Bret Easton Ellis Net Worth

Bret Easton Ellis has an estimated net worth of $5 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Bret Easton Ellis net worth page (figures as of April 5, 2025).

Bret Easton Ellis is an American author and screenwriter who was born on March 7, 1964, in Los Angeles and raised in Sherman Oaks. He graduated from the Buckley School and attended Bennington College, where he studied music before turning to writing. His first novel, Less than Zero, was published by Simon and Schuster in 1985 while he was still a student, and it became a bestseller that made him part of the Literary Brat Pack.

His third novel, American Psycho, published in 1991, became his most successful book and is now widely regarded as his signature work. Later books include The Informers, Glamorama in 1998, the metafictional Lunar Park in 2005, Imperial Bedrooms in 2010 and The Shards in 2023, which FX adapted as a television series in 2026. Four of his works have been made into films, including American Psycho in 2000 and The Rules of Attraction in 2002. He also wrote The Canyons and hosts The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.

How Bret Easton Ellis makes his money

Book sales are the foundation. Less than Zero and American Psycho have stayed in print for decades, and later novels such as Lunar Park, Imperial Bedrooms and The Shards add new advances and royalties.

Film and television adaptations bring rights income. Less than Zero, American Psycho, The Rules of Attraction and The Informers became films, and The Shards became an FX series.

Screenwriting adds direct fees, from co-writing The Informers to writing The Canyons, which he also helped finance, plus credits on The Curse of Downers Grove and Smiley Face Killers.

His podcast is a steady media stream. Launched with PodcastOne in 2013, it moved to Patreon in 2018, where subscribers support it directly.

His estimate

Celebrity Net Worth estimates Bret Easton Ellis's net worth at $5 million, on its page last updated April 5, 2025. That figure is an outside estimate of what the star has earned and kept after taxes, fees and spending. It is not an official number, and the star has not confirmed it or published personal finances.

His figure reflects decades of book royalties, screen adaptations, screenwriting and podcasting. We will add any newer dated estimate from a named outlet to the chart above, and we never fill in the years between published figures.