Bo Burnham Net Worth

How Bo Burnham found his way into the show business was somewhat of an accident. In 2006, while still in high school, Burnham wanted to share songs he made for his older brother, Pete, who was in a different state studying at a university in New York City. His high school friend suggested posting the videos on a newly emerged video-sharing site, Youtube. The videos soon became popular and were picked up by other website sites. He soon began uploading more videos for his viewers.

Bo Burnham’s career is quite dynamic, from being a Youtuber to a comedian, then a director and producer in comedy shows for major TV networks such as HBO and Netflix, and an actor in a highly successful film.  

Burnham 2021’s comedy special Inside exploded in popularity, which he wrote and directed all by himself while the film took place at home during the Covid-19 pandemic; it was aired on Netflix in 2021. It received universal acclaim from the general public and critics and got the attention of news media and publications. Insider led to many prestigious award nominations; Burnham ultimately took home three Emmy awards, one Grammy award, and other accolades.

What is Bo Burnham’s Net Worth?

Bo Burnham’s sources of income come from multiple places: social media sites–Bo has over one million followers on Instagram and over two million followers on Youtube, with total views exceeding 550 million. He makes, on average, $50,000 a month from Youtube monetization and over $2 million on Netflix, comedy shows, and films. As of August 2022, Bo Burnham’s net worth is in the neighborhood of US$4 million.

The 22-year-old planned to advance his career in directorial as well as acting. Based on his success in 2021 and 2022 and his popular Youtube channel. With all that combined, Bo Burnham’s net worth is expected to be on the up.

Who is Bo Burnham?

Bo Burnham’s official name is Robert Pickering Burnham, born on August 21, 1990, in Essex County, Hamilton, Massachusetts. His mother, Patricia, is a hospice nurse, and his father, Scott Burnham, is a construction company owner, Burnham Construction Company Inc, founded in 1995.

Bo Burnham was raised Catholic. Burnham attended his secondary education at an all-boys private school St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts. Burnham got tuition-free as his mother worked as the school’s nurse then. In 2008, Burnham graduated with Honors, including credits for his involvement in theater and the campus ministry program. 

He got accepted into New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he planned to study experimental theatre but decided to temporarily put his study on hold and pursue his career in comedy.

The Beginnings—Youtube

In this youth, Bo was fond of performance arts. He would mimic his family members by recording himself using a camcorder and performing skits for his family, which his parents loved watching as they are fans of stand-up comedy. He also kept himself busy in school by participating in theater projects. In high school, one of his hobbies was making political and satirical songs and showing them to his school friends—they all found it very entertaining.  

Teeming with confidence from the praises he received from his friends, Bo wanted to show his songs to his older brother, Pete, who was far away attending a university in New York City. A school friend of his suggested he uploads the videos on a video-sharing platform, Youtube, which was still in its infancy period at that time. Not for long, those videos gained a lot of attention. It was shared on a then very popular entertainment and humor website, break.com, and soon spread to other websites—it made Bo Burnham an online celebrity overnight. As his online audience started to multiply by the hundreds, Bo kept uploading more songs and videos; he self-described those uploads as a pubescent musical comedy. The videos he posted were controversial and had bad taste, as opined by The Boston Globe: “simultaneously wholesome and disturbing, intimate in a folksy-creepy sort of way.”His themes were centered around racism, homophobia, physical disabilities, and others. In one of his uploaded videos, Bo mocked a deceased person for her disabilities and homosexuality. All his uploaded videos were self-recorded in and around his family’s home.

But later on, perhaps realizing he had gone overboard, Burnham was seen raising and tackling societal issues such as class, religion, race, gender, etc., through his music and performances.

Big Break

At the beginning of 2008, Bo’s performance in London for Comedy Central’s The World Stands Up, at only seventeen, he became the youngest to be on stage. The recorded performance by Burnham impressed the company and landed him a four-year contract with Comedy Central Records. Burnham immediately went to work and released his first EP, which contained six songs titled Bo For Sho. The next year, Bo released his first album, Bo Burnham.

In 2009. Bo traveled to cities in the United States and overseas to perform his songs from the album. In 2010, he got nominated for The Best Comedy Show at Edinburgh Comedy Awards and won a panel prize of £5,000.

While in Canada in 2008, he met film director and producer Judd Apatow; that year, they talked with Universal Pictures about a potential comedy film based on his time in high school. Burnham stated he worked relentlessly along with the help of his friend help who helped him to write the screenplay. Unfortunately, the film didn’t materialize.

During his concert at Westminster College in 2008 in Fulton, Missouri, students accused him of using racial terms and homophobia. In May that year, he worked for Viral Marketing and starred in NBC’s sitcom Yo Teach! to promote Judd Apatow’s film Funny People.

In 2010, he released his first one-hour stand-up comedy special Words Words Words for Comedy Central, followed by two more in 2013 and 2016. In 2011, Burnham finished first place at Comedy Central Stand-up Showdown. In 2017, Burnham directed a comedy special for HBO; in 2018, he directed a Christ Rock comedy special for Netflix.

Bo Burnham released his first comedy-drama film, Eighth Grade, it premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2018. The film was praised and highly acclaimed. In 2020, Bo played a role in the film Promising Young Woman, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In March 2021, HBO was set to make a sports-drama TV series about the basketball legend of Boston Celtic Larry Bird in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, with Bo Burnham as the main cast. Unfortunately, Bo couldn’t commit to the film production schedule due to conflicts with his other commitments and left the series.

In 2022, In Jerrod Carmichael’s new HBO comedy special Rothaniel, the directing, editing, and executive-produced were all done by Burnham. The New Yorker praised it in its review and well-acclaimed by viewers and critics.

After many years of hiatus from social media, Burnham made a public announcement about his return. On May 30, 2022, Bo released his fourth comedy special, Inside, which showed Bo’s day-to-day life indoors, and his mental state over a year during the COVID-19 pandemic in his home. Perhaps this is Bo’s greatest achievement in his career so far. The entire duration of the filming was done by Burnham alone, with no one around. It received universal acclaim and a 95% rating from Rotten Tomato. Burnham Bagged two Emmy awards for Outstanding Music Direction, Outstanding Writing, and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special. And one Grammy award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Three of his songs from Insider were on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100 and Global 200 charts. The three songs and the album were certified gold by the RIAA.

In the same month, Burnham released over an hour-long of unseen footage as part of the first anniversary of Inside. It was broadcast on Youtube titled THE INSIDE OUTTAKES, with total views so far a few hundred short of 6 million. In June, Bo added two new additional songs to the album, Inside.

Personal Life

Bo Burnham is currently living in Los Angeles with his Hustlers girlfriend Lorene Scafaria who he has been dating since 2013. They have an age gap of 13 years.

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