Danny Masterson Net Worth 2026: The $8–10 Million Fortune, Explained Honestly

That range needs context. Around 2019, before his arrest, estimates put him near $16 million. What happened between then and now is a matter of public record: a career that stopped overnight, a $3.3 million bond secured against his houses, a lost mortgage lawsuit, a divorce, and on September 7, 2023, a sentence of 30 years to life in a California courtroom. This profile traces every dollar we can document — the sitcom paychecks, the rerun money, the two house flips — and shows, line by line, what the conviction cost. Figures that are reported carry their source. Everything else is labeled an estimate.

What Is Danny Masterson’s Net Worth in 2026?

The consensus figure is $8 million, per Celebrity Net Worth — the longest-running tracker of this number and the source most major outlets cite. WealthyPipo puts it at $10 million. We use $8–10 million as the working range.

Why a range instead of a single number? Because net-worth figures for private individuals are built from public fragments: reported salaries, property records, and educated guesses about spending, taxes, and fees. When two established trackers land on $8M and $10M, picking one and presenting it as fact would be pretending to know more than anyone does. The $8M anchor is the stronger of the two — it’s the older, more-cited figure — but $10M is close enough that the range is the truthful presentation.

One more number for perspective: at his peak, around 2019, multiple outlets estimated his wealth at roughly $15–16 million. He has lost something like half his fortune in seven years. The rest of this article is the receipt-by-receipt explanation of how.

The 0,000 Question: What That ’70s Show Actually Paid Him

Everything in Masterson’s financial life starts with eight seasons of That ’70s Show. He played Steven Hyde in all 200 episodes, from the Fox premiere in 1998 to the finale in 2006. It was the only true hit of his career, and it paid him for the rest of his life — literally, through residuals we’ll get to below.

What he earned per episode is where sources split, and the split matters.

The higher claim comes via Marca, cited by TheThings: the show’s main cast earned $250,000 to $300,000 per episode at the show’s peak. TheThings notes that Topher Grace, the show’s lead, was reportedly making around $300,000 per episode in the later seasons, per The Sun — which puts Masterson, as a core cast member, in the same neighborhood during the final years.

The lower claim comes from BiographyRadar: $70,000 to $100,000 per episode in the later seasons, and roughly $22,000 per episode in the early seasons.

Both can be partly true. Sitcom salaries escalate steeply — early seasons pay a fraction of later ones, and “the main cast earned X” claims often describe the top of the scale, not every season. What’s documented is the direction: he started modest and finished well-paid.

The Lifetime Earnings Math, Done Honestly

Let’s do what competitors won’t: run the numbers with the uncertainty shown. This is illustrative math, not a reported figure. It shows how a sitcom fortune gets built — and how much of the gross survives contact with taxes, agents, and managers.

Take the middle of the road. Suppose Masterson averaged $100,000 per episode across 200 episodes of That ’70s Show. That’s $20 million in gross salary from the series.

Now the haircut every working actor takes:

• Federal and California taxes: roughly 40–45% at those income levels. Call it 42%: −$8.4M.
• Agent (10%), manager (10–15%), lawyer (5%), publicist: roughly 25–30% combined. Call it 27%: −$5.4M.
• Remaining: about $6.2 million.

That $6.2M is before spending a dollar on houses, cars, or anything else — and before residuals, which are the real long game. The point isn’t the precise total. It’s that a “$20 million sitcom career” becomes roughly a third of that in the bank, which is exactly why an $8–10M net worth today is consistent with the salary history rather than contradictory to it.

Why the Published Numbers Disagree: M vs M vs M

Published net-worth figures for Masterson span $8M to $22M depending on the site. Here’s what’s actually going on:

• $8M (Celebrity Net Worth, TheThings, African Business Review): the consensus anchor. CNW’s figure is the oldest and most-cited; the others largely track it.
• $10M (WealthyPipo): within spitting distance of $8M. A $2M gap on a private individual’s books is rounding error — different assumptions about the Hollyridge sale proceeds or legal fees.
• $15–16M (African Business Review, Birds and Wings — as a 2019 peak): this is a historical number being misread as current. Before the 2020 arrest, with two houses and an active career, $16M was plausible. It is not his 2026 number.
• $19–22M (CelebsMoney, AMJ, GreatPeopleBios): thin sites with no methodology shown. Their figures look like the old $16M peak with inflation and optimism applied. Treat them as outliers.

The pattern: credible outlets cluster at $8–10M now; the bigger numbers are either stale peaks or low-effort aggregators. When you see “$20 million” on a site that can’t tell you where the money came from, that’s your answer about the site.

