'Fright Night's' Mintz-Plasse Isn't Superbad When It Comes to Personal Finance

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Five years ago, Fright Night star Christopher Mintz-Plasse was making $6.50 an hour at a home appliance store in the San Fernando Valley. Now thanks to his role as the iconic geek McLovin from the 2007 comedy Superbad, he's making the kind of dough that could buy a home appliance store.

But Mintz-Plasse isn't a money management guy. He has, um, his people to oversee the business part of show business.

"That's completely my agent and my lawyer and my publicist," Mintz-Plasse, 22, told The Price of Fame.

Mintz-Plasse keeps his handlers busy. In Fright Night, the horror comedy remake now in theaters, he plays the wary best friend Ed in a neighborhood attacked by Colin Farrell's vampire Jerry. Before that, Mintz-Plasse tacked on a needy nerd in Role Models, a biblical hero in Year One and a superhero in Kick-Ass. He also did voice work in the animated hit How to Train Your Dragon and is signed for the sequel.



He's even popular enough to rate an entry in celebritynetworth.com's personal wealth index, which puts him at $6 million. Hey, McLovin!

To think that Mintz-Plasse attended the Superbad audition on a whim. He was acting in plays at El Camino High School in Woodland Hills, Calif., at the time, but never had acted professionally. He managed to impress producer Judd Apatow, beating out 500 aspirants. Mintz-Plasse's parents, however, weren't so sure about his film career. It was the nagging issues of education and future financial security. Recalled the actor: "They would say, 'Once you're done with this, you're going back to school.' They had this stern outlook on that."

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After he stole his scenes in Superbad as McLovin, the nasally dork with swagger, the offers poured in. He reminded his mom and dad that he hated homework.

"They understood," he said.

And a Hollywood dork was born.

Here are four other actors who parlayed nerdiness into riches, according to celebritynetworth.com:

Paul Reubens: His suit was too small. His voice was too shrill. But man, he was cool in that uncool way. Reubens' Pee-wee Herman dominated Saturday mornings and even the big screen on occasion in the late 1980s. But after a 1991 arrest for indecent exposure, his career stalled. He has bounced back quietly with TV cameos and a recent Broadway run in The Pee-wee Herman Show. His estimated net worth is $5 million. That's more than enough to build your own playhouse.

Jaleel White: His moneymaker, bug-eyed and gangly Steve Urkel from the '90s sitcom Family Matters, has left him with a nest egg of $4 million. "Whoa, Mama!" as Urkel used to say. White now has his own production house, Sweet Irony.

Jay Baruchel: A Canadian actor known in part for She's Out of My League and Tropic Thunder, he has built his portfolio on awkwardness. The Freaks and Geeks alum has more notches on his belt than How to Train Your Dragon costar Mintz-Plasse, amassing $16 million.

Anthony Michael Hall: If you want to get technical about it, the Breakfast Club and Weird Science star did grow into his looks, and later roles exuded a confident persona. But when director John Hughes was his boss, he leaned toward the brainy and dweeby. Now he has $16 million. Now too many of us can hold 16 candles to that.

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