As one of the earliest celebrity influencers, Perez Hilton is best known for blogging about celebrity gossip and posting tabloid photos. Outside of blogging, Perez is also an actor, entrepreneur, and podcaster. As of 2023, Perez Hilton has a net worth of $20 million.
Early Life
On March 23, 1978, Perez was born Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. in Miami, Florida. He was raised by Cuban immigrants who resided in Westchester and Little Havana.
As a child, he always dreamed of becoming an actor and auditioned for many roles but was rejected frequently. When he attended an all-boys catholic school in Miami, he took part in several high school plays.
After completing his secondary education, he moved to New York City and studied acting at New York University. Perez graduated from the institution in 1996.
Blogging Career
Following college, Mario tried diving into the acting world but found it easier to get writing jobs. He was briefly a media relations assistant at various LGBTQ+ organizations like Instinct, GLAAD, and Urban Outings.
As a hobby, he started a blog called PageSixSixSix.com. Not exactly the most catchy name and it wasn’t a hit straight away. The aspiring writer invested all of his time and energy into the website, working 17 hours to publish 30 pages every day.
In about six months, the website became well-known for its content that stirs up controversy. Perez later rebranded it to PerezHilton.com, a wordplay on his favorite star, Paris Hilton. Sadly the two are not related!
Other Ventures
Perez made his television debut back in 2001 on HBO’s The Sopranos. When his blog became famous, he got his own reality show in 2007, What Perez Sez, on VH1. He later appeared in shows like Celebrity Big Brother, TRL, Extra, and MuchMusic.
In 2012, he started acting in off-Broadway musicals such as Full House! and NEWSical. In 2015, he launched The Perez Hilton Podcast with Chris Booker. The blogger currently owns an online eCommerce website called MyTrueTen CBD in 2021, they sell CBD Gummies.
One of his more recent media projects is the Netflix-produced documentary, “The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist”. The program is set to release on September 21, 2022.
Net Worth and Earnings
Perez Hilton’s blog has been his main income source and at its peak was attracting over 100 million views. Back in 2007, he charged $9,000 per week on Blogads to place an ad in the top right-hand column.
No recent earnings have been released but the blog is believed to pull in millions of dollars in ad revenue every year. The blog’s traffic has been in decline since 2016.
Outside of blogging, his other income sources are media roles and running an eCommerce website. As a result, Perez is worth an estimated $20 million according to Celebritynetworth.com.
Personal Life
Hilton also has three children from surrogate mothers. His little family resides in a stylish $2 million West Hollywood villa built in the 1920s.
However, his life was never easy. Due to the nature of his work, he has gotten involved in many lawsuits, with his biggest one arguably being a $7.5 million copyright case against a photo company called X17Online. Perez lost, but the settlement wasn’t disclosed.
