The Richest Actresses on Television in 2022

With streaming services and cable networks willing to throw big bucks at TV series, for many actresses the line between big screen and small screen has become blurred. In recent years, some of the biggest movie stars of our time have made the transition to TV. This means that there’s not much of a difference between a ranking of the richest actresses on television and the richest actresses, period, anymore.

So, for this list, we’ve only included actresses who have been part of the main cast of at least one series during their career. As deals are struck and new series cast between now and December, newcomers may enter the rankings too, but going into the new year, these are some of the richest actresses on television for 2022. You can also compare this power ranking to our 2021 list.

Getty Images

1 / 20

20. Mariska Hargitay

Estimated net worth: $100 million

In 1986, right at the start of her career, Mariska Hargitay starred in the crime show Downtown. Her first starring role as a police officer was in Tequila and Bonnetti. While many of her guest star roles were as police officers and/or in crime shows too, there was also her recurring role as a desk clerk in ER, for example, not to mention her stint on the sitcom Can’t Hurry Love. Still, it’s Detective Olivia Benson of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit she’ll always be most famous for: the longest-running prime-time live-action TV character of all time has appeared in seven different series, including a cameo on Saturday Night Live. Dun dun.

Getty Images

2 / 20

19. Kaley Cuoco

Estimated net worth: $100 million

For the past few years, Kaley Cuoco has been one of the richest actresses on television, mainly thanks to The Big Bang Theory. That wasn’t her first major TV role, though. There was Ladies Man, 8 Simple Rules, 10.5, Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, Bratz and Charmed before Penny made Leonard all tongue-tied. Since The Big Bang Theory, she’s been providing the voice of Harley Quinn in the eponymous animated series and playing Cassie in The Flight Attendant.

Getty Images

3 / 20

18. Meryl Streep

Estimated net worth: $110 million

In a career that has spanned nearly five decades, Meryl Streep has done it all: tragedy, comedy, musical, even action. She has a record-breaking 21 Oscar nominations to her name and took the golden statue home three times. In fact, all in all she has 177 acting awards to her name. With such a stellar movie career, it’s easy to forget that she has three Emmys – for Holocaust, Angels in America and narrating the doc Five Came Back – to her name. Other awards for her work on the small screen include a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Awards for Angels in America. Her most recent TV work was Big Little Lies and in the works is Extrapolations.

Getty Images

4 / 20

17. Angelina Jolie

Estimated net worth: $120 million

Angelina Jolie has always been a movie actress, so why did we include her here? Because the first two of her three Golden Globes were for the miniseries George Wallace and the TV movie Gia: and she won them in the same year. Gia also earned her the first of two SAG Awards. The Oscar-winner and activist has been one of the world’s highest-paid actresses for years and when they’ve finally stopped fighting, she and Brad Pitt will have had one of the most expensive celebrity divorces.

Getty Images

5 / 20

16. Tracey Ullman

Estimated net worth: $125 million

Tracey Ullman’s first major TV role was in the British sketch comedy show A Kick Up the Eighties back in 1981. More comedy series followed, including Girls on Top alongside Dawn French, Ruby Wax and Jennifer Saunders. On this side of the Atlantic, it was The Tracey Ullman Show that put her – and a cartoon family called the Simpsons – on the map. Several movie roles and sketch comedy series followed, as well as the role of feminist icon Betty Friedan in Mrs. America. We almost forgot that she also had a short-lived career as a singer.

Getty Images

6 / 20

15. Drew Barrymore

Estimated net worth: $125 million

Born into an illustrious acting dynasty, young Drew Barrymore’s fate was really sealed when she appeared as Gertie in E.T. the Extra-terrestrial. A string of movie roles followed and she was the darling of the 1990s and early 2000s, often making three hit movies in a year. On the small screen, she’s had lead roles in the TV series 2000 Malibu Road, Family Guy and Santa Clarita Diet. She got a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for the TV movie Grey Gardens. These days, she hosts her own talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show.

