Laura Linney has an estimated net worth of $10 million as of 2026, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The 62 year old actress, born February 5, 1964, in New York City, built that fortune over more than three decades of film, television, and stage work, with her Netflix role as Wendy Byrde on Ozark marking the biggest payday of her career.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Information |
| Full Name | Laura Leggett Linney |
| Net Worth | $10 million |
| Born | February 5, 1964, New York City |
| Age | 62 |
| Height | 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) |
| Occupation | Actress, director |
| Spouse | Marc Schauer (married 2009) |
| Children | 1 son, Bennett Armistead Schauer |
| Main Income Source | Film, television, and theater acting |
Early Life & Biography
Linney grew up around the theater from childhood. Her father, Romulus Linney, was a working playwright, and she watched him prepare scripts backstage before she understood what the job actually meant. Her parents divorced when she was an infant, and she was raised primarily by her mother, a nurse, in Manhattan.
She began her formal training at Brown University before transferring for a period of study, then went on to Juilliard’s Drama Division, one of the more demanding conservatory programs for stage actors in the country. That combination of a liberal arts foundation and conservatory technique shaped the disciplined, theater-first approach she carried into film and television later on. A similarly respected screen career can be seen in Cillian Murphy, whose background also includes substantial stage work
Career Timeline
Linney made her Broadway debut in 1990 in Six Degrees of Separation, a role that put her in front of casting directors who otherwise might not have seen a young stage actress. Her film debut came two years later in a supporting part in Lorenzo’s Oil.
The rest of the 1990s built her reputation steadily rather than explosively. She appeared opposite Jim Carrey in The Truman Show in 1998, playing a character whose entire life was scripted without her knowledge, a role that widened her audience considerably. Two years later, You Can Count on Me earned her a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards, her first of three career Oscar nominations to date, though she has not yet won.
The 2000s brought range. She took supporting roles in Mystic River and Kinsey, then moved into television with John Adams in 2008, a role that earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. From 2010 to 2013 she starred in Showtime’s The Big C, playing a woman navigating a terminal cancer diagnosis with dark humor, a performance that won her a Golden Globe and a fourth Emmy.
Her highest-profile television role arrived later, as Wendy Byrde in Netflix’s Ozark, a crime drama in which she played a woman drawn deeper into her husband’s money laundering operation across four seasons. The part earned her multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and, notably, the largest per-episode paycheck of her career. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in July 2022. Most recently, she has appeared in the MGM+ comedy series American Classic, which began airing in March 2026.
Net Worth Breakdown
Public estimates of Linney’s wealth vary depending on the source and the year they were published, ranging from around $7 million to figures as high as $10 to $12 million more recently. Celebrity Net Worth, one of the more frequently cited tracking sites for public figures, currently lists her fortune at $10 million. That figure reflects a career built on steady, well-compensated work rather than a single blockbuster payday, which is consistent with an actress who has spent as much time on Broadway and public television as she has on major studio releases.
How did Laura Linney make her money? The bulk of it comes from acting fees accumulated across film, television, and stage roles since 1990, supplemented by awards recognition that has kept her in demand for prestige projects rather than high volume commercial work.
Income Sources
Television has been the largest recent contributor to Linney’s income. On Ozark, she reportedly earned around $300,000 per episode as one of the show’s two leads, a rate that placed her among the higher paid actresses in prestige television during the show’s run. Across the show’s episodes, that per episode rate alone would have added several million dollars to her earnings over the years she appeared in it.
Film work has been a steadier, longer-running stream. Her three Oscar-nominated performances, along with roles in films like Love Actually, Primal Fear, and Mystic River, came with studio salaries that, while not blockbuster-tier, added up over a career spanning more than 30 years.
Theater pays less than screen work, but it has remained part of her income and her identity as a performer. Her continued connection to Broadway is another part of the stage-to-screen career path shared by major actresses. She has earned five Tony Award nominations, and Broadway and off Broadway runs have continued to bring in fees even during years when she wasn’t shooting a major film or series.
Family
Linney was previously married to actor David Adkins from 1995 to 2000. She later met real estate broker Marc Schauer at the Telluride Film Festival in 2004, where he worked as her host for the event. The two married in a private outdoor ceremony in Connecticut in May 2009, with her friend, actor Liam Neeson, walking her down the aisle.
Is Laura Linney married? Yes, she has been married to Schauer since 2009. The couple welcomed their only child, a son named Bennett Armistead Schauer, on January 8, 2014, when Linney was 49. She kept the pregnancy private throughout, later explaining in an interview that as an older mother-to-be, she wanted to be certain the pregnancy was healthy before sharing the news publicly. The couple named their son partly in honor of her close friend, writer Armistead Maupin.
Physical Stats
How tall is Laura Linney? According to IMDb, she stands 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) tall. She was born on February 5, 1964, making her an Aquarius, and turned 62 in February 2026. Her husband, Marc Schauer, born April 5, 1960, in Telluride, Colorado, stands slightly taller at around 5 feet 10 to 11 inches, depending on the source.
Linney has generally kept details about her personal appearance and lifestyle choices out of the press, focusing public attention on her roles rather than her physical life, which fits the broader pattern of privacy she and her husband have maintained around their son.
