How Sean Murray Achieved a Net Worth of $8 Million

Sean Murray is an American-Australian actor. Primarily, he is famous for his role as Timothy McGee on NCIS, which makes sense because he has been in more than 400 episodes of the show. Celebrity Net Worth estimates that Murray's net worth is about $8 million. There is no way for the public to tell whether that number is reliable or not. However, it seems reasonable enough for an estimate.

What Is Sean Murray's Background?

Murray has an American father and an Australian mother with dual citizenship. He was born in the U.S. state of Maryland. Despite this, he spent most of his childhood in New South Wales, one of the three states that make up Australia's east coast. Queensland is the northernmost of the states. Meanwhile, Victoria is the southernmost of the states. New South Wales is the central state sandwiched between the other two. It is the most populous of Australia's states, as shown by how it includes the city of Sydney. New South Wales even contains the Australian Capital Territory as a separate enclave. Besides New South Wales, Murray spent his childhood in London, Singapore, and the United States.

By this point, interested individuals might be able to guess that Murray came from a military family. After all, military families from the United States often move around because of different assignments to different parts of the world. Specifically, Murray's father, Craig Harland Murray, was a U.S. Navy Captain. For context, such officers tend to command cruisers and up, with more senior captains entrusted with bigger ships. Murray's father spent more than 30 years in the U.S. Navy, so he was much more than just an ordinary sailor.

Murray's parents divorced when he was 15. Subsequently, he went to live in Los Angeles with his mother, Vivienne Lee. In time, she would become the fourth wife of the TV producer Donald P. Bellisario. Thanks to this, Murray has a stepsister, Troian Bellisario, and a stepbrother, Michael Bellisario, who are also actors. On top of this, he has a brother, Chad Murray, who works as a producer.

How Did Sean Murray Get Started?

Fame 10 says that Murray became interested in acting as a child. To an extent, his experience of moving from place to place might have influenced this. As Murray tells it, he had to recreate himself every time he moved to fit in with a new group of children, which seems like the kind of thing that would resonate with actors.

Regardless, Murray started seeking roles as a child. When he was 11, he was an extra on a Steve Martin movie called My Blue Heaven. After that, he secured more roles in more movies and TV shows. Still, Murray wasn't very prominent. His most notable role in this period might be Thackery Binx in the 1993 movie Hocus Pocus. For that, Murray earned a nomination for a Young Artist Award even though someone else provided his character's voice.

In the late 1990s, Murray appeared in several episodes of JAG, a legal drama with a U.S. Navy theme. It seems safe to say that was no coincidence. His stepfather Donald P. Bellisario was the one who created the show before remaining involved as its executive producer. Some would call this nepotism. However, Murray managed a neat bit of deflection by saying that his stepfather is even tougher on those working for him while connected to him because his stepfather cares so much about the success of his projects.

Whatever the truth of that claim, Murray had several other roles before winding up in another of his stepfather's shows. Of course, this would be NCIS. In it, he had a recurring role in the first season. Then, he became popular enough that he entered the main cast. For context, this happened back in the early 2000s. As a result, it is no wonder that Murray has been in more than 400 episodes of the show.

How Did Sean Murray Earn His Money?

The source of Sean Murray's wealth seems obvious. He is an actor, meaning he presumably made his initial money through his acting roles. Most of Murray's roles are unimportant. In contrast, his involvement with NCIS is closing in on two decades. Hello Magazine says that his earnings per episode are unknown. Other sources claim that he is now earning $300,000 an episode. If so, Murray receives millions of dollars every year because it is normal for a season of NCIS to have 20 or more episodes. Season 18 is the one 16-episode exception. Since it ran from late 2020 to early 2021, it shouldn't be hard to guess why it is the one exception.

Other than this, Murray has presumably made more money through the usual ways. The general direction of the stock market is up. As a result, it isn't hard for people who have money to make more money through investments so long as they have the patience to let their money sit still. For that matter, compound returns are powerful, which is why financial planners encourage people to start saving as soon as possible. To use an example, $100 becomes $110.46 when invested at 1 percent interest for 10 years and $122.02 when invested at 1 percent interest for 20 years. At 5 percent interest, those numbers become $162.89 and $265.33 for 10 years and 20 years respectively. Thanks to this, someone who can afford to invest their money can see huge gains over time.

What Is Sean Murray Doing Nowadays?

Several NCIS stars have left the show. For example, Michael Weatherly left the show after Season 13. Similarly, Pauley Perrette left the show after Season 15. There is no indication that Murray wants to do the same. Furthermore, Season 20 has already been confirmed for NCIS. Under these circumstances, Murray's wealth could continue to grow because of his NCIS paychecks for quite some time to come.