Julian Fellowes Net Worth

What is Julian Fellowes's Net Worth?

Julian Fellowes is an English writer, director, producer, and actor who has a net worth of $30 million. After winning an Oscar for his first feature screenplay, for Robert Altman's 2001 film "Gosford Park," Julian Fellowes went on to create the hugely popular television series "Downton Abbey," earning him several more awards. Among his many other credits, Fellowes wrote the films "The Young Victoria," "The Tourist," and "The Chaperone"; created and wrote the television series "Belgravia," "The English Game," and "The Gilded Age"; and wrote the books to the stage musicals "Mary Poppins," "School of Rock," and "The Wind in the Willows."

Early Life and Education

Julian Fellowes was born on August 17, 1949, in Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt, into a British family of the landed gentry. He is the youngest of four boys of Olwen and Peregrine, with his brothers being actor Nicholas, writer David, and playwright Roderick. The boys grew up in South Kensington and East Sussex. Fellowes also spent some formative years in Nigeria, where his father helped run operations for the oil and gas company Shell. For his formal education, he attended a number of private schools in Britain, including Wetherby School and Ampleforth College. Fellowes went on to attend Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he studied English literature and was a member of the student sketch comedy troupe Footlights. He later continued his studies at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Career Beginnings in Acting

In the late 1970s, Fellowes began his career as an actor. He went on to appear in such West End productions as "A Touch of Spring," "Present Laughter," and "Joking Apart." In 1981, Fellowes moved to Los Angeles and began landing some guest roles on television shows. He also portrayed George VI in the 1982 CBS television film adaptation of "The Scarlet Pimpernel." However, the work was limited, and Fellowes eventually moved back to England. There, Fellowes had roles on the children's series "Swallows and Amazons Forever!" and "Knights of God." In the 1990s, he appeared on such programs as "For the Greater Good," "Martin Chuzzlewit," "Our Friends in the North," and "Aristocrats," and portrayed George VI for the second time in the ITV drama "Sharpe's Regiment." Later, from 2000 to 2005, Fellowes played Lord Kilwillie on the BBC One series "Monarch of the Glen."

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Film Writing and Directing

Fellowes got off to an auspicious start as a film screenwriter with his script for Robert Altman's 2001 film "Gosford Park." Inspired by Jean Renoir's 1939 classic "The Rules of the Game," the black comedy mystery focuses on a party of wealthy British people and their servants who find their gathering at an English country house disturbed by a murder. "Gosford Park" received enormous acclaim and earned Fellowes the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. After that, Fellowes penned the scripts to a string of literary adaptations: "Vanity Fair" (2004), "Piccadilly Jim" (2005), and "Separate Lies" (2005). The latter film also marked his feature directorial debut. In 2009, Fellowes wrote the screenplay to the biographical period drama "The Young Victoria" and both wrote and directed the fantasy drama "From Time to Time," based on Lucy M. Boston's children's novel "The Chimneys of Green Knowe."

In 2010, Fellowes penned the screenplay to Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's romantic thriller "The Tourist," a remake of the French film "Anthony Zimmer." Next, he adapted "Romeo & Juliet" into a 2013 film directed by Carlo Carlei. Fellowes followed that with an adaptation of Agatha Christie's detective mystery novel "Crooked House," which came out in 2017. His subsequent screenplay was for the 2018 period drama "The Chaperone," adapted from Laura Moriarty's novel of the same name. The film was directed by Michael Engler. Fellowes went on to adapt his hit television show "Downton Abbey" for the big screen, starting with the 2019 continuation of the series, simply called "Downton Abbey." After that, he wrote the screenplays to the sequels "Downton Abbey: A New Era" (2022) and "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale" (2025).

Television Career

The first television series created by Fellowes was the five-part docudrama "Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder," which aired on BBC One in 2004. He also co-wrote the series and starred in it as a detective guiding the audience through five different unsolved murder cases. Fellowes had his biggest hit with the historical drama "Downton Abbey," which premiered in 2010 on ITV and PBS. Set at the fictional Downtown Abbey country estate in Yorkshire between 1912 and 1926, the series features a sprawling cast of characters across the aristocratic Crawley family and their various domestic servants. The show was a huge success with both audiences and critics, running for six seasons and winning a plethora of awards. Among the accolades were two Emmy Awards for Fellowes's screenwriting.

During the run of "Downton Abbey," Fellowes wrote a new "Titanic" miniseries for ITV that aired in 2012. For the same network, he adapted Anthony Trollope's novel "Doctor Thorne" into a three-part miniseries that aired in 2016. Fellowes created and wrote two limited series in 2020: the historical sports drama "The English Game," which premiered on Netflix, and an adaptation of his own novel "Belgravia," which premiered on ITV. In 2022, Fellowes launched his longest-running show since "Downton Abbey": the HBO historical drama series "The Gilded Age." Set in the United States during the titular period of excess, it features a large ensemble cast including Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Christine Baranski, Denée Benton, and Cynthia Nixon.

Musical Theater

Fellowes entered the world of musical theater with his adaptation of "Mary Poppins." The show premiered on the West End in 2004 before transferring to Broadway in 2006. Fellowes went on to adapt the film "School of Rock" for the stage, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Glenn Slater. Premiering on Broadway in late 2015, "School of Rock" earned Fellowes his first Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical. He followed that with an adaptation of "Half a Sixpence," which premiered on the West End in 2016, and an adaptation of "The Wind in the Willows," which made its West End debut in 2017.

Novels

In the 1970s, Fellowes penned a number of romantic novels under the pseudonym Rebecca Greville. His debut novel under his own name was "Snobs," which was first published in 2004. Fellowes published "Past Imperfect" in 2009 and "Belgravia" in 2016.

Charitable Endeavors

Among his many charitable activities, Fellowes serves as a vice president of the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust and is a patron of such organizations as Changing Faces, Living Paintings, and the Nursing Memorial Appeal.

Personal Life

In 1990, Fellowes married lady-in-waiting Emma Kitchener, to whom he had proposed just 20 minutes after meeting her. The next year, they had a son named Peregrine. The family resides in Dorset, where Fellowes was appointed a deputy lieutenant in 2009. In early 2011, Fellowes became a life peer and was introduced into the House of Lords as a Conservative member.

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