Most people want to stay young forever, and many incur some angst at the thought of leaving their 20s to enter into the more adult zone of the 30s. But on Lena Dunham’s birthday, she has made it clear on several occasions that she’s excited to be aging.
Maybe it’s because she’s already accomplished so much in the past decade of her life, or maybe because Lena Dunham’s net worth is $12.0 million.
Either way she’s welcoming another year of life with open arms and ready to take on new challenges.
Early Bird
It’s actually kind of hard to believe the outspoken writer and actor is only turning 30. She’s made quite the name for herself both with her movies and TV shows. That, coupled with her outspoken nature, has been loud enough to gain the attention of audiences, publishers, and producers who all flock to her work.
A native New Yorker, Dunham took her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin College and started creating multiple web series and some short films. The first of those to really catch fire happened in 2010 with Tiny Furniture, a feature film Dunham wrote, directed, and starred in and which received much critical praise.
Tiny Furniture would go on to win Best New Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards and the New Generation award at the Los Angeles Film Critic Association Awards. More importantly, the film opened the door for Dunham to create for a mass audience, and her next pilot was picked up by HBO. That pilot was the uber successful series Girls.
Breakdown of the Lena Dunham Net Worth
| Earnings from Film and TV | $6.0 million |
| Salary per Episode of Girls | $150,000 |
| Book Deal | $3.6 million |
| Total Net Worth | $12.0 million |
(Source: therichest.com)
Girls would run for six seasons on HBO. Again, Dunham took the ambitious role of writing, directing, and starring in the series, and it would pay off with her winning multiple awards. Emmy nominations started piling up, as did the Golden Globe nominations, for which she took home the prize once. She is also the first female recipient of the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series.
She Writes Books, Too
It’s probably not an accident Dunham is so into the arts. Her mother Laurie Simmons is a photographer, and her father Carroll Dunham is a painter. Dunham also attended St. Anne’s in Brooklyn, a prestigious private school where she met her friend and Girls costar Jemima Kirke.
With Dunham’s early success with Tiny Furniture and then breaking through with Girls, publishing companies came knocking at her door. Actually, they more like pounded down the door hoping to sign Dunham to a publishing deal for her memoir.
So much was written both prior to Dunham getting the book deal and after she secured the reported $3.6 million contract. Stories about the book’s content were all over the media. People wondered what a then 26-year-old Dunham could possibly offer in the way of advice. But the hysteria picked up when Gawker leaked the pitch Dunham used to publishers, which showed how much of her life she was ready to expose.
Dunham would end up signing with Random House, one of the biggest publishers in the world. Her book titled Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned would go on to be a New York Times bestseller in October of 2014.
Controversy
Lena Dunham’s art isn’t the only way she chooses to express herself. She was in a commercial in 2012 supporting President Barack Obama’s campaign. In the commercial, Dunham compares voting for the first time to having sex for the first time. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
In more serious controversy, passages of Lena Dunham’s book have been interpreted to reveal possible sexual molestation. In the book, Dunham speaks about opening her one year old sister’s vagina and bribing her with candy for kisses on the lips. This triggered some outrage from every angle, including reps from a group called Guerilla Feminism who characterize Dunham’s actions as heinous and are adamant that what she describes in her book is in fact “incest” and “sexual assault.”
Hearing the stories have people shaking their head and really wondering if Lena Dunham molested her sister and at what age. Dunham wrote a letter to TIME magazine saying, “If the situations described in my book have been painful or triggering for people to read, I am sorry, as that was never my intention. I am also aware that the comic use of the term ‘sexual predator’ was insensitive, and I’m sorry for that as well.”
The passage has become quite the scandal, but Dunham is continuing on with her career. She does admit that turning 30 is a chance for her to slow down a bit. She’s enjoyed a lot of success at a rapid pace, even for Hollywood. One thing that has been consistent is Dunham’s ability to stir the pot with her work—and we’re sure that will never stop.
Sources:
“Lena Dubham Net Worth,” Celebrity Net Worth, last accessed May 13, 2016; http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/richest-comedians/lena-dunham-net-worth/.
Aiello, M., “No One Has Ever Been So Excited to Turn 20 Than Lena Dunham,” E! News, May 13, 2016; http://www.eonline.com/news/764205/no-one-has-ever-been-more-excited-to-turn-30-than-lena-dunham?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories.
“Lena Dunham’s Book Pitch: Read The Proposal That Netted Her A $3.6 Million Deal,” HuffPost Books, December 7, 2012; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/lena-dunham-book-_n_2259575.html.
