The Walking Dead characters are really good at surviving in the zombie-riddled post-apocalypse, but how many safe havens could their actors afford in real life?
5. Chandler Riggs — $8M
Chandler Riggs virtually grew up on the set of The Walking Dead: the actor started playing Rick Grimes’s son Carl when he was only 11 years old. Having grown up around so many talented actors had its benefits as Chandler learned acting from them…but also, he had to deal with many atrocious scenes when he was young.
However, staring at rotting flesh since childhood definitely brought its benefits as Chandler Riggs was earning up to $100k per episode at The Walking Dead’s peak. Years later, the actor’s net worth is estimated to be over $8M.
4. Melissa McBride — $9M
Famous for her portrayal of Carol in The Walking Dead, Melissa McBride joined the cast of the show relatively early. Starting off as a minor character, her presence gradually grew throughout the seasons and became especially strong after Norman Reedus took over as TWD’s lead man since their characters were connected.
Not much is known about McBride’s latest salary rates on The Walking Dead, however, she started from $8.5k like other secondary characters and worked her way up from there. Today, Melissa McBride’s net worth sits at over $9M.
3. Jeffrey Dean Morgan — $12M
Jeffrey Dean Morgan entered The Walking Dead as one of the antagonists, Negan, in 2016 — and ever since then, he’s been a vital member of the show’s core cast. After the finale of TWD, the actor had a standalone mini-series with Lauren Cohan which — spoiler alert! — denied him any future The Walking Dead appearances.
Despite being a relatively late addition to the series, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was paid rather handsomely for his acting: at least since 2018, the actor started earning $200k per episode, and his current net worth is estimated to be over $12M in total.
2. Norman Reedus — $25M
For Norman Reedus, his The Walking Dead journey has been more than lucrative. Having joined the show early on as a temporary and secondary character, he played Daryl Dixon so brilliantly that fans fell in love with him. All of a sudden, Reedus was offered a much longer contract and became one of the central men on the show.
Later, Reedus’s Daryl Dixon became the lead character and even earned his own standalone series. This journey took the actor’s initial $8.5k per episode paycheck to a staggering $1M per episode, and today, Norman Reedus is worth over $25M.
1. Andrew Lincoln — $30M
For many seasons, Andrew Lincoln, who portrayed Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead, was the lead actor of the show — and, consequently, had the biggest paycheck. However, Lincoln left the series in 2019, vacating the lead position for Norman Reedus, and moved on to other projects after years on TWD.
Despite being closely associated with The Walking Dead, Andrew Lincoln was far from lost after leaving the show and kept on the grind. Before his departure from TWD, the actor was paid $650k per episode, and now, his net worth is over $30M.