How Much Is Ellen Pompeo Worth?

By Jami Farkas

May 19, 2022

DFree / Shutterstock.com

If Ellen Pompeo really were a doctor, she undoubtedly would be earning a terrific salary as a physician with 17 years’ experience. But not as impressive as the one she has made by playing Dr. Meredith Grey on ABC’s longest-running scripted primetime show, “Grey’s Anatomy,” since 2005.

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On its 2020 list of the highest-paid actresses, Forbes ranked Pompeo No. 8 with $19 million in annual earnings, sitting between A-listers Nicole Kidman and Elisabeth Moss. The publication pegged her earnings at $550,000 per episode for “Grey’s,” plus $6 million a year in profits from syndication, after a contract renegotiation in 2017.

Since the show began airing in 2005, and Pompeo has appeared in more than 400 episodes. ABC has announced the show will return for an 18^th season in the fall of 2022, airing on Thursday nights. More episodes will give Pompeo a chance to add to her net worth that is estimated at $80 million by Celebrity Net Worth.

Ellen Pompeo’s Early Acting Career

Pompeo made her big-screen, major studio acting debut in 2002 alongside Susan Sarandon, Dustin Hoffman and Jake Gyllenhaal in “Moonlight Mile.” She also had a small role in the Leonardo DiCaprio-Tom Hanks film “Catch Me If You Can” and in a part in the hit ensemble-cast comedy “Old School.”

True fans of the TV series “Friends” might remember Pompeo for her appearance in the 2004 episode entitled “The One Where the Stripper Cries.” Her character, Missy Goldberg, went to college with characters Chandler and Ross, and both had a crush on her back then.

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Ellen Pompeo Personal Life

Ellen Pompeo was born Nov. 10, 1969, in Everett, Massachusetts, rising to Hollywood stardom in her mid-30s. That’s also when she married Chris Ivery, then a music producer she met at a grocery store in 2003, Parade reported. They married quietly in New York in 2007 with Mayor Michael Bloomberg officiating.

Together, Pompeo and Ivery are raising their three children in an equally quiet manner. Her Instagram account contains very few photos of the kids: Stella Luna, born in September 2009; Sienna May, born in August 2014; and Eli Christopher, who turned 5 in December.

In 2019, Ivery transitioned his career to the fashion industry, per Parade. In September 2021, Pompeo launched a podcast, “Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo,” and she discusses with her guests the things that are most important to her, including social justice, voting rights, women’s rights and equal pay.

Ellen Pompeo’s Real Estate

Pompeo’s hobby is real estate, and she has said in interviews how much she enjoys building homes from scratch or rehabbing them.

In 2017, she sold a three-bedroom mid-century modern home in the Hollywood Hills for just shy of $2.1 million — $80,000 over asking price, the Los Angeles Times reported. The following year, she sold a second property in Hollywood Hills, this one a 2,456-square-foot Spanish villa she bought in 2005 for $1.35 million. The sales price was $2.675 million, the Times said.

In 2011, she bought a property on eight acres in the Hamptons for $925,000. She had the existing residence torn down two years later and replaced it with a five-bedroom, four-bath farmhouse-style home. The property sold in 2019 for $2.995 million, Architectural Digest reported.

“This is my hobby and I absolutely love it,” she told the magazine about creating beautiful homes before selling the farmhouse.

According to realtor.com, Pompeo and Ivery own an oceanfront home in Malibu, California, and a mansion in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.

They bought the 1930s-era, 16,000-square-foot Los Feliz property in 2009 for $3.475, and the home underwent an extensive renovation, the website Fancy Pants Homes reported. Five years later, they purchased the 2,130-square-foot Malibu home from “Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman for $6.365 million, the report added.

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Dawn Allcot contributed to the reporting for this article.

About the Author

Jami Farkas

Jami Farkas holds a communications degree from California State University, Fullerton, and has worked as a reporter or editor at daily newspapers in all four corners of the United States. She brings to GOBankingRates experience as a sports editor, business editor, religion editor, digital editor — and more. With a passion for real estate, she passed the real estate licensing exam in her state and is still weighing whether to take the plunge into selling homes — or just writing about selling homes.