American actor Johnny Galecki was actually born in Bree, Belgium on 30 April 1975, to parents Mary Lou Noon who worked as a mortgage consultant, and Richard Galecki who was a member of the US Air Force, so of course he’s also a US citizen, and grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. Johnny started acting from the age of seven with a theatrical production, and was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award when he was 11.
So how rich is John Galecki? Authoritative sources estimate that John has a net worth of over $60 million, the vast majority of his wealth having been earned from his work as an actor during a career now spanning 30 years.
Johnny Galecki Net Worth $60 Million
Johnny‘s acting career on the TV screen started in 1987 with a role in the television series Murder Ordained. After that he appeared in a bunch of movies like A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon in 1988, Prancer in 1989, National Lampoon‘s Christmas Vacation in 1989, Blind Faith in 1990, and some other TV shows such as American Dreamer in 1990, Billy in 1992 and finally Roseanne. This last TV show gave a big boost to Galecki‘s popularity and net worth. It ran from 1992 to 1997 and Johnny was in 92 of the 222 episodes.
Galecki‘s next big break was with the 1997 summer horror blockbuster “I Know What You Did Last Summer“. It was undeniably a big boost to Johnny‘s net worth and fame. After that, he had roles in The Opposite of Sex in 1998, Playing Mona Lisa and Bounce in 2000, Morgan‘s Ferry and Vanilla Sky in 2001, Bookies in 2003, and Chrystal in 2004. He also voiced a character in an episode of Batman Beyond and appeared in a two-parter of The Norm Show in 2000, an episode of My Name is Earl in 2005 and even voiced a character in American Dad! In 2006.
However, the biggest and greatest sucess of his lifetime was starring in The Big Bang Theory, a sitcom about geeks, where he plays one of the main characters, Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, a theoretical physicist with a crush on Penny played by Kaley Cuoco. The show started airing in 2007 and is still going. For his performance in this show, Galecki was nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award and won the Satellite Award for Best Actor. This sitcom probably earned Johnny the most fans, and has been the biggest boost to his net worth, since he earns $1 million per episode. He even played his Big Bang character on Family Guy in 2009 and parodied himself in Entourage in 2011.
Galecki appeared in even more movies even during his ongoing role in The Big Bang Theory, namely Hancock with Will Smith in 2008, Table for Three in 2009 and In Time with Justin Timberlake in 2011.
As for his personal life, it‘s known that Galecki as a teen dated Sara Gilbert who starred with him in Roseanne, and they have remained close friends since. Johnny also dated Kaley Cuoco while their characters dated in The Big Bang Theory. They broke up in 2009 but also remained friends. Galecki started dating Kelli Garner on January of 2014 but there‘s reports that say they broke up in August.
Joseph Jefferson Award (1986), Satellite Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy (2012), TV Land Innovator Award (2008)
Nominations
Joseph Jefferson Citation nomination, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (2011), Critics' Choice Television Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Male TV Star (2016), Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (2012), Teen Choice Awards, People's ...
Movies
Prancer (1989), Roseanne (1988), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Backfield in Motion (1991), My Name Is Earl (2005), Hope & Faith (2003), My Boys (2006), Hancock (2008)
TV Shows
Fiddler on the Roof, The Member of the Wedding, American Dreamer (1990), The Big Bang Theory (2007), A Family Torn Apart (1993), The Norm Show
We have Nobel Prize winners asking if they can guest-star on the show. The image of the scientist in the last 10 to 15 years has changed dramatically. It used to be the pasty guy in the basement with beakers, and now it's Steve Jobs. They're almost the rock stars of our age.
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[on understanding the scientific concepts of physics] We're incredibly true to the science on the [The Big Bang Theory (2007)]. Even the whiteboards have actual formulas on them, and supposedly they are very funny sometimes. I don't know how that can be, but that's what I'm told.
3
[on preparing to portray a scientist on The Big Bang Theory (2007)] We did try. We talked to physicists at UCLA. We watched Nova (1992). I tried to read some books but they gave me anxiety attacks by page two. We realized that we can't pretend to think like geniuses. But we can learn to relate to them, emotionally.
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I'm not at all competitive. I'd rather play Solitaire than ping-pong.
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(On how he landed his role on Roseanne (1988)) That character was interesting, because it really grew organically, just in playing it. Initially, it was only supposed to be a couple of lines. Rose and I had worked together on a TV movie. She got me an episode, to do one scene on the show. There wasn't much there to do. Kind of rile things up with Sara Gilbert. It wasn't a whole lot to study or create or crawl into. But after that one episode, she asked me to do three more episodes, and then she asked me to do three years. You've got to understand: I was a massive fan of the show. I remember watching the pilot with my family in Chicago, when I was a kid. That show's time slot really governed when my family ate dinner. So I was very intimidated, being on that set, surrounded by television heroes of mine. That scared little rabbit that I was, observing all of this from the shadowy corners of the stage, was something the writers were brilliant enough to observe and inoculate into the character. Eventually, that became something. The way they wrote it and the way I played it. And it fortunately played so well off the "Darlene" character, too. My spinelessness and her strength.
