What is Colleen Ballinger's Net Worth?
Colleen Ballinger is an American comedian, actress, singer, and YouTube personality who has a net worth of $12 million. Colleen Ballinger is best known for playing the internet character Miranda Sings. She posts videos of the character on YouTube and also performers in comedy clubs and theaters worldwide. Colleen's YouTube channel is called Psychosoprano. Ballinger has performed off-Broadway and has appeared on television and web series as well as a guest artist on many albums. Ballinger has over 2 billion views on YouTube as of this writing and around 10 million subscribers. She appeared as Miranda Sings on "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" with Jerry Seinfeld and on The Tonight Show in 2014. Ballinger has been ranked one of the top 100 most influential YouTubers. Her Miranda Sings comedy channel was ranked #7, and her Psychosoprano channel was ranked #17 on YouTube comedy channels. In 2015, Colleen wrote a successful memoir and signed a Netflix series deal. Today, she earns $5 million per year from her various endeavors.
Early Life
Colleen Ballinger was born on November 21, 1986, in Santa Barbara, California. She was born to parents Tim Ballinger, a sales manager, and Gwen Ballinger, who primarily was a homemaker. She was raised with her two older brothers, Chris and Trent, and her younger sister, Rachel. Ballinger was homeschooled during middle school and then attended San Marcos High School. After high school, she enrolled at Azusa Pacific University, where she majored in vocal performance before graduating in 2008.
Career
While in her final year of university, Ballinger was working for Disney in California. She also gave private voice lessons, movement coaching, and piano lessons, in addition to performing at various parties and in cabaret spaces. In 2009, she was cast as the character Kelsi Nielsen in "High School Musical" at Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre in Claremont, California. In 2010, she contributed to the album "More With Every Line" by songwriter Tim Prottey-Jones, and in 2011, to the album "Self-Taught, Still Learning" by Chris Passey. In New York in 2011, she played Lynda Bird Johnson in a staged reading of "First Kids" and also created the role of Circe in the American Theatre of Actors Off-Broadway production of "Odyssey – The Epic Musical."
Meanwhile, Ballinger was also experiencing some success with her own act. She began uploading videos as the quirky and talentless performer Miranda Sings in 2008. The character is supposed to be a satire of the many YouTube videos featuring bad but very egotistical performers who film themselves singing as a form of self-promotion despite the fact that they lack talent. In 2009, she began performing her live one-woman comedy act as the character Miranda Sings. As she continued uploading videos of her in the character on her YouTube channel, she started to build a larger and larger audience. This allowed her to later begin touring with the character and further developing a fan base. She has performed her show in major U.S. cities, Australia, Europe, Canada, and elsewhere. She was also invited to appear as Miranda on the fifth season of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" with Jerry Seinfeld in 2014. She also appeared as Miranda in the 2016 YouTube Premium series "Prank Academy" as a guest star in 2016.
Getty Images
The character has developed and changed with Ballinger over time. When Ballinger herself got pregnant in 2018, Miranda also got pregnant and developed a new storyline around this point. Ballinger has also been successful in moving the character from her YouTube channel to the big screen. She worked with Netflix in 2016 to create the series "Haters Back Off." The series centers around the character Miranda's odd family life and her road to fame as a YouTuber. It ran for two seasons in 2016 and 2017. In order to promote the series, Ballinger appeared on "The Tonight Show, "Chelsea," "Live with Kelly and Ryan," and "Total Request Live." Her relationship with Netflix continued even when the show was not picked up for a third season. In 2019, a Netflix comedy special, "Miranda Sings Live," was filmed at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. It was released in June of that year.
Her YouTube channel, which was originally devoted entirely to Miranda Sings's content, has since expanded to include more diverse content. Ballinger has a number of different channels that she uploads to, one of which features videos of real-life Ballinger discussing her life, shows, and touring. At one point, all of her content was "highly recommended" by "Entertainment Weekly" and she has amassed over 5 billion views across her YouTube channels. As Ballinger's career as continued to develop and change, she has still maintained a strong social media presence even outside the Miranda Sings character.
Personal Life
Ballinger originally moved to New York after college to pursue performing opportunities but then moved back to the West Coast in 2012, given the popularity of her YouTube channel. At the time, there was a growing network of other YouTube performers based in Los Angeles that Ballinger wanted to be able to collaborate with. She later met fellow YouTuber Joshua Evans, and the two began dating. In July of 2015, after dating for a few years, the couple got married in California. However, a year later, in September 2016, they announced in separate YouTube videos that they would be filing for divorce.
In 2016, Ballinger met actor Erick Stocklin when she cast him to play her character, Miranda's love interest in "Haters Back Off." The couple later began dating in early 2018 and then married later that year. Ballinger gave birth to their first child, a son named Flynn, in December of 2018. They later had a set of boy-girl twins, Maisy and Wesley, in November of 2021.
Ballinger has used her fame for good by getting involved with a number of philanthropic causes. Since 2015, she has conducted an annual fundraiser to benefit children with cancer every year around November 21, her birthday. She has alternated between donating the funds to various hospitals or donating to individual families struggling with the cost of treatment directly. In 2019, she joined fellow YouTuber The Game Theorists, who raised more than $1.3 million for St. Jude's. She has continued operating the fundraiser in the years since.
Real Estate
In December 2015, Colleen paid $2.5 million for a home in Encino, California. She listed this home for sale in January 2023 for $3.75 million, then lowered the price to $3.5 million a few weeks later.
In November 2022, Colleen paid $6.2 million for a home in Santa Barbara, California.
