Ellen DeGeneres | $500 Million

Ellen DeGeneres was working odd jobs while doing stand-up comedy routines at small clubs and coffee houses. She started working as an emcee in 1981 at Clyde’s Comedy Club in New Orleans. By the early 1980s, DeGeneres began taking her stand-up comedy act on the road nationally, and it paid off to a great degree. In 1984, she was named by Showtime as the Funniest Person in America, eventually landing her first regular role on TV in the Fox sitcom Open House in 1989.

As her career flourished, firmly establishing a name in the entertainment industry, DeGeneres’s financial gain has also increased substantially, enabling her to grow her real-estate portfolio and sell it with her wife, Portia de Rossi. This, in part, has contributed to her net worth increase, which is currently at $500 million, and it may dramatically grow over time.