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(On National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)) I was still living in Chicago with my family. I was 13, and I read for that role on tape. They flew me out to read with Chevy Chase. They must have been really hard up; I'm not sure why I got that role. I was fresh off the stage in Chicago. I had never done anything comedic before. I don't consider myself a comedic actor now, but I certainly wasn't then. I think I have a good idea, a good notion, a good inkling maybe of what's funny and what isn't. I think I can serve a good joke pretty well. But I wasn't bringing much comedic to the table whatsoever at 13.
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(On his part in Hancock (2008)) Sometimes the scripts change a lot, and this was the case for Hancock (2008). Both Thomas Lennon and I read for our minuscule roles in Hancock (2008). There were a couple of great scenes that we had initially. Then, the script was rewritten after they'd cast us and after they'd negotiated our contracts and everything. I think I'm like fourth-billed in that movie. Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman and me. And yet I'm a glorified extra. I really have no lines whatsoever. Neither Thomas nor I knew that until we got to the set and saw the new draft of the script. Honestly, the impetus to that gig was to work with Peter Berg, because I've been a fan of his for a long time. There was one moment early on the first day where Thomas and I looked at the new draft and thought, "We don't have any lines anymore". "Should we go home?" Jason Bateman kept looking at us going, "What are you guys doing here?" We were extras. But I very much wanted to be on a Peter Berg set.
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(On making I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)) I don't remember really how that came to be. I used to know Jennifer Love Hewitt. We lived in the same apartment building when I was about... jeez, I guess it was when I was doing National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), so I was about 13 or 14. She and my little sister were friends, so I knew her a little bit. I think she suggested me for that role. It was a pretty cut-and-dried gig. I remember doing a body cast for a scene where they open a trunk, and my dead body is in it, and there's a crab crawling out of my mouth. I got a call that production was shut down, because Jennifer was so upset by seeing this image of me with a crab crawling out of my mouth. They were asking if I would call her and reassure her that I was very much alive.
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(On making Vanilla Sky (2001)) That was a blast, because I got to hang around New York for three or four weeks and play Boggle with supermodels. Cameron Crowe wouldn't give out scripts, and I'm a homework guy, so I called him and I said, "You've got to tell me something. Give me something I can invest myself in so I feel prepared when I show up in the morning". He said, "Listen to The Beatles", which was, you know, not much of a help at all. I think I may have hung up on him. [Laughs]. But he wouldn't give out a script! So every day I would show up, and there'd be a couple of pages in my trailer. A line or two, or no lines. I never knew how big or small my role was going to be. I just showed up every day. I did invest myself in listening to The Beatles, because I had nothing else to work with, and I learned that he had based a lot of it in The Beatles. My character's name, "Peter Brown", was the name of the assistant to John and Yoko, and I think he appears in the lyrics to "The Ballad Of John And Yoko". But it was good fun. Tom Cruise was amazing - a really, really nice guy.
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(On co-starring in NBC's A Family Torn Apart (1993) which co-stars Neil Patrick Harris): "I wanted to do something a little diverse from that people were used to seeing me do. I'm just a big fan of true-life crime stories. I'm not a violent person".
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Right now, I'm very healthy. I have no vices left. Except sugary breakfast cereal. And absinthe, of course.
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(On appearing in Don Roos's edgy dark comedy The Opposite of Sex (1998)): "I wanted to do a bigger movie with a broader audience. I realized there are people between the coasts that have no idea I've worked since Roseanne (1988).
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I don't know what to do with myself between films. I end up doing unhealthy things like shopping or drinking. I'm pretty schizophrenic about it.
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Fact
1
Used a pin to poke a hole through his ear lobe at the age of ten because his parents would not allow him to get his ear pierced professionally.
2
Former smoker. He quit shortly before the eighth season of The Big Bang Theory (2007) began. He started smoking when he was only a teenager.
Older brother of Nick Galecki and Allison Galecki.
11
Star/producer/writer Roseanne Barr of Roseanne (1988) praises Galecki's "great vulnerability".
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By age 7, he began performing in such prestigious theater productions as "Fiddler on the Roof", "Pippin" and "Galileo", opposite Brian Dennehy at The Goodman Theater in Chicago.
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At the age of 11, he received a Joseph Jefferson citation nomination for his critically-acclaimed performance as "John Henry" in "The Member of the Wedding".
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In 1991, he starred in the made-for-TV movie Backfield in Motion (1991), which co-starred the production team of Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold. The next year, Galecki joined the cast of Roseanne (1988) as Darlene's sensitive and put-upon boyfriend, David.
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Born in Belgium where his father was stationed while serving in the US Air Force. He moved to Chicago when he was 3 years old.
That Big Bang show did a lot for Danny. I know he thanks Roseanne for the set up from her show as well. He’s doing very good. Its hard to keep that success from child actor to adult. He did really well for himself.
$60 Million
$1 Million per episode
That Big Bang show did a lot for Danny. I know he thanks Roseanne for the set up from her show as well. He’s doing very good. Its hard to keep that success from child actor to adult. He did really well for himself.