Forest Whitaker is a famous American actor, voice actor, film producer, TV and film director. Forest Steven Whitaker was born on July 15, 1961, in Longview, Texas. His main steps in his show business career Whitaker has made as an actor, not as a producer. At the beginning he mostly appeared in musicals, the first of them was “Fast Times at Ridgemon High” (released in 1982). Despite the fact Whitaker’s role in his first movie was really small, he showed himself as a talented actor and was noted by others.

Forest’s career to date has allowed him to accumulate net worth estimated at $40 million.

Forest Whitaker Net Worth $40 Million

In 1995 he proved his great acting talent and charisma when he both appeared in and produced the movie “Waiting to Exhale”. This romantic drama was also his film directorial debut, and received Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture award and several MTV movie awards too. Forest Whitaker really shot to prominence as an actor in 1998, after starring in the lead role in a  biographical film about the famous American musician Charlie “Bird” Parker, “Bird”, directed by Clint Eastwood. The movie itself scored 74% on “Rotten Tomatoes” – website devoted to film reviews. Moreover, the actor earned several awards and considerable critical acclaim. After this outstanding performance, Whitaker’s career rose even more.

One more of Whitaker’s big moments was in 2006 for the role of Idi Amin in the movie called “The Last King of Scotland”, for which he received an Academy Award as the Best Actor.

His most recent and notable appearance was in the movie entitled “The Butler”, released in 2013, which is an American historical drama based on the real life of Eugene Allen. Forest Whitaker starred as the main character Cecil Gaines, who dedicated his life to be a professional domestic worker. This movie received five different awards and added a huge amount of money to Whitaker’s net worth.

Today Forest Whitaker lives with his wife Keisha Nash Whitaker – the couple married in 1996. They raise four children: their daughters True and Sonnet, Forest’s son from the previous relationship and Keisha’s daughter.
Forest Whitaker is known to be a vegetarian and the supporter of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Forest supports Barack Obama and is a chief among the Igbo community. Moreover, on June 21, 2011, Whitaker was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation in UNESCO. Today the famous actor supports all UNESCO’s activities and helps to empower young people to keep them away from the cycle of violence in the community. David Killion, UNESCO ambassador from United States, described Forest Whitaker as a person who feels compassion for every kind of humiliation and disgrace and he does his UNESCO job because it is the right thing to do.

Benjamin Joseph Manaly “B. J.” Novak was born on July 31, 1979 in Newton, Massachusets, United States, and raised in a Jewish family with two younger brothers – Lev and Jesse. B. J. Novak attended Newton South High School together with the famous American actor and director John Krasinski. After school in 1997 Novak attended Harvard University and after graduation moved to Los Angeles to support himself financially and be independent. There he started to work as a comedian in different clubs and produced an amazing performance on October 10 2001 at the Hollywood Youth Hostel, and by 2003 B. J. Novak’s name was included in the famous list of top 10 Comedians To Watch.

B. J. Novak Net Worth $18 Million

At that time Novak wasn’t at the top of his career. True popularity and success came after his appearance in a British sitcom television series broadcast in the United Kingdom and called “The Office”. There he worked both as an actor and screenwriter. As a writer for the first time, Novak had an opportunity to show his abilities on the TV show “Raising Dad”, although he didn’t work there for very long.

Year 2003 was also successful in B. J. Novak’s life. At that time Novak started to participate in an American hidden-camera reality TV series on MTV entitled “Punk’d”, in which he became one of the main cast members. “Punk’d” was a show of playing pranks on celebrities – they ‘pranked’ Hilary Duff, Racheal Leigh Cook and even Usher.

Today Benjamin Novak has estimated net worth of $20-22 million thanks to his screenwrting, voice and acting career. Since the amazing success of “The Office”, Novak has played in movies “Unaccompanied Minors” (released in 2006), “Reign Over Me” (2007), “Knocked Up” (2007) and “Inglorious Bastards” (2009). In 2014 Novak has already appeared on TV screens – he played Mr. Egypt in the “Community” episode “Basic Sandwich” and in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”, where he played one of Spider-Man’s main rivals, Alistair Smythe. He even played Baker Smurf in the famous American 3D comedy called “The Smurfs” – this was one of the most notable  of Novak’s performances as a great voice actor.

Novak has been nominated for many awards, including Emmy Award, but has won three of them. He twice won the same award – Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in Comedy Series by Screen Actors Guild Award in 2006 and 2007 and also won Comedy Series award by Writers Guild of America Awards. Last time he was nominated was for Performance in a Comedy Series.

Today B. J. Novak lives in United States. He is a close friend of Vera Mindy Chokalingam, better known as Mindy Kaling – American comedian, actress and writer. Novak met Mindy while they were both writing for “The Office”. These two sometimes appeared in public as a couple, but their relationship nowadays is called unstable in magazines even after Novak clarified their relationship with Kaling on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live”. However, it couldn’t ruin their close friendship which has lasted for years.