What is Charlie Kaufman's Net Worth?
Charlie Kaufman is an award-winning American screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist who has a net worth of $8 million. Charlie Kaufman is best known for writing the screenplay for the 1999 American fantasy comedy film "Being John Malkovich" – for which he earned a BAFTA, a Saturn, and an Independent Spirit Award, alongside nominations for an Academy Award, a Hugo Award, and a Golden Globe. He is also known for writing and producing the 2002 film "Adaption," which earned 165 award nominations, and for his themes centered on identity crisis and the meaning of life.
Early Years
Charles Stuart Kaufman was born on November 19, 1958, in New York City, the son of Myron and Helen Kaufman. His family, which is of the Jewish faith, later relocated to West Hartford, Connecticut. He joined the drama club in high school and later attended Boston University and New York University, where he studied film and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Slow Success
In his mid-20s, Charlie Kaufman wrote articles for the American humor magazine National Lampoon while unsuccessfully marketing his screenplays. To support himself and his wife, Denise, he had to begin working in customer service. They later relocated to Minneapolis, where he began working in the circulation department of the daily newspaper The Minnesota Star Tribune.
In 1991, Kaufman was signed by a talent agent. The agent suggested he move to Los Angeles, California, where he would be more likely to find work. He did so and, after a few weeks, was offered a job writing for the television sitcom "Get A Life" starring Chris Elliott. Kaufman wrote two episodes of the show before it was canceled.
Kaufman went on to work on the sketch comedy shows "The Edge" and "The Dana Carvey Show" as well as the sitcoms "The Trouble With Larry" and "Misery Loves Company." He also produced and wrote for the sitcom "Ned and Stacy."
For a time, Kaufman unsuccessfully wrote and pitched television pilots and movie scripts. One of the scripts – for a film to be called "Being John Malkovich" – was repeatedly rejected until it caught the attention of American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who passed it on to his daughter's husband, American filmmaker and director Spike Jonze. Jonze agreed to direct the film while Kaufman produced, and it went into production starring American actors Cameron Diaz and John Cusack, while American actor John Malkovich played a satirical version of himself.
Bowers/Getty Images
Being John Malkovich
The 1999 American film "Being John Malkovich" concerns an unemployed puppeteer named Craig Schwartz, who finds a portal that leads into the mind of American actor John Malkovich. Schwartz soon discovers that his puppeteering skills allow him a certain amount of control over Malkovich. The film, which had a $13 million budget, went on to gross $23 million.
Charlie Kaufman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won a BAFTA Award in the same category. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and won a Saturn Award for Best Writing and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
The film was nominated for an American Comedy Award for Funniest Motion Picture and a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy. It also won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film—Wide Release and a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
And The Award Goes To
Charlie Kaufman wrote and produced the 2001 comedy Human Nature, which concerned a writer with abnormal hair growth, a man named Rhys Ifans who was raised as a chimpanzee, and the psychologist who tries to socialize Ifans. This was followed by the film "Adaption" in 2002, which he also wrote and produced. The film, which centers on an author struggling with anxiety, depression and a host of other issues while trying to turn a book into a film adaption, was nominated for 165 awards of which Kaufman won several, including an Academy Award, an Awards Circuit Community Award, a Boston Society of Film Critics Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award, a Chicago Film Critics Association Award, a Chlotrudis Award, a Critics Choice Award, a Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award, a Florida Film Critics Circle Award, a Gold Derby Award, a Golden Schmoes Award, an International Online Cinema Award, a National Board of Reviews Award, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, an Online Film & Television Association Award, an Online Film Critics Society Award, a PEN Center USA West Literary Award, a San Diego Film Critics Society Award, a Satellite Award, a Southeastern Film Critics Association Award, a Toronto Film Critic Association Award, a Village Voice Film Poll Award, and a Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award.
That same year, Kaufman wrote the film "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," an American biographical spy film based on the unauthorized biography of American game show host Chuck Barris.
In 2004, Kaufman wrote and produced "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," starring Canadian-American actor Jim Carrey and English actress Kate Winslet. The film—about a couple who undergoes memory erasure to forget about each other—was nominated for 15 awards, and Kaufman took home an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a National Board of Review Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award.
Kaufman wrote, directed, and produced the psychological drama "Synecdoche, New York" in 2008. The film is about an ailing theater director who starts blurring the line between reality and fiction. In 2015, he wrote, directed, and produced "Anomalisa." The film was nominated for 15 awards and won four.
In 2020, Kaufman wrote, directed, and produced the psychological thriller "I'm Thinking of Ending Things," which won seven of the 35 awards it was nominated for.
The 2024 animated fantasy adventure "Orion in the Dark," which Kaufman wrote based on the children's book of the same name, also went on to be nominated for several awards.
Antkind
In 2020, Charlie Kaufman released his debut novel, "Antkind." The 720-page work published by Random House concerns a failed film critic who discovers a film that he believes to be the greatest artistic work in history—filmed over the course of 90 years—before it is destroyed and reduced to a single frame.
Theatre
Charlie Kaufman wrote and directed the audio plays "Hope Leaves the Theater" and "Anomalisa" in 2005. By 2012, having returned to unsuccessfully pitching pilot scripts and screenplays, he turned to Kickstarter to fund the transition of "Anomalisa" into a stop-motion animated film. Kaufman and American director Duke Johnson directed the film, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado in 2015. It later won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival in Italy and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.
Personal Life
Charlie Kaufman is married to Denise Monaghan, and they have a daughter, Anna. Denise and Anna are both professional artists who often display their work together. Anna is also an environmental activist.
Real Estate
In 1998, Charlie and Denise paid $950,000 for a 1910 historic Craftsman home in Pasadena, California. They sold this home in May 2019 for $2.535 million.
Read more: Charlie Kaufman Net Worth
0 Comments