Here's How Much Neil Patrick Harris Is Really Worth

Whether you're familiar with his childhood work as Doogie Howser, or you know him best as Barney Stinson on "How I Met Your Mother," odds are, you've seen a Neil Patrick Harris performance at one time or another. The man has been everywhere; with a career spanning decades of television, feature films, theater, and more, Harris' success has made him into a household name.

Anyone who knows his work is already well-acquainted with Harris' broad array of talent, and it should come as no surprise to learn that he's made quite a lot of money over the years. The actor has built an extensive resume, and he shows no signs of slowing down his domination of the entertainment industry anytime soon.

Harris began working as a professional actor at a fairly young age, and he's managed to avoid the trappings of child stardom to mature into a successful adult. His work continues to expand, and his success is evident in the salary he commands and the homes and extravagant items he's been able to afford over the years. Because of his immense talent, Neil Patrick Harris has managed to build up an estimated net worth of $50 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. This is the journey he took on his road to that sum.

It's not uncommon for a child actor to come from a family of talented people already working in the industry. That's not the case for Neil Patrick Harris, who grew up in Albuquerque and comes from a family of attorneys. As Rolling Stone recounted in a 2014 profile, his parents, Sheila Scott Harris and Ronald Gene Harris, worked as lawyers, and they also owned and operated a restaurant for a while. His older brother, Brian Harris, also helped run the family restaurant. Suffice to say, they didn't exactly have a foot in the entertainment industry.

Despite the family's life outside of showbiz, Neil's parents supported his interest in acting. Shortly after he nabbed a part in "Clara's Heart," he scored his breakout role in "Doogie Howser, M.D." and ended up finishing high school via tutor. But before he graduated, he already had a Golden Globe nomination under his belt and was the lead on a hit series. Oh, and he was, as he shares in "Choose Your Own Autobiography," living on his own in Los Angeles.

While he did enjoy his parentless lifestyle in Hollywood, it sounds like things didn't get too out of hand. In his memoir, Neil describes himself as "a dull and crappy drunk," whose inhibitions are loosened by alcohol, though never to the point of doing "anything tabloid-worthy."

Neil Patrick Harris has found fame and fortune thanks to film and theater, but most people know him from television. Over the years, Harris has appeared in dozens of television shows, but he's best known for two characters. The first, and one of his most successful, is Douglas "Doogie" Howser, who he played on 97 episodes of "Doogie Howser, M.D."

Playing Doogie launched his career in a major way, and he went on to nab role after role on the small screen. One moment, he's in an episode of "Family Guy."  The next, he's belting out "Dream On" alongside Matthew Morrison's Will Schuester on "Glee." His most prominent TV role, of course, came in 2005 when he was cast to play Barney Stinson in "How I Met Your Mother" — and that's where he's made the most money in his television career. According to Forbes, Harris earned $400,000 per episode in the final season. Evidently, he was raking in quite a bit more than his co-stars. According to Celebrity Net Worth, fellow main cast members like Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel were pulling in $225,000 an ep.

While "HIMYM" has been good to the bank account, David Burtka is reluctant to let their kids see it. Harris told Yahoo Entertainment in 2021, "I think my husband told them that 'How I Met Your Mother' was not appropriate for them to watch, maybe because Barney is always such a cad."

Neil Patrick Harris' career has seen him hosting award shows, appearing in numerous television shows, theater performances, and plenty of films, but that's not all he's done. Harris has become a successful author, having published several books over the years. His memoir, "Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography," dropped in 2014, and it hit The New York Times Bestseller list. Harris also writes for a younger audience via his young adult series, "The Magic Misfits." He's also quasi-credited as "Barney Stinson" on several books that capitalize on his character from "How I Met Your Mother," all of which are referenced on the character's still operational blog.

While promoting "The Magic Misfits" series, he talked to WBUR about why he felt compelled to pen YA books. "Reading and literacy and literature and the tactile book has always been something that's been really important to me growing up, and as a parent, even more so," he said. And as for the magic part of the equation? Well, as anyone who's kept up with him knows, magic just so happens to be one of his long-standing interests. "I think because I have such weird likes that kind of run all over the place, putting together a middle grade fiction series was exactly where my brain often sits," he shared. 

NPH also put out a one-person board game called Box One, has racked up producer credits, and lent his voice to video games. Barney keeps busy.

Like many successful people in the entertainment industry, Neil Patrick Harris has acquired numerous properties over the years. In 2013, he and David Burtka purchased an 8,000 square-foot townhome in Harlem, which was initially a bed-and-breakfast. They reportedly paid $3.6 million for the property, which was featured in Architectural Digest. As the pair shared in their tour for AD, one of the home's many special features happens to be an "apothecary cabinet" from which guests get to pick a souvenir after they sign the house's guestbook. 

Before scooping up their Harlem home, they lived in a house in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles Times, they sold it in 2014 for about $3 million before moving to the East Coast. But wait, there's more: In 2017, Hedges reported that the couple acquired a 13.5-acre property in East Hampton for $5.5 million — down from the listed price of $7.49 million. In 2021, the couple listed the Harlem property, which they converted into a single-family residence, for $7.325 million, per The New York Times.

According to Hedges, the couple's East Hampton home has its own tennis courts, pool, barn, and a whopping four fireplaces. Talk about a cozy place to kick up your feet. And by "cozy" we mean "massive and spectacular." 

Neil Patrick Harris has been a philanthropist for years. Throughout his long career, he's given his money and time to a plethora of organizations. Per Look to the Stars, the roster includes the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the LeBron James Family Foundation, the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and dozens more. In addition to his own philanthropy, Harris has worked with his husband and children through a number of charitable efforts to establish, as he said in Yahoo Entertainment, "a valuable and much-needed perspective on life." This includes taking the kids to "help deliver meals to those less fortunate," which they often do around the holidays.

Another philanthropic venture Harris has worked on involves Coca-Cola and RED, which operates through an initiative called Project Last Mile. The project aims to teach organizations and governments how to effectively distribute medical supplies and medicines the "last mile" to communities in rural Africa. As Harris explained to Yahoo Celebrity, "The trucks with Coke can get into tiny towns, which means so can the trucks with medications."

Per CharityBuzz, Harris has also auctioned off Zoom Meetings and "A Night Out" with him and David, which is difficult for the couple to schedule, but they make it happen. Harris and his family prefer to get involved with charities in lieu of donating money, which has helped to pull in a great deal of support from his fans all over the world. While he likely does donate money to some charities, that information has not been made public.