Getty Images

7 / 20

14. Sarah Jessica Parker

Estimated net worth: $150 million

Her first stint as a main cast member in a TV show was a sitcom called Square Pegs back in the early 1980s. Many movie and TV guest roles followed, as well as lead roles in the series A Year in the Life, Dadah is Death and Equal Justice. While she was pretty well known by then, it was as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City that the letters SJP became synonymous with an incredible style evolution. Along with six Golden Globes, two Emmys and three SAG Awards came the lucrative endorsement deals, the fragrances and the fashion collections, making her by far the wealthiest of the SATC cast members. After SATC she also had lead roles in Divorce and the SATC TV sequel, And Just Like That…

Getty Images

8 / 20

13. Courteney Cox

Estimated net worth: $150 million

She’s come a long way since Bruce Springsteen pulled her on stage in the “Dancing in the Dark” music video. There was a starring role in Misfits of Science, a recurring role in Family Ties, another starring role in The Trouble with Larry and plenty of TV movies and guest roles. Then, in 1994, she auditioned for the role of one Rachel Green in a new sitcom. She didn’t get the part. Instead, she got the part of Monica and the rest is history. Movies like the Scream franchise followed and after Friends – which snagged her a SAG Award – she had starring roles in Dirt and Cougar Town. This year she’ll be back on our TV screens in Shining Vale.

Getty Images

9 / 20

12. Miley Cyrus

Estimated net worth: $160 million

These days she’s most famous as a singer and The Voice coach so it’s easy to forget that Miley Cyrus started out as an actress. Her first acting role was a guest part in Doc, a series starring her father, Billy Ray Cyrus. When she was 11, she auditioned for Hannah Montana and, while the producers at first thought she was too small and young for the role, they eventually gave her the job. This catapulted her to fame. In between the chart toppers she had some movie roles and guest roles in TV shows like Black Mirror. The last TV series in which she was part of the main cast was 2016’s Crisis in Six Scenes.

Getty Images

10 / 20

11. Julia Roberts

Estimated net worth: $170 million

Steel Magnolias earned her her first Golden Globe. Pretty Woman made her a household name and earned her another Golden Globe. Erin Brockovich got her an Oscar, a BAFTA, her third Golden Globe and a SAG Award. For more than 30 years now, Julia Roberts has been one of the most beloved movie stars in the world. While she’s appeared in TV movies and guest roles in TV series, it was only with 2018’s Homecoming that she starred in a leading role on the small screen. Next up is the series Gaslit, where she’ll play the role of Martha Mitchell, who first sounded the alarm about what would become the Watergate scandal.

Getty Images

11 / 20

10. Sofía Vergara

Estimated net worth: $180 million

Sofía Vergara appeared in her first TV commercial when she was 17. A role in a Mexican telenovela followed. After her brother was murdered, she left her native Colombia for the United States, where she got small parts in TV shows and movies. Main roles in Hot Properties, The Knights of Prosperity and more telenovelas followed before she sashayed into Modern Family, where the role of Gloria made her one of the richest sitcom actors in history and earned her four SAG Awards. When Modern Family ended, she became a judge on America’s Got Talent.

Getty Images

12 / 20

9. Reese Witherspoon

Estimated net worth: $200 million

Before she became really famous with Cruel Intentions, Reese Witherspoon was in the main cast of the miniseries Return to Lonesome Dove and a few lesser known movies. She went on to become style icon Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde movies, started her own production company and clothing line and won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for Walk the Line. After guest roles in several TV shows, she joined the main casts of Big Little Lies – earning her another Golden Globe and an Emmy – as well as The Morning Show and Little Fires Everywhere.

Getty Images

13 / 20

8. Demi Moore

Estimated net worth: $200 million

At the start of her career, Demi Moore was part of the regular cast of General Hospital. For most of the 1980s and 1990s, she was one of the highest paid movie stars in the world and while she mainly appeared on the big screen, she also received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for the TV movie If These Walls Could Talk. More recently, she returned to the small screen as a member of the main cast of Animals and Brave New World. In the works is Dirty Diana, a series based on the sex-positive podcast created over Zoom and recorded from her bathroom.

