Born on December 21, 1957, Ray Romano (Raymond Albert Romano) is a known American screenwriter, actor, and stand-up comedian. With his role on the famous sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” he was given an Emmy Award for his outstanding performance. He also dubbed the voice of Manny in the famous “Ice Age” films and was the creator and part of the cast in the TNT comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age in 2009-2011.
His unforgettable performance as Hank Rizzoli in the American comedy-drama series “Parenthood” from 2012-2015 has fortified his cornerstone to stardom. And in 2017, he co-starred in the romantic comedy “The Big Shick” and played Rick Moreweather in “Get Shorty,” a comedy-drama series. Ray Romano was also the mob lawyer Bill Bufalino in the famous crime film “The Irishman” in 2019.
Early Life
Born in Queens, New York to a piano teacher, Luciana “Lucie” Fortini, and a real estate agent and engineer, Albert Romano, the young Ray is of Italian descent and grew up in Queens’ Forest Hills neighborhood. His older brother, Richard, was a sergeant in the New York Police Department (NYPD) and his younger brother, Robert, served as a second-grade teacher in New York City. He was married to Anna Scarpulla in 1987, whom he met while working in the bank together and blessed with four children.
He studied at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Forest Hills for elementary and middle school and Archbishop Molly High School, then graduated at Hillcrest High School together with the famous American actress, writer, comedian, and activist Fran Drescher in 1975. Ray Romano also studied accounting at Queens College in Flushing, New York.
Ray Romano Career
Ray Romano’s debut started in 1989 where he competed in the Johnnie Walker Comedy search directed by Neil Marshad on The Comedy Channel. He also dubbed as a recurring guest voice in the Comedy Central’s “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist” and was a contestant in the stand-up comedy category in an American interactive reality game show, Star Search. Romano was also the original actor to play on the American television sitcom NewsRadio as Joe, which was originally named Rick after he was replaced by Joe Rogan.
With Romano’s routine stand up performance at the “Late Show with David Letterman”, he was able to put up ties with CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), an American radio-television broadcasting network. And with his brand of Humor, CBS gave him the privilege to become the star of his show, “Everybody Loves Raymond”.
Because of his superb performance on his show, Ray Romano was able to earn six Primetime Emmy Awards and won as an Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2002. And in 2003 and 2005, he got two Emmy Awards as an Outstanding Comedy Series with his show.
Ray Romano was also given the privilege to perform an opening monologue during the 1998 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner party. In 2006, Romano starred in the dark comedy film “Grilled” together with his friend, Kevin James where they played as two Average Joes who wanted to hit big as salesmen.
Romano was also a guest player in the American television game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” where he won $125,000 for the NYPD’s DARE (Drug Abuse and Resistance Education) unit in 2000. And in 2001, Ray Romano together with his brother supported the recruit for the New York Police Department where they appeared on their posters to attract applicants.
With his 2004 performance as Raymond in his show “Everybody Loves Raymond”, Ray Romano became the highest-paid television actor in history and hit the benchmark where his show got the highest revenue at $3.9 billion. With his fame, Romano was chosen to be a guest star on the famous television game show host Bob Barker for his 80th birthday on December 13, 2003, on CBC’s 27th “Million Dollar Spectacular” special of the game show “The Price is Right”.
Competitions
Ray Romano loves to play poker. He competed during the 2008-2015 World Series of Poker consecutively. He was also featured in the second season of “The Haney Project”, The Golf Channel’s original series in 2010 where Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’ former coach, will attempt to improve the mastery of different athletes and celebrities in playing golf. His goal is to finish the show by being able to break 80. However, Romano took a break from the show in March the same year when his father passed away.
Being a regular competitor for 11 successive occasions in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, a professional golf tournament in California, Ray Romano was able to finish fifth in 2012 together with the Australian professional, Steven Bowditch that marked his first time to qualify for the final round. Romano also regularly competes in the American Century Championship which is a celebrity golf tournament owned and managed by the National Broadcasting Company at Lake Tahoe annually.
Ray Romano Net Worth
With his talent as a stand-up comedian, screenwriter, and actor, Ray Romano’s net worth is $200 million. Together with his appearance in television and poker tournaments, he was able to accumulate his fortune.
With his famous show “Everybody Loves Raymond”, Ray Romano earns an estimated $800,000 per episode and about $19 million per season. With the last two seasons of his show, he earned his record-breaking profit of $1.75million per episode and became the highest-paid actor in the history of television.
Aside from his net income from base acting and production salary, he also earns tens of millions every year from syndication deals. These deals are substantial enough for him to earn millions of dollars in the coming years. With an estimate of about $155 million from base salary, the remaining $45 million would be from his other passive sources of income aside from his television exposures.
It is a given fact that Ray Romano is an accomplished actor, avid screenwriter, and exemplary stand-up comedian whose talents have brought him up to stardom. Together with his assets and base salary, he can reach a net worth of about $200 million, something that a normal person would take years to work or save for a lifetime.