To fans of The Walking Dead, Norman Reedus has been a consistent presence for over a decade, appearing in 11 seasons and 148 episodes of the long-running post-apocalyptic drama series. But he has been working in Hollywood for even longer than that.
Reedus' first major film role was in the 1997 creature feature Mimic, followed by a leading role in the 1999 crime drama The Boondock Saints alongside Willem Dafoe, the 2000 thriller Gossip opposite Kate Hudson, James Marsden, Joshua Jackson and Lena Headey, and Guillermo Del Toro's 2002 vampire sequel Blade II, in which he played an ally to Wesley Snipes' titular daywalker.
Reedus made his TV debut in 2003 in two episodes of Charmed. Other early television credits include Law & Order: SVU and Hawaii Five-0, and he has appeared in music videos for Radiohead, REM, Keith Richards, Orville Peck and Lady Gaga, and as a model in ad campaigns for Prada, Levi’s, and Lexus.
Then, in 2010, Reedus took his career to the next level when he began playing Daryl Dixon in Season 1 of The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead was based on a series of graphic novels, with most of Reedus' co-stars playing versions of existing characters from the comics. However, after Reedus begged to audition, the showrunners ended up being so impressed by his reading of Merle Dixon's lines that they created a whole new character for Reedus to play. The part of Merle had already been given to Michael Rooker, and so they invented Daryl, Merle's younger brother.
Reedus' performance in the first season influenced the direction the writers decided to take the character in subsequent seasons, and over the years viewers got to see the many nuanced layers behind his taciturn, grizzled exterior, making him a favorite among fans. After the departure of series lead Andrew Lincoln, who played Rick Grimes, Daryl became the de facto protagonist of the series, with Reedus getting top billing in the credits.
And now, after 11 seasons, Reedus is embarking on a brand new adventure on the opposite side of the Atlantic in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. The first episode, "L'âme Perdue," established the premise of the spinoff, with Daryl washing ashore in France, where the zombie outbreak first began. And while the next five episodes will be no walk in the park for the character, this latest installment in the long-running franchise is a boon for Reedus.
What is Norman Reedus' net worth?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Norman Reedus is has a net worth of $40 million. He became one of television's highest-paid actors during his time working on the original Walking Dead series, reportedly receiving as much as $1 million per episode during the height of the show's popularity in later seasons. He currently lives in an $8.5 million home in the Hollywood Hills with his partner, actress Diane Kruger.