Getty Images

14 / 20

7. Salma Hayek

Estimated net worth: $200 million

English-speaking audiences first got to know Salma Hayek for her sultry roles in Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn but by then, she was already famous as a telenovela star in her native Mexico. On our small screens, we’ve seen her mainly in TV movies like the award-winning In the Time of the Butterflies and in a cameo role as a nurse in the telenovela shown in Ugly Betty, a series she was executive producer for. Endorsements and her own line of cosmetics have added to her bank balance and it certainly helps that she’s among the celebrities who married billionaires.

Getty Images

15 / 20

6. Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Estimated net worth: $250 million

Born into the insanely wealthy Louis-Dreyfus family, Julia Louis-Dreyfus could have become just another socialite. Instead, she went into comedy, becoming the youngest cast member of Saturday Night Live when she was 21. A few movie roles followed and then, in 1990, Elaine Benes invited Jerry to a party in the second episode of a new show called Seinfeld, becoming a household name herself. Between Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine and Veep, Julia Louis-Dreyfus has won 11 Emmys – three of them as a producer – as well as a Golden Globe and nine SAG Awards.

Getty Images

16 / 20

5. Nicole Kidman

Estimated net worth: $250 million

While she had already made a name for herself Down Under with roles in Australian TV series like Vietnam, the rest of the world got to know Nicole Kidman as a movie star who would win three Golden Globes and become the first Australian to win the Best Actress Oscar. In recent years, she returned to the small screen with starring roles in Big Little Lies, Top of the Lake: China Girl, The Undoing, Nine Perfect Strangers and Being the Ricardos, earning her two more Golden Globes, two Emmys and a SAG Award along the way. One of the world’s highest paid actresses for years now, she’s supplemented her income with endorsement deals and singles like “Somethin’ Stupid."

Getty Images

17 / 20

4. Jennifer Aniston

Estimated net worth: $250 million

She was a series regular on several sitcoms in the early 1990s before she became Rachel Green, who inspired the fashion of the decade and even the haircut everyone sported for a few years. During and after her time on Friends, Jennifer Aniston made time for roles in hit movies, guest roles in TV shows, marriage to and divorce from Brad Pitt, endorsements and her own perfume line. In 2019, she returned to main-star status on the small screen with The Morning Show, bagging a SAG Award in addition to the Emmy, SAG and Golden Globe she had already won for Friends.

Getty Images

18 / 20

3. Mary-Kate Olsen

Estimated net worth: $250 million

Mary-Kate Olsen was only nine months old when she and twin sister Ashley landed the role of Michelle Tanner in Full House. They became immensely famous and created Dualstar Entertainment Group to produce mainly TV movies and sell their merch. In later years, Mary-Kate would strike out on her own with, among others, a recurring role in Weeds. Often the more daring of the sisters when it comes to style, Mary-Kate jumped at the chance to co-found fashion brand The Row with Ashley. Mary-Kate overcame a much-publicized eating disorder and, during her relationship and marriage to the half-brother of a former French president, she became a competitive equestrian.

Getty Images

19 / 20

2. Ashley Olsen

Estimated net worth: $250 million

The other half of the pair of famous sisters who have conquered the world, Ashley Olsen’s career has been very much intertwined with that of twin sister Mary-Kate. They jointly became famous and raked in the acting awards for Full House, which led to movies and their own company, Dualstar Entertainment Group. It was Ashley’s quest to create the perfect T-shirt, however, that inspired them to create their award-winning fashion brand, The Row.

Getty Images

20 / 20

1. Victoria Principal

Estimated net worth: $350 million

For most of the 1980s, Victoria Principal was a household name thanks to her role as Pam Ewing in one of the biggest shows with the biggest hair and the biggest shoulder pads of the decade, Dallas. She also appeared in numerous TV movies and more recently, in the 2000 series Titans. Much of her wealth comes from other projects, though: her production company, skincare empire and books.