Spy: Who's topped the Kiwi screen celebrity rich list? (2024)

The 24-year-old has filmed four movies since 2018, all of which have commanded a respectable return, so Spy guestimates the young star is worth at least $1m per movie, leaving us to round out his worth at $10m.

Apa and the Riverdale cast made Forbes magazine's influence list in 2018 — The Kiwi boasts almost 20 million Instagram followers.

One US media outlet calculates an influencer with more than one million followers can make about $250,000 per post from brands, which would launch Apa into a new stratosphere. However, Apa seems to avoid promoting brands on social media.

Spy understands that right from his early days, when he left Kings College at 16 for a role on Shortland Street, Apa's parents encouraged him to invest his earnings. Last year he told the LA Times he had purchased a house in Nicholas Canyon in Hollywood.

The average house price in the area is $1.5m, which gives the young actor plenty of room for him and French girlfriend Clara Berry to welcome their soon-to-arrive baby.

Lorde: $22m

Experts estimate Lorde to be worth about $22m. That takes into account the number of other artists and movies that cover her back catalogue.

The single Royals, from her first album Pure Heroine, catapulted the now 25-year-old Lorde to global superstar status. It was downloaded millions of times and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, as well as appearing on several end-of-year best album lists.

Pure Heroine went triple platinum in Australia and the United States, selling more than 5 million copies. She also toured the album internationally to great success.

In November 2013, Lorde signed a publishing deal with Songs Music Publishing, worth a reported $3.5 million. Multiple awards followed including two Grammys in 2014.

That same year Lorde was named in Forbes' 30 under 30 list, while US music and entertainment bible Billboard featured her on their 21 under 21 list for three consecutive years.

In 2017, her second album, Melodrama, followed and, although not reaching the heights of her debut, she again toured internationally.

Now months after her releasing her third album, Solar Power, and a freshly minted Vogue magazine cover, Lorde is on the cusp of proving three is a charm, with a lucrative world tour planned.

The star, who has more than 14 million social media followers on Twitter and Instagram, has a multi million-dollar house in Herne Bay and with the amount of time she spends in New York, a shrewd investment in the real estate market there may be wise.

Taika Waititi: $18m

Director, producer and actor Taika Waititi is estimated to be worth between $10m and $18m. His international breakout, Thor: Ragnarok grossed nearly $1.2b at the global box office after its release in 2017.

Media reports have the star of the franchise, actor Chris Hemsworth, netting a $28m payday for his work on the latest instalment Thor: Love & Thunder, which he wrapped filming with 46-year-old Waititi earlier this year in Sydney.

There are also reports that Waititi called in lawyers to negotiate the fee for his second movie in the Marvel franchise. As well as directing Hollywood blockbusters, Waititi has his own production company, Pika Films. He also often appears in front of the camera — for example the recent Ryan Reynolds' movie, Free Guy.

Waititi — who is now part of a power couple with pop star Rita Ora — is currently filming Blackbeard in the HBO series Our Flag Means Death.

Waititi deserves every dollar. His work in the industry dates back to his acting debut in 1999 in Scarfies and his short film Two Cars, One Night, won him an Oscar nomination in 2004.

He honed his skills at home with movies such as Boy, What we do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, the latter is NZ's highest-grossing movie, and he is now rising fast in Hollywood.

The surefire way to see his stocks soar is to win an Oscar for Best Director, which would put him in the company of Sir Peter Jackson, who sits among the world's movie elite with a net worth estimated at $600 million.

Waititi has already taken his first steps towards such an accolade — he won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Jojo Rabbit in 2019.

Lucy Lawless: $16m

Ever since she broke on to the international scene in Xena: Warrior Princess, Lucy Lawless has maintained her status as one of New Zealand's highest-paid stars.

Her wealth is estimated at $16m — but with husband film producer Rob Tapert, the couple are estimated to be worth much more.

From 1995 to 2001 Lawless filmed 134 episodes over six seasons of Xena and the cult show still has a fan base to this day. Not bad for a role that was a spin-off from the NZ-filmed, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

Lawless went on to star in Battlestar Galactica from 2005 to 2009 and had a role in Spartacus for two seasons. She went on to win roles in numerous US shows, including two seasons on Parks and Recreation. And she had a role in Tapert's NZ filmed series Ash vs Evil Dead.

Recently she has turned to lucrative voice work — and has provided the voices for Cartoon Network's show Adventure Time and DC Comics' television movie Justice League: The New Frontier. She has just finished voicing Minions: The Rise of Gru.

In 2013, Lawless starred in the musical Chicago in both Los Angeles and New Zealand. Musicals are in her blood — she starred as Rizzo in 1997 in Grease on Broadway and, in 2017, in 1980s musical Pleasuredome.

It's her lead role in My Life is Murder that Lawless has really come into her own over the past few years as a producer as well as acting. The whodunnit was first set in Melbourne and has now moved to Auckland.

Environmentalist Lawless created her own eco-estate in Mission Bay, by converting two of four properties then worth $7m into her own Garden of Eden. The value of the properties has now more than doubled.

Karl Urban: $20m-plus

With the mega-success of Karl Urban's The Boys, online estimates put Urban's fortune at more than $20m.

The 49-year-old has been reported to be the wealthiest of the series' cast, beating out long-term Hollywood veteran Elisabeth Shue. Urban has had huge success in the industry — from Lord of the Rings to the Star Trek franchise to Thor: Ragnarok.

His impressive CV includes The Chronicles of Riddick, The Bourne Supremacy, Dredd, Red and he has a new movie Cold Providence in the pipeline.

He has come a long way since his first roles on Kiwi shows Shark in the Park and Shortland Street in the early 90s.

He is likely NZ's second-highest-paid actor after Sam Neill, whose 50-year career seems certain to guarantee him more than the $20m he is estimated online to be worth.

Urban owns a multi million-dollar house in Herne Bay and his toy of choice is a snazzy speed boat, which he enjoys for fishing in the Hauraki Gulf.

Martin Henderson: $8.5m

Martin Henderson's estimated $8.5m worth is likely to be under-estimated given his massively successful Netflix series Virgin River.

The 46-year-old TV series pro became a household name with Shortland Street in the early 90s and followed that up with several successful, high-profile TV gigs in Australia, before moving to New York.

He became a Hollywood name in the early 2000s after appearing in a Britney Spears' music video Toxic and movie roles including Torque, Windtalkers, The Ring, Little Fish, Flyboys, Smokin' Aces, Cedar Boys and Bride and Prejudice. His star turn in horror The Ring, alongside Naomi Watts, helped the movie make more than $200m at the box office.

He became a leading TV man with US series Off The Map and followed that with a two-year stint on Grey's Anatomy in 2015. That would have proved lucrative — the show's long-term star Ellen Pompeo revealed in 2018 that her salary was more than US$20m a year, making her the highest-paid actress for a drama series in the US.

Henderson also appeared in several Australian television series in the past decade and before Virgin River came knocking.

He is understood to own a home in the Hills near Malibu in LA.