Real Estate: The One Part of His Fortune With Paperwork

If salaries are foggy, property records are not. Masterson’s real-estate history is the best-documented part of his finances, thanks to reporting by Celebrity Net Worth, Dirt (via Realtor.com), and Scientology reporter Tony Ortega.

In 1998, fresh off landing That ’70s Show, he bought a four-bedroom Hollywood Hills home for about $560,000. He sold it in 2007 for roughly $1.595 million — nearly tripling his money in nine years.

That same year he bought the bigger prize: a 4,323-square-foot estate on Hollyridge Drive for about $2.995 million. The house had history — rock-and-roll pioneer Chuck Berry had once owned it — with five bedrooms, a guesthouse, a recording studio, and views over the hills. It sat just up the road from Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre.

Then the legal case swallowed it. After his June 2020 arrest, Masterson posted a $3.3 million bond using the Hollyridge house (and a Santa Ynez property) as collateral. He also sued his mortgage holders — Bank of New York Mellon and MERS — arguing flawed paperwork invalidated his loan; the courts dismissed the claims repeatedly, with one attorney quoted as saying the plaintiffs were “merely throwing arguments up against the wall.” He lost, leaving him owing $1.995 million on the mortgage. He listed the house in August 2021 for $6.995 million and sold it in December 2021 for $6.2 million.

On paper the Hollyridge flip looks like a $3.2M win. In reality, subtract the $1.995M mortgage balance he owed, selling costs, property taxes over 14 years, and capital-gains tax, and the net was far smaller — likely in the low seven figures. Still a profit. But not the windfall the headline price suggests.

The Ranch, Men at Work, and the Post-Sitcom Paychecks

That ’70s Show ended in 2006. Masterson kept working for another decade, and the paychecks kept coming — just never at sitcom-star scale again.

From 2012 to 2014 he starred as Milo Foster on the TBS comedy Men at Work. Cable sitcom money is solid but not Fox-hit money; no credible outlet has published his per-episode figure, and we won’t invent one.

From 2016 to 2018 he played Jameson “Rooster” Bennett on the Netflix series The Ranch, reuniting with That ’70s Show co-star Ashton Kutcher. Netflix is famously secretive about salaries, but the streamer pays its leads well, and this was his last significant acting income. In December 2017, after the sexual-assault allegations became public, Netflix wrote him off the show. His acting career ended there.

Film work filled the gaps: Beethoven’s 2nd as a child actor, John Woo’s Face/Off (1997), Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000), Dracula 2000, Scary Movie 2 (2001), and Yes Man (2008) alongside Jim Carrey. Supporting film roles pay once; they don’t compound. The television money was always the engine.

DJ Mom Jeans and the Downstairs Bar

Outside acting, Masterson had two side ventures worth naming because competitors list them without explaining what they were.

He DJ’d under the name DJ Mom Jeans, playing clubs and events around Los Angeles. Working-DJ money in LA is real — hundreds to low thousands per night for a name DJ — but it’s gig income, not wealth-building income. Over a decade it added up to something, not to millions.

He also co-owned Downstairs, a Los Angeles club and bar. Celebrity bar investments are notoriously hit-or-miss; there’s no public record of what he put in or took out. We mention it because it’s part of the story, not because we can price it. Anyone who assigns it a dollar value is guessing.

Residuals: The Paychecks That Keep Coming

Here’s the part of Masterson’s finances most articles mention and none explain. That ’70s Show has been in syndication for nearly two decades — reruns on cable, streaming licenses, international sales. Every time it airs, the actors get residuals: royalty payments administered under SAG-AFTRA contracts.

How residuals work, briefly: the initial broadcast pays the salary. Each reuse — rerun, streaming window, syndication package — triggers a formula-based payment. For a 200-episode hit that ran eight seasons, those checks arrive for years. They’re smaller than the original salary — typically a few thousand dollars per cycle per actor for a show this size, declining over time — but they compound across hundreds of airings.

The question TheThings raised in 2024 — does he still get residuals in prison? — has a boring, factual answer: yes. Residuals are contractual payments owed to the performer; incarceration doesn’t cancel them. They’d flow to his accounts (or to whoever holds power of attorney) minus any court-ordered obligations. Nobody has published the dollar amount, and SAG-AFTRA doesn’t disclose individual payments, so we won’t pretend to know it. But directionally, it’s the steadiest income he has left.

What a Conviction Costs: The Financial Drain, Item by Item

The drop from ~$16M to $8–10M didn’t happen by magic. Here’s the documented damage:

Two corrections to sloppy competitor coverage. First, the $3.3M bond was not $3.3M out of pocket — it was property pledged as security, released when the case concluded. Framing it as money “lost” is wrong. Second, nobody credible has published his total legal bill. Mesereau and Holley are among the most expensive defense lawyers in the country, and there were two full trials — but the number is unknowable from public sources, so it stays unknowable here.

