What is Ben Shapiro's net worth?
Ben Shapiro is an American conservative political commentator, author, columnist, lawyer, and radio host who has a net worth of $50 million. Ben Shapiro earned his fame and fortune as the founder of The Daily Wire and through his various media productions. He has a massive social media audience across multiple platforms. The Daily Wire generates a bit over $100 million per year in revenue. Its subscription streaming service, DailyWire+ has over 1 million subscribers paying between $12 and $20 per month.
Early Life
Shapiro was born on January 15, 1984 in Los Angeles, California. He was raised in a Conservative Jewish family, and both of his parents worked in Hollywood. His mother was a television executive, and his father was a composer. Shapiro played the violin as a child and did very well in school, skipping both the third and the ninth grades. After graduating from Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles at the age of 16 in 2000, he enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the age of 20 and then attended Harvard Law School. After graduating, he worked at the law firm of Goodwin Procter and then started his own legal consultancy firm, Benjamin Shapiro Legal Consulting.
Career
Shapiro began his public career as an author and writer and had his first nationally syndicated column at the age of 17. By age 21, he had already published two books. In his first book, "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth," he discussed his view that American universities were not tolerant of non-left ideologies and opinions. His next book, "Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism is Corrupting Our Future," was published in 2005, and this third, "Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House," was published in 2008. His 2011 book, "Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV" discusses that Hollywood has promoted the left-wing agenda through television and film. He published his fifth book in 2013, another critique of leftist culture, and then in 2017, he published his first work of fiction, "True Allegiance."
Shapiro's sixth book, "The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great," focuses on Judeo-Christian values and their decline in the United States. He published his seventh book, "The Authoritarian Moment," in 2021.
While working on his books, Shapiro also worked in a number of other roles. In 2012, he became the editor-at-large of Breitbart News, a very conservative news website founded by Andrew Breitbart. He resigned from this position in 2016 because of what he described as the website's lack of support for Michelle Fields, a reporter who had been allegedly assaulted by Donald Trump's former campaign manager. Since then, Shapiro has been a frequent target of the alt-right movement, which often attacks him with antisemitic remarks and rhetoric.
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Shapiro has also done a significant amount of work as a radio host. In 2012, he joined KRLA-AM 870 as a co-host of the morning program. In 2016, he joined KRLA's "The Morning Answer," a conservative radio show. During his time on the show, Shapiro received criticism for not being more supportive of Donald Trump throughout the 2016 Presidential Election.
In 2015, Shapiro founded "The Daily Wire." He serves as the editor emeritus and also hosts his own online podcast on the platform called "The Ben Shapiro Show." The podcast was ranked the second most popular podcast in the United States at one point in 2019 and is broadcast every day of the week. It became syndicated in 2018 and is carried by over 200 different markets. Leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, Shapiro began hosting "The Ben Shapiro Election Special" on Fox News. He has also frequently appeared in PragerU productions to discuss topics like intersectionality and the influence of Hollywood.
Through all of his various platforms, Shapiro has become very well-known for a number of his radical views on political and social issues. He supports a complete ban on abortion, with the only exception being in extreme cases when the mother's life is in danger. His views on homosexuality, the Israel-Palestine conflict, transgender rights, and Islam have also sparked controversy. He has also been hesitant to acknowledge the impact of climate change and is critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, arguing that widespread systemic injustice towards African Americans does not exist today.
Personal Life
Shapiro married Mor Toledano, an Israeli medical doctor, in 2008. The coupled lived in Los Angeles, California, and had four children, two daughters, and two sons, together. They are raising their children in the Orthodox Judaism faith. In September 2020, Shapiro relocated his family to South Florida and also moved the headquarters of "The Daily Wire" from California to Nashville, Tennessee.
Due to his career and political views, Shapiro and his family have been the recipients of a number of threats. The FBI arrested a man in 2019 after he had made death threats against the Shapiro family. Shapiro's sister, an opera singer, has also been the subject of antisemitic online trolling due to her connection to her brother.
Real Estate
In 2015, Ben and Mor paid $1.7 million for a 6,500-square-foot home in Valley Village, California. In late 2020, Ben announced he was leaving California for Tennessee. In October 2020, Mor and Ben listed their home for sale for just under $2.9 million.
