The American actor Derek Luke was born on 24 April 1974 in Jersey City, New Jersey USA, to mother Marjorie Dixon, a pianist, and father Maurice Luke, a former actor from Guyana. In 2002, when Denzel Washington chose him for the leading role of Antwone in the movie “Antwone Fisher, Luke’s childhood dream of becoming a film star came true. The performance brought him the Independent Spirit Award and Luke’s life changed over night. Of course, his net worth growth significantly intensified.
So just how rich is Derek Luke? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the overall amount of the actor’s net worth reaches as much as $5 million, most of it clearly accumulated from his television and movie projects.
Derek Luke Net Worth $5 Million
After his parents divorced when he was in the third grade, Luke and his two brothers were raised by their mother whose poor musician earnings were forcing the family to frequently move around the city. His interest in drama was born when he was just a four-year-old boy telling his mother he wanted to be a famous actor. Despite growing up in the hood, Luke had strong role models in his mother and his uncles which made him focus on education, and eventually break into the acting world. He attended six different schools and finally settled in a performing arts school, Henry Snyder High School in Jersey City. In 1992 he graduated and continued on to Jersey State College to study acting. However, he soon became impatient, wanting to break into show business, so he moved to LA in hopes of making it big in Hollywood, taking jobs that would help him meet people in this industry, such as an usher for television tapings at the Universal Picture studios, and later as a sales clerk at a gift shop on the Sony Pictures Studios lot where he met Antwone Fisher whose memoir about his life was being made into a film. Luke was landing bit parts in the sitcoms “The King of Queens” and “Moesha” when he learned that Denzel Washington was to direct the Antwone Fisher film. He auditioned, and when the project went ahead in 2001 Luke was selected for a part by Washington. His net worth was to rise!
Luke’s next two movies in 2003 were “Pieces of April” and “Biker Boyz”. After his role as Curtis in “Spartan” in 2004, he played a high school football star in “Friday Night Lights” the same year and then in the popular 2006 movie “Catch A Fire” he played the role of Patrick Chamusso, a South African anti-apartheid activist. Of course these parts helped his net worth grow.
Luke would remain a familiar face on television for years to come. In 2008 he appeared in a romantic comedy “Definitely, Maybe” and a year after in “Notorious”, playing the role of the famous rapper Sean “Puffy” Combs, better known as Puff Daddy, with whom Luke has grown a long-lasting friendship. From 2009-2010 he played the role of a paramedic in the series “Trauma”, after which he appeared in another series “HawthoRNe” in 2011 and he was also cast to play Gabe Jones in “Captain America” the same year. In 2013 he appeared in the series “The Americans” and last year we saw him in the popular “Empire”, playing Malcom Devoe, head of security and Cookie’s secret love interest.
In his personal life, Luke has been married to Sophia Adella, a singer, for 17 years, sometime criticized by ‘ignorant’ African-American fans for marrying outside his race, which he strongly rejects. Conversely, Derek Luke has won millions of hearts all over the world.
