Seth MacFarlane was 5 years old when he decided to become an animator (via Celebrity Net Worth). He published his first comic in the Kent Good Times Dispatch just four years later, earning himself a weekly $5 wage. By his mid-20s, after numerous creative projects and attendance at the Rhode Island School of Design, Fox gave MacFarlane $50,000 to produce an animated feature. Over the next six months, MacFarlane created a threadbare version of “Family Guy,” and Fox executives were impressed.
“Family Guy” premiered on January 31, 1999, and enjoyed good ratings, securing a second season. However, when ratings slumped, Fox cancelled the show in the summer of 2002. Cartoon Network soon took the baton, showing reruns that attracted a substantial following. DVD sales were very strong, too. Consequently, Fox invited MacFarlane to create a fourth season, which premiered in May 2005. Since then, “Family Guy” has gone from strength to strength, earning MacFarlane lucrative deals including a $100 million contract in 2009 and a $200 million agreement in 2020, according to Digital Spy.
MacFarlane has also directed films such as “Ted,” “Ted 2,” and “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” which earned approximately $500 million, $200 million, and $80 million, respectively. In 2008, with “Family Guy” secure, MacFarlane bought a $13.5 million mansion in Beverly Hills. Years later, in 2019, he spent a further $15.7 million on a property in Malibu. Also, Digital Spy reported that MacFarlane had bought an exact replica of a DeLorean, the famous sports car featured in “Back to the Future.”
