Steve Carell has been redefining his image in the acting industry in recent years. Throughout his career, the 60-year-old has been very well known as a comedic genius.

One of his most recognizable roles is his character Michael Scott from The Office. The part won him multiple accolades over the years, including a Golden Globe Award for ‘Best Actor [in a] Television Series – Musical or Comedy’ in 2006.

Carell established himself as a comedy giant, with performances in movies like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Crazy, Stupid, Love, among others.

As he has gained more experience, however, the actor has diversified his craft, shifting into more dramatic roles within the last decade or so. Between 2019 and 2021, he played a news anchor called Mitch Kessler in The Morning Show on Apple TV+.

He is also set to star in a psychological thriller titled The Patient that is due to premiere this week on Hulu.

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This diversification does not mean that Carell has walked away from the laugh industry altogether. Only last month he reprised his role as Gru in the animated comedy film Minions: The Rise of Gru.

The Rise Of Gru Is The Fifth Movie Within The Despicable Me Franchise

Steve Carell has been voicing the character Gru since 2010, when the movie Despicable Me was released. The project was a smash hit with audiences as well as critics, earning more than half a billion at the box office and numerous nominations for prestigious awards.

The success of that original film saw two sequels released up to 2017, titled Despicable 2 & 3. Between those two, a prequel by the name Minions premiered in 2015.

In each of those pictures, Carell featured as Felonius Gru, described as a ‘grouchy but usually smart and ambitious supervillain.’ The part is inspired by various iconic movie and TV characters, including James Bond, Dracula and Lex Luthor as well as British comic book character Grimly Feendish.

Carell prepared meticulously to bring Gru to life, even trying out different voices to figure out which one fit the character best.

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“Initially, I just played around with some different [voices],” he told Yahoo! Movies in June. “I wanted it to be sort of threatening… and with a tone that actually makes you laugh at the same time.”

Steve Carell Earned $12.5 Million For Minions: The Rise Of Gru

The COVID pandemic impacted the film industry quite adversely in 2020 and 2021, but it would appear that some things have been making a return to normal this year.

Soon after the release of Minions: The Rise of Gru, Variety published a report highlighting some of the highest salaries that movie stars have earned in 2022. Rather unsurprisingly, Tom Cruise was at the top of the charts, with a mammoth $100 million pay day from Top Gun: Maverick.

Steve Carell was said to have raked in $12.5 million for returning as Gru in The Rise of Gru. That amount made up almost 16% of the movie’s $80 million production budget. It is also level with the salaries that Margot Robie and Ryan Gosling are set to earn from their upcoming fantasy comedy film Barbie.

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Will Smith was ranked a distant second on that list of high earners. He is reportedly going to take home around $35 million for his action thriller Emancipation, due for release at some point in 2023.

Here's Where Steve Carell’s Net Worth Currently Stands In 2022

The $12.5 million that Steve Carell supposedly banked from Minions: The Rise of Gru is by far the most he has earned from a single movie in the franchise so far.

The actor reportedly started out with a $500,000 salary from the original Despicable Me. He then went on to receive nearly $20 million combined for Minions and Despicable Me 2 & 3.

These figures essentially mean that Carell has made a significant chunk of his wealth today from playing Gru. The actor’s net worth is currently valued at around $80 million, according to figures by Celebrity Net Worth.

The Office would have contributed substantially to adding to Carell’s wealth over the years. He is said to have started out on the show receiving a salary of between $50,000 and $70,000 per episode.

The Massachusetts-born star lasted seven seasons and 149 episodes on the show, by which time his pay had gone up to around $300,000 per episode. This would mean that in his final season on the show alone, Carell received well over $7 million, albeit before tax.

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