Child Star Salaries: What Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Josh Peck and More Earned as Kids

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Child Star Salaries: What Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Josh Peck and More Earned as Kids

Child stars ... they’re just like Us? Kid actors may have the added bonus of raking in the dough before most people get their first job, but dealing with fame at such a young age has been infamously difficult for many young celebs. As with their Hollywood experiences, the money they’ve earned from their hit series and films varies wildly from actor to actor, show to show, movie to movie. The salary Josh Peck earned on Drake and Josh — the hit Nickelodeon show that ran from 2004 to 2007 — was “certainly a great amount of money, but not enough to set you up for life,” he revealed on the “Trading Secrets” podcast in April 2022. “And a lot of it we lived on. … I’m not gonna brag: My mom and I had a used BMW five series. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment with amenities. … We lived a very middle-class life.” The Happy People Are Annoying author added that there are “no residuals on kids’ television,” so he doesn’t earn any money from the show’s reruns today. “It was like we had 18 months of runway,” he recalled. “It’s as though someone had lost their job.” He explained, “When all is said and done, we were sort of left after agents and managers and taxes [were paid].” [jwplayer Nt4arAnc-zhNYySv2] Peck also touched on the idea that child stars on long-running hit shows most likely earn so much money that they are able to live comfortably for the rest of their lives — without ever having to work again. “I can only speak to my experience, but I think it’s quite public that if you were on a show like Two and a Half Men or Modern Family, and you were the kid on a massive network, syndicated show … the case could be made that you’d have enough money to last you for the rest of your life,” he noted on the podcast. The Wackness star might not be off base. Angus T. Jones of Two and a Half Men made three times as much money per episode than Peck made for an entire season of Drake and Josh. The young Modern Family actors — Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Nolan Gould and Rico Rodriguez — were also earning more per episode of their hit series than the former Nick star made in a season. Scroll below to find out how much child actors — including Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Millie Bobby Brown, the cast of Harry Potter and many more — were paid for their hit shows and movies. [podcast_block]

Credit: Shutterstock (3)

Child Star Salaries: What Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Josh Peck and More Earned as Kids

Child stars ... they’re just like Us? Kid actors may have the added bonus of raking in the dough before most people get their first job, but dealing with fame at such a young age has been infamously difficult for many young celebs. As with their Hollywood experiences, the money they’ve earned from their hit series and films varies wildly from actor to actor, show to show, movie to movie. The salary Josh Peck earned on Drake and Josh — the hit Nickelodeon show that ran from 2004 to 2007 — was “certainly a great amount of money, but not enough to set you up for life,” he revealed on the “Trading Secrets” podcast in April 2022. “And a lot of it we lived on. … I’m not gonna brag: My mom and I had a used BMW five series. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment with amenities. … We lived a very middle-class life.” The Happy People Are Annoying author added that there are “no residuals on kids’ television,” so he doesn’t earn any money from the show’s reruns today. “It was like we had 18 months of runway,” he recalled. “It’s as though someone had lost their job.” He explained, “When all is said and done, we were sort of left after agents and managers and taxes [were paid].” [jwplayer Nt4arAnc-zhNYySv2] Peck also touched on the idea that child stars on long-running hit shows most likely earn so much money that they are able to live comfortably for the rest of their lives — without ever having to work again. “I can only speak to my experience, but I think it’s quite public that if you were on a show like Two and a Half Men or Modern Family, and you were the kid on a massive network, syndicated show … the case could be made that you’d have enough money to last you for the rest of your life,” he noted on the podcast. The Wackness star might not be off base. Angus T. Jones of Two and a Half Men made three times as much money per episode than Peck made for an entire season of Drake and Josh. The young Modern Family actors — Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Nolan Gould and Rico Rodriguez — were also earning more per episode of their hit series than the former Nick star made in a season. Scroll below to find out how much child actors — including Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Millie Bobby Brown, the cast of Harry Potter and many more — were paid for their hit shows and movies. [podcast_block]

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Josh Peck

“The reality is that when we were making the show, we did 60 episodes and we made about $15,000 an episode,” the Turner and Hooch actor explained on the “Trading Secrets” podcast. “You live with about $450,000 over five years, which breaks down to a little less than $100,000 a year.”

