom,” in the coming-of-age movie American Pie. The film became an instant box-office success—and that's seriously putting it lightly—by grossing over $235.5 million worldwide. Not to mention, it catapulted Jennifer to superstardom. Her fame only continued to grow when she reprised the role in 2001 in American Pie 2 and again in 2003 in American Wedding, which made $287.6 million and $232.7 million respectively.
This def must have been Jennifer's mood after realizing how much $$$ that role alone earned her:
And we can't forget The White Lotus
Picture this: a loopy socialite embarks on a trip to Hawaii to scatter the ashes of her recently-deceased mother. Yeah, that's Jennifer's role on the hit HBO series The White Lotus. If it sounds like a match made in casting heaven, that's because it fully is, because who else could pull off such a comedic role? Jennifer is one of only two cast members to make the jump from season 1’s Hawaii resort to the show’s season 2 in Italy—with no audition needed, TYVM. Oh, and in between seasons, the actor just so happened to win her first Emmy, which no doubt sent her paycheck total skyrocketing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Interestingly enough, the actor almost talked herself out of filming the series even though the show's creator Mike White literally! Wrote! The! Part! For! Her! Admittedly depressed at the height of COVID and not feeling ready to work again, she actually had to be convinced to join the cast by “a really smart, savvy, very blunt friend,” per Variety. “I didn’t like the way I looked...But did I change it for The White Lotus 2? No! I didn’t change anything!”
Indeed, Jennifer felt discouraged for a while until she ultimately had a breakthrough after beginning to film. “The saddest thing about life is that you just make decisions about yourself. If I’m not getting great roles, I come to the conclusion that people think I’m incapable of that. And then I make the decision that I am incapable of that. You actually have to have a Mike White that comes in and says, I think you can do this,” she revealed.
And, luckily, she stuck with it, since Francesca Orsi (the executive VP of programming and head of drama for HBO) said the following about Mike's determination to get the actor on board: “When you get to work with Mike White, and he’s going to deliver something at $3 million an episode, he gets to call the shots.” $3 million...an episode?!?! I'll toast to that:
Not to mention all of her other acting credits
Let's not forget that Jen made her debut on the small screen in 1993 in the Seinfeld episode “The Masseuse” playing—you guessed it!—the masseuse herself. She also had minor roles in sitcoms Joey and 2 Broke Girls, and even starred in The Secret Life of the American Teenager (talk about a throwback!) as Betty.
The actor was also famously cast as Paulette Bonafonté Parcelle in Legally Blonde—a role she reprised for the franchise's second film, Legally Blond 2: Red, White & Blonde. And let's not forget her legendary character Fiona in A Cinderella Story, a movie I'm convinced will be engrained in the cultural zeitgeist for years to come ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
More recent film creds under Jen's belt? A supporting role in Promising Young Woman, which received *tons* of critical praise upon release. All the years decades of gigs def amount to tons of $$$ in the bank for the actor, no?
As of late, Jennifer has a number of other projects, including Shotgun Wedding starring Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel and Legally Blonde 3 with Reese Witherspoon. Recently, the actor joked to People that she was worried about being replaced in the latter film: “Someone in the press down there told me that Elle Woods—Reese—is coming back as a mother and I haven't heard that. Maybe these people are ahead of the game or maybe they're just trying to throw that at me. I haven't heard anything...All I know is Mindy Kaling and her [writing] partner just finished the script maybe, but Reese hasn't given me any details,” she revealed. “She sends me little DMs and hearts and says, you know, 'Getting geared up,' but I haven't gotten the official, 'We're filming in July' or anything yet.”
Plus her "thank u, next" cameo
Do you remember where you were when you saw Ariana Grande, Kris Jenner, and Jennifer Coolidge all in one video? Kay, same! Well apparently, the actor's cameo was a result of her sliding into Ari's DMs!
In an interview with Jimmy Fallon on an episode of The Tonight Show, the American Pie alum dished that it all happened around a time when she felt like she “was going through a dead zone, not much was going on. Then Ariana did this imitation on your show and you encouraged her. And then this ball got rolling.”
She added, “My friend who is her age, Theresa, she was like, ‘You should DM Ariana.’ I thought it was such a good imitation and I was like, ‘No, she’s got like 260 million followers. Those are robots. The robots answer the DMs! We will never ever get to her.’ And I did it anyway and then this response came back. Next thing you know, I was going to her house getting fit for wardrobe for ‘Thank U Next.’ That was all because of Jimmy Fallon.”
In a 2018 interview, the music video's director Hannah Lux Davis told Entertainment Weekly that Jen not only improvised some of her dialogue, but she had amaze chemistry with Ariana while the pair was together on set. “When the time came for this moment, their relationship was already primed and ready for this. She was so fun and was such a blast, and she was really game...Seeing her in the same hair and makeup and having her in the clothes that are so similar [to the clothes in Legally Blonde] it's crazy, she hasn't aged a day! She's still the same Paulette.” Obsessed! Unclear how much $$$ Jennifer made from the appearance, but the vid did rack up over 745 million views, so...it's def not nothing!
Oh, Jen is also the new spokesperson for e.l.f Cosmetics. NBD.
It's true! Jennifer Coolidge became an official spokesperson for the beauty brand after the success of her White Lotus role. Her new gig was announced in the most *iconic* way, and that would be through e.l.f's first-ever Super Bowl commercial in February 2023.
Since then, Jen has starred in other spots for the brand and even released her own limited-edition Dirty Pillows Lip Kit, which has proven to be an absolute slay because they're literally sold out everywhere (this... sucks for me, though, because I totally want one).
So what is Jennifer Coolidge's net worth?
That would be a cool $6 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. In conclusion? Seeing Jen's net worth makes me want a hot dog reeeeal bad, because it's seemingly the only food I can afford at the moment.
![sarah jessica parker](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/sarah-jessica-parker-attends-the-gala-performance-after-news-photo-1714078982.jpg?crop=0.684xw:0.453xh;0.173xw,0.0924xh&resize=360:* ""Plaza Suite" - Gala Performance - After Party")
