It's kind of telling that Cameo has really earned itself a place in celebrity culture in 2020, primarily because so many actors are bored, at home, without anything else going on.
If you're unfamiliar with Cameo, it's basically a celebrity-video service which gives you a chance to send friends, family, whoever a video of a celebrity saying anything (within reason) that you send them. Sometimes it's just a simple shout-out, other times it's a lot more complex and weirder.
Each celebrity charges a certain amount per video and length of said video. For example, John Cleese charges around €270, while Kevin Conroy - the guy who voiced Batman in the '90s animated series - charges €82. Others, however, are more expensive. Michael Bolton, Richard Dreyfuss, Floyd Mayweather and Wesley Snipes charge over €800, while Caitlyn Jenner charges an extortionate €2,050 per video.
But out of all these celebrities, who's earned the most from Cameo? As it turns out, it's Kevin Malone - real name Brian Baumgartner - who's made over $1 million, or about €825,000 - from the video service this year alone. Even with Cameo taking a 25% cut of each request, that's still pretty good money.
Steven Galanis, who co-founded Cameo, told the New York Times that Baumgartner takes real pride in his videos. "I do think the quality of the Cameo is something that is really important to people, and he just is somebody that really takes it seriously and does a great job," Galanis explained.
Currently, Baumgartner charges around €159 per request, which would tally up to something in the region of about 5,000 videos. Obviously, prices go up and down for requests, so clearly Baumgartner was charging more for videos at one point.
Either way, it's not bad money and if you're making people happy, all the better.