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Ariana Grande

Before making it big as a pop star, Grande had a supporting role as the lovably ditzy Cat on Nickelodeon’s Victorious, whom she played from 2010 to 2013. Per TMZ, the “Thank U, Next” singer earned $9,000 per episode.

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Selena Gomez

The Only Murders in the Building star was paid significantly more per episode on Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place than her Nickelodeon peers were earning on their respective shows. Gomez raked in $30,000 per episode of the star vehicle, according to Gawker.

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Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

The Olsen twins started their careers as babies when Full House debuted in the early ‘90s. They were initially paid $2,400 per episode, according to the Washington Post, but as their character Michelle grew older (and more popular), the actresses experienced huge pay bumps. In the middle of the series, they earned $25,000 per episode, with that price increasing all the way to $80,000 per episode if Michelle was featured heavily.

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Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint

The Harry Potter stars were paid a pretty penny for the first film. Radcliffe, who portrayed the titular character, scored a $1 million paycheck. The cast’s salaries only increased exponentially as the franchise went on, with Radcliffe earning $20 million for Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2, while Watson and Grint made $15 million for each of the final two films.

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Macaulay Culkin

While the Home Alone star’s exact salary for the film is disputed, the actor has been outspoken about not having access to any of the money he earned as a kid until he turned 18, due in part to his parents’ own access to his account.

“I legally took my parents’ names off of my trust fund and found an executor, someone who would look over my finances, just in case anyone wanted to stick their f—kng pinkie in the pie,” he told Esquire in 2020. He claimed at the time that his parents took 15 percent of his earnings for every project he worked on.

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Millie Bobby Brown

The Stranger Things star reportedly makes a whopping $350,000 per episode — the same amount as her much older castmates Winona Ryder and David Harbour.

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Miley Cyrus

The “Wrecking Ball” singer reportedly earned $15,000 an episode for her starring role on Hannah Montana. “I mean, at one point — they’ll probably kill me for saying it — I was probably the least paid person on my cast because I didn’t know any better,” Cyrus told Elle in 2016. “I was just like, ‘I can be on Disney! Yeah, I want to do it!’”

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Raven-Symone

While the That’s So Raven alum's exact Cosby Show salary is unknown — she portrayed Olivia on the series in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s — the actress later told a fan via Twitter that the cash she earned from the hit show is still in her savings. “I haven’t touched my Cosby money,” Symoné tweeted in May 2020.

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Miranda Cosgrove

According to the New York Post, Cosgrove had a pretty nice paycheck while starring on Nickelodeon’s iCarly for eight seasons, earning $180,000 per episode — more than Peck made for an entire season on Drake and Josh. (Prior to starring on iCarly, the actress portrayed Peck and Drake Bell’s younger sister, Megan, on Drake and Josh.)

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Rowan Blanchard

When Blanchard first scored the role of Riley Matthews, Cory Matthews and Topanga Lawrence’s daughter, on the Disney Channel sitcom Girl Meets World, she earned $10,000 per episode ($210,000 for the season).

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Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Nolan Gould and Rico Rodriguez

The kids of Modern Family — minus Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, who played Lily — each earned over $100,000 per episode starting in season 9.

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Angus T. Jones

Toward the end of his run on Two and a Half Men, Jones — who had been starring on the show for over a decade by 2015 — earned $350,000 per episode, making him the highest-paid child actor at the time.

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Henry Thomas

Thomas, who portrayed Elliott in the ‘80s classic E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, “didn’t make much money from the movie,” he told the Mirror in 2013. “I was 10 years old, remember. I basically got the minimum wage."