Rory Kennedy Net Worth

What Is Rory Kennedy's Net Worth?

Rory Kennedy is an American documentary filmmaker who has a net worth of $10 million. Rory Kennedy is the youngest child of United States Senator Robert "Bobby" Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy. She is known for her documentary films that focus on social issues. Kennedy owns the production company Moxie Firecracker Films, and she has directed and/or produced numerous documentaries, including "American Hollow" (1999), "America: Up In Arms" (2000), "The Execution of Wanda Jean" (2002), "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" (2007), "Ethel" (2012), "Last Days in Vietnam" (2014), "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing" (2022), and "The Synanon Fix" (2024). She won a Primetime Emmy for "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" in 2007 and earned an Academy Award nomination for "Last Days in Vietnam" in 2015. In 1999, Rory published the book "American Hollow," which "focuses on the seventy-year-old matriarch of a clan as she goes through her daily routine."

Early Life

Rory Kennedy was born Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy on December 12, 1968, in Washington, D.C. Rory's mother, Ethel Kennedy, was pregnant with her when her father, U.S. Senator and former United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated on June 6, 1968. A week after Rory's birth, Ethel took her to Arlington National Cemetery to visit Robert's grave. Kennedy is the youngest of 11 children. Her brother David died of a drug overdose in 1984. Her brother Michael died after a skiing accident in late 1997; Rory tried to save him by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Another brother, Robert Jr., has served as the controversial United States Secretary of Health and Human Services since February 2025. During her teenage years, Rory was arrested during a protest that took place outside the South African Embassy. She attended Madeira School in Virginia and Brown University in Rhode Island. As a college sophomore, Kennedy organized a rally in front of a grocery store in support of migrant farm workers.

Career

In the '90s, Kennedy formed the nonprofit organization May Day Media with her Brown classmate Vanessa Vadim. The organization specializes in films with a social conscience. Rory's first documentary was 1994's "Women of Substance," then she directed 1999's "American Hollow," "Different Moms," and "Epidemic Africa." She earned her first Primetime Emmy nomination for "American Hollow," and she published a companion book to the documentary. Next, Kennedy directed "The Changing Face of Beauty" (2000), "America: Up In Arms" (2000), "All Kinds of Families" (2001), Healthy Start" (2001), "Pandemic: Facing AIDS" (2003), "A Boy's Life" (2004), "Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable" (2004), "Homestead Strike" (2006), "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" (2007), and "Thank You Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House" (2008). She won a Primetime Emmy for "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib." In 2009, Rory was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her 2010 documentary "The Fence" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before airing on HBO.

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Rory won several awards for 2012's "Ethel," a documentary about her mother that "provides an insider's view of a political dynasty, including her life with Robert F. Kennedy and the years following his death when she raised their eleven children on her own." "Ethel" received five Primetime Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. Rory earned an Academy Award nomination for her 2014 documentary "Last Days in Vietnam," then she directed "Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton" (2017), "Without a Net: The Digital Divide in America"(2017), "Above and Beyond: NASA's Journey to Tomorrow" (2018), "The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari" (2022), "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing" (2022), and "The Synanon Fix" (2024). Kennedy has also produced documentaries such as "The Execution of Wanda Jean" (2002), "Together: Stop Violence Against Women" (2003), "The Nazi Officer's Wife" (2003), "Street Fight" (2005), "Coma" (2007), and "Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech" (2009).

Personal Life

After graduating from college, Kennedy moved to New York, followed by Los Angeles. Rory married Mark Bailey on August 2, 1999, at shipping tycoon Vardis Vardinoyiannis' mansion in Greece. The wedding was originally scheduled for July 17th in Massachusetts, but Rory's cousin John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, died en route to the wedding when a plane John was piloting crashed into the ocean. Rory and Mark have welcomed three children together. In 2019, Kennedy and Aileen Getty co-founded the Climate Emergency Fund to "raise funds for and make grants to the disruptive nonviolent climate movement."

Awards and Nominations

In 2015, Kennedy received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary, Feature for "Last Days in Vietnam." The documentary also earned her nominations from the Sheffield International Documentary Festival and Awards Circuit Community Awards. Rory has received six Primetime Emmy nominations, winning for Outstanding Nonfiction Special for "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" in 2007. That documentary also earned a nomination for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming, and Kennedy's other nominations were for Outstanding Nonfiction Special for "American Hollow" (2000) and "Bobby Fischer Against the World" (2012) and Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for "Ethel" (2013). In 1999, "American Hollow" was named Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival and Newport International Film Festival, Rhode Island, and it won the Documentary Award at the AFI Fest and received an Honorable Mention for Best Documentary at the Atlanta Film Festival. For "Ethel," Rory won an audience award at the Nantucket Film Festival, Ashland Independent Film Festival, and Sarasota Film Festival and a Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Director – News/Non-Fiction. Kennedy has also won a Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Director – News Series or Special for "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" (2008) and a Women's Image Network Award for Outstanding Film Directed by a Woman for "Above and Beyond: NASA's Journey to Tomorrow" (2019).

Real Estate

In 2013, Kennedy and Bailey paid $2.9 million for a 4,803-square-foot home in Malibu, California. The oceanview home includes four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a swimming pool, and spa. The couple previously owned a four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home in Shelter Island, New York, which they sold for $2.967 million in 2009.

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