Peter Kay

Peter Kay

Date of birth: 02-07-1973

Peter Kay named Britain’s richest comedian

£34.6million fortune buys a lot of garlic bread

Peter Kay has been named Britain’s richest comedian, with a £34.6million fortune.

Records at Companies House show that in the year to March 2023, the value of the Car Share star’s two firms were down £1.2million on the previous year – but he still topped a table compiled by The Sun today.

And his coffers will be swelled by receipts for his ongoing arena tour, which extends to December next year.

The newspaper’s analysis apparently only considers the value of the companies through which stars do their business, and not other assets such as property.

Second in the rich list is Stephen Merchant, with £26.2million – up £2.5million in a year – followed by his Office co-creator Ricky Gervais with £25.8million.

Gervais recently bought a £14.75m home in London and also owns a £3million riverside mansion in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and two New York apartments.  

The Sun’s list is also likely to be incomplete, with the likes of Rowan Atkinson – who still rakes in a fortune from Mr Bean – and Jimmy Carr not making their cut.

But this is their top ten:

1 Peter Kay: £34.6m, down £1.2m in a year
2. Stephen Merchant £26.2m, up £2.5m
3. Ricky Gervais £25.8m, up  £600k
4. Russell Howard £10.1m, up £1m
5. Jack Whitehall £.9.9m, down £1.3m
Rob Beckett £6m, up £2m
7. Michael McIntyre £5m, up £1.9m
8 John Bishop £4.3m, down £155k
9. Sarah Millican £3.2m, down £200k
10. Hugh Dennis  £2.7m, up £40k.

Thanks for reading. If you find Chortle’s coverage of the comedy scene useful or interesting, please consider supporting us with a monthly or one-off ko-fi donation.
Any money you contribute will directly fund more reviews, interviews and features – the sort of in-depth coverage that is increasingly difficult to fund from ever-squeezed advertising income, but which we think the UK’s vibrant comedy scene deserves.
Read More

Published: 22 Jul 2024

Reading aloud | Festival line-ups announced

Reading aloud

Ross Noble, Sean Lock and Phil Kay are among the comics…
27/07/2002

 | Duo land C4 special

Oram and Meeten have landed their own Channel 4 Comedy…
24/07/2002

Fun in Brum | Birmingham set for comedy fest

Fun in Brum

Peter Kay, Ed Byrne and the cast of the Fast Show…
16/06/2002

A bitter man

Peter Kay is to front a £20million advertising…
8/05/2002

Brass wins gold

Brass Eye's special on paedophilia has won the comedy…
31/01/2002

C4 seeks ideas

Channel 4 is looking for ideas for the next series…
24/01/2002

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.