From ‘Tommy Boy’ to Kuzco: How David Spade made his net worth
David Spade & Netflix are getting in the aftershow business, putting streamer’s stamp on the genre. The SVOD giant has given a net 18-episode series order to The Netflix Afterparty, a weekly comedy aftershow, with worthy Spade as host and executive producer, along with co-hosts Fortune Feimster & London Hughes.
Produced by Free 90 Media (Lights Out with David Spade), The Netflix Afterparty is a first-of-its-kind weekly comedy panel show where comedians, casts, & creators come to chat about the streaming giant’s buzziest shows & films.
The show is just the latest in a long line of projects starring and/or produced by Spade. David Spade is a Hollywood survivor. Known for his sarcastic wit, he has managed to flourish in the difficult world of comedy and accumulate an impressive net worth.
Early days
Born in Birmingham, Michigan, Spade’s family moved to Scottsdale, Arizona when Spade was four years old, and his parents divorced soon after. Spade and his two brothers were raised by a single mom after their parent’s divorce. Although things were tight financially, Spade was still able to attend Scottsdale Community College & Arizona State University, where he received a degree in business.
It was at Arizona State where Spade performed in a sketch comedy show called Farce Side Comedy hour. He also did stand-up throughout college at Greasy Tony’s Pizza in Tempe, AZ.
SNL
Spade moved to Los Angeles where he continued doing stand up. He got his big break and first net worth bump when fellow comedian Dennis Miller helped Spade get a job on Saturday Night Live in 1989. He started out as a writer and then made his way to cast member. His undeniable sarcastic style of humor made many of his sketches instant classics, especially when paired with fellow cast member & friend Chris Farley.
The Farley days
Farley & Spade had such great chemistry together doing recurring sketches like “Gap Girls” & “Matt Foley” that SNL producer Lorne Michaels got the idea to pair the two together on the big screen. And with that, Michaels dreamed up and produced Tommy Boy in 1995, with Farley playing the role of the lovable irresponsible goofball and Spade serving as the “straight man”.
In 1996 the Spade & Farley teamed up again for Black Sheep. While not critically acclaimed, the films became box office hits and cult classics among SNL fans. Farley’s death from a drug overdose in 1997 devastated Spade so much he could not attend the funeral, sparking rumors of a feud between them. However, Spade stated in multiple interviews that it was too much for him to handle seeing his close friend “in a box”.
Hanging his sitcom shingle
Never idle, in 1997 Spade continued to increase his net worth landing a role on the NBC office comedy Just Shoot Me, which ran until 2003. Around the same time, he was doing voice work for Beavis & Butthead and producing his own television series, Sammy.
In 2004, following the death of John Ritter, Spade joined the cast of 8 Simple Rules for the show’s final season. Beginning in 2005, he hosted Comedy Central’s The Showbiz Show With David Spade for three seasons, in which he poked fun at Hollywood & celebrities in a throwback to his “Hollywood Minute” sketch on Saturday Night Live.
Spade’s next big TV role and net worth boost was Rules of Engagement from 2007 – 2013, a role that paid him $150,000 per episode.
Funny films
Outside of television roles, Spade has had a brief but impressive film career. Premiering in 2000, Disney’s Emperor’s New Groove was an animated buddy comedy starring David Spade as a talking Llama/Emperor Kuzco & John Goodman as llama farmer Pacha trying to save his home. The film was a classic for its slapstick humor and one-liners adding to Spade’s net worth.
Along with Black Sheep & Tommy Boy, Spade played the starring role in the 2001 comedy film Joe Dirt & Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser, both of which he co-wrote with Fred Wolf.
Spade also played a starring role in 2003’s Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, again co-written with Wolf and produced by former fellow Saturday Night Live cast member Adam Sandler. Sandler also produced major box office hits including 2010 Grown Ups & Grown Ups 2 in 2013, with Spade in a leading role.
Real estate holdings
David Spade has owned a number of extremely impressive houses in Los Angeles over the years. In 2013 he sold a house in Malibu for $10.3 million. The buyer was Netflix content honcho Ted Sardanos. His home in Beverly Hills, which he bought in 2001 for $4 million, is reportedly worth more than $20 million. In April 2020 he paid $2.3 million for a somewhat modest home in West Hollywood, California.
As of 2021, David Spade’s net worth is $60 million.