The Divorce: Bijou Phillips Filed in September 2023

Masterson married actress Bijou Phillips in October 2011. Their daughter, Fianna Francis Masterson, was born in February 2014. Phillips sat with family through both trials; the AP reported she wept when the guilty verdicts were read on May 31, 2023.

Eleven days after the September 7 sentencing, on September 18, 2023, Phillips filed for divorce in Santa Barbara Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. Per ET’s reporting on the filing, she requested spousal support, attorney’s fees, restoration of her name, and full legal and physical custody of Fianna, with visitation for Masterson. Her attorney’s statement said her priority “remains with her daughter” and called the period “unimaginably hard on the marriage and the family.” Single status for both was restored on October 24, per later reporting, and Phillips later petitioned to change their daughter’s surname to Phillips.

The financial terms aren’t public. Divorces after long marriages in California typically split community property — but with a $3.3M bond, a forced house sale, and seven-figure legal bills already on the books, there was less to split than there had been in 2019. That’s arithmetic, not speculation.

Where He Is Now: Sentence, Prison, and Appeal

Sticking to reported facts:

• May 31, 2023: convicted on two counts of forcible rape (retrial; the first trial in 2022 ended in a hung jury). The jury deadlocked on a third count.
• September 7, 2023: sentenced to 30 years to life — 15 years per count, the maximum allowed — by Judge Charlaine Olmedo in Los Angeles Superior Court. He’ll be eligible for parole in 25½ years, per Reuters.
• January 2024: bail pending appeal denied; the judge cited flight risk.
• January 2025: his legal team filed the appellant’s opening brief, arguing trial errors and seeking exoneration. The appeal was still pending as of our latest check.
• He has been held in state prison since conviction; reporting in 2025 placed him at the California Men’s Colony.

No new acting work is possible, and no new income is reported. His finances from here are residuals, whatever remains of the property proceeds, and the outcome of the divorce settlement.

How His Fortune Compares to the That ’70s Show Cast

For context, here are the long-standing reported figures for his co-stars — all per Celebrity Net Worth’s widely cited estimates:

The table tells the real story of this profile: Masterson earned like a sitcom star for eight years, then the income stopped while everyone else’s compounded. Kutcher turned fame into venture capital. Masterson’s fame turned into legal bills.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Danny Masterson’s net worth in 2026?

Danny Masterson’s net worth in 2026 is estimated at $8–10 million. Celebrity Net Worth — the most-cited tracker — carries $8 million; a few smaller outlets say $10 million. At his 2019 peak, before his arrest, estimates were around $16 million.

How much did Danny Masterson make per episode of That ’70s Show?

Reports disagree. Marca, via TheThings, says the main cast earned $250,000–$300,000 per episode at the show’s peak. BiographyRadar puts his later-season pay at $70,000–$100,000, rising from about $22,000 in the early seasons. The truth is likely a steep climb across eight seasons.

Does Danny Masterson still get royalties from That ’70s Show in prison?

Yes, as far as anyone can tell. Residuals are contractual payments under SAG-AFTRA rules, and incarceration doesn’t cancel them. The dollar amounts aren’t public, but 200 episodes of a long-syndicated hit generate checks for years.

What happened to Danny Masterson’s Hollywood Hills house?

He sold the Hollyridge Drive estate — once owned by Chuck Berry — in December 2021 for $6.2 million, after listing it at $6.995 million. He’d bought it in 2007 for about $2.995 million. The sale followed his loss in a mortgage lawsuit that left him owing $1.995 million to his lenders.

Is Danny Masterson still married to Bijou Phillips?

No. Phillips filed for divorce on September 18, 2023, eleven days after his sentencing, citing irreconcilable differences. She sought custody of their daughter Fianna, spousal support, and attorney’s fees. Their single status was restored weeks later.

How long is Danny Masterson’s prison sentence?

30 years to life — 15 years for each of two forcible-rape convictions, imposed September 7, 2023, by Judge Charlaine Olmedo. It was the maximum sentence allowed by law. He’ll be eligible for parole in 25½ years.

Where is Danny Masterson now?

He is serving his sentence in a California state prison — 2025 reporting placed him at the California Men’s Colony. His legal team filed an appeal brief in January 2025; bail pending appeal was denied in January 2024.

What was Danny Masterson’s net worth at its peak?

Around $15–16 million, per estimates published circa 2019 — before his June 2020 arrest. The peak reflected eight seasons of sitcom salary, two profitable house flips, and an active career. Legal fees, the forced property sale, divorce, and zero new income since 2017 cut it roughly in half.