Johnny Knoxville Net Worth

What Is Johnny Knoxville's Net Worth and Salary?

Johnny Knoxville is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, comedian, stunt performer, and former magazine writer who has a net worth of $50 million.

Johnny Knoxville is best known for co-creating and starring in the MTV stunt comedy series "Jackass," which turned a crew of skateboarders, pranksters, writers, and daredevils into one of the defining pop-culture franchises of the early 2000s. As the de facto ringleader of the group, Knoxville became famous for performing painful, humiliating, and often dangerous stunts with a strange mix of fearlessness, charm, and Southern politeness. The success of "Jackass" led to a string of hit theatrical films, including "Jackass: The Movie," "Jackass Number Two," "Jackass 3D," "Jackass Forever," and the narrative prank comedy "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa." Outside the franchise, Knoxville has acted in films such as "Walking Tall," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "The Ringer," "Lords of Dogtown," "The Last Stand," and "Action Point." He has also worked extensively as a producer through Dickhouse Productions and Hello Junior, helping extend the "Jackass" sensibility into documentaries, television shows, and other comedy projects.

Early Life

Johnny Knoxville was born Philip John Clapp on March 11, 1971, in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Philip Clapp, was a car and tire salesman, and his mother, Lemoyne Clapp, was a Sunday school teacher. He grew up with two older sisters.

Knoxville has credited his cousin, singer-songwriter Roger Alan Wade, with helping spark his interest in writing, performance, and risk-taking. Wade gave him a copy of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," which Knoxville later described as an important creative influence.

After graduating from South-Doyle High School in 1989, Knoxville moved to California to pursue acting. Like many aspiring actors, he spent years taking small jobs, auditioning, and trying to create opportunities for himself rather than waiting for someone to hand him a career.

Career Beginnings

Knoxville's early acting work consisted mostly of commercials and background roles. Frustrated by the lack of momentum, he began pitching article ideas to magazines. One of those ideas changed his life: Knoxville proposed testing self-defense equipment on himself and writing about the experience.

The idea caught the attention of Big Brother, the anarchic skateboarding magazine edited by Jeff Tremaine. Instead of merely publishing the stunt as an article, Tremaine and the Big Brother crew filmed Knoxville subjecting himself to pepper spray, a stun gun, and other self-defense tools. The footage became part of the raw material that eventually led to "Jackass."

Knoxville, Tremaine, Spike Jonze, Sean Cliver, and others developed a television pilot that mixed Big Brother footage with material from Bam Margera's CKY videos. MTV picked up the show, and "Jackass" premiered in 2000.

Jackass

"Jackass" aired on MTV from 2000 to 2002 and immediately became one of the network's most controversial and talked-about shows. The series combined stunts, pranks, public embarrassment, skate culture, gross-out comedy, and dangerous physical challenges. Knoxville emerged as the host, lead performer, and emotional center of the group.

The original cast included performers such as Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man, Dave England, Preston Lacy, Danger Ehren, and the late Ryan Dunn. While every cast member brought a different kind of insanity to the show, Knoxville often took the biggest, simplest, most punishing physical risks himself.

The show drew criticism from parents, watchdog groups, and politicians who argued that it encouraged copycat behavior. That controversy only added to its fame. "Jackass" became a hit because it felt unlike anything else on television: stupid, painful, funny, real, and strangely communal.

Jackass Movies

After the MTV series ended, "Jackass" became even bigger in theaters. "Jackass: The Movie" was released in 2002 and turned the low-budget television concept into a profitable film franchise. It was followed by "Jackass Number Two" in 2006 and "Jackass 3D" in 2010.

In 2013, Knoxville starred in and co-produced "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa," a hidden-camera comedy built around his elderly character Irving Zisman. Unlike the main "Jackass" films, "Bad Grandpa" used a loose narrative structure while still relying on real public reactions. The movie became a major box-office success and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

Knoxville returned for "Jackass Forever" in 2022, which reunited much of the original cast while introducing new performers. By then, he had endured decades of injuries, concussions, broken bones, torn ligaments, and other damage from his stunt work. His bull stunt in "Jackass Forever" caused a serious concussion and became one of the clearest examples of how physically costly the franchise had become. In June 2026, the crew released "Jackass: Best and Last," which supposedly will be the final installment in the franchise.

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Acting Career

Knoxville's "Jackass" fame opened the door to a broader acting career. In 2002, he appeared in "Men in Black II" and co-starred with Dwayne Johnson in "Walking Tall." In 2005, he starred opposite Seann William Scott in "The Dukes of Hazzard" and played the lead in "The Ringer," a comedy produced by the Farrelly brothers.

His other film credits include "Lords of Dogtown," "Daltry Calhoun," "Nature Calls," "The Last Stand," "Movie 43," "Elvis & Nixon," "Skiptrace," "Above Suspicion," "Action Point," "We Summon the Darkness," and "Sweet Dreams." He has also done voice work, including Leonardo in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," Johnny Krill on "SpongeBob SquarePants," and Bobby Ray in "Agent Elvis."

Knoxville's acting career has usually worked best when filmmakers used the same qualities that made him famous: charm, danger, recklessness, and an ability to look both foolish and completely committed.

Producing and Other Projects

Knoxville has also been a major producer behind the scenes. He co-founded Dickhouse Productions with Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze. In addition to "Jackass" projects, Dickhouse produced work such as "The Birth of Big Air," an ESPN documentary about BMX legend Mat Hoffman, and "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia."

In 2014, Knoxville formed the production company Hello Junior with "Jackass" executive producer Derek Freda. The company signed an exclusive deal with Paramount Pictures and continued Knoxville's work developing unscripted, comedy, and stunt-related projects.

He has also produced or hosted television projects including "Nitro Circus," "Loiter Squad," and "The Prank Panel." In 2022, Knoxville crossed into professional wrestling by entering WWE's Royal Rumble and later feuding with Sami Zayn in a comedy-heavy storyline built around "Jackass Forever."

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Personal Life

Knoxville married Melanie Lynn Cates in 1995. They have a daughter, Madison, who was born in 1996. The couple separated in 2006, and Knoxville filed for divorce in 2007. Their divorce was finalized in 2009.

While separated from Cates, Knoxville began dating Naomi Nelson. They welcomed a son in 2009, married in 2010, and welcomed a daughter in 2011. In 2022, Knoxville filed for divorce from Nelson.

Knoxville has been open about the physical consequences of his career. His injuries have included concussions, broken bones, torn ligaments, urethral trauma, and other stunt-related damage. Even by "Jackass" standards, his willingness to take punishment made him the franchise's central daredevil.

Real Estate

In 2002, Knoxville paid $750,000 for a home in Los Angeles. He listed the property in 2009 for $2.3 million and ultimately sold it in 2011 for $1.7 million.

In 2008, he sold a different Hollywood home for $1.8 million. He has also owned another Los Angeles-area property since 2011, which he purchased for $520,000 and has primarily used as a rental property.

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