Casey Neistat is one of the rising and most recognisable social media stars of recent years. The popular film-maker, Youtuber and internet vlogger has become hugely popular in the last few years with a number of high-profile videos that have seen his fan base grow rapidly, and his Global recognisability increase just as quickly. His high-quality productions feature his unique personality and his original and unusual view on life, but Casey didn’t have the most successful start in life and he has come to epitomize the American dream by achieving a large degree of financial success in just a few years.
Casey came from humble beginnings, at the age of seventeen he was a high-school drop-out with a young child living in a trailer park. But Casey’s incredible drive, his innovative talent for bringing visual feasts to millions of fans, and his likeable personality have seen his personal wealth grow to several million now in 2018, but exactly how much money is Casey Neistat worth today? Read on to find out.
Casey Neistat Net Worth 2018 – $10 Million
How Did Casey Neistat Make His Money & Wealth?
Casey Neistat’s Early Life
Casey Owen Neistat was born on March 25th 1981 in Gales Ferry, a village in the town of Ledyard, Connecticut. His father Barry was a restaurant supplies salesman and worked much of the time, and his mother Amy had, in Casey’s own words, a ‘hands-off’ attitude to parenting. He grew up with his three brothers and later described his early childhood as wonderfully unsupervised, and that lack of parental guidance soon led to all sorts of trouble for Casey. He was always up to something, whether it was throwing jars of mayonnaise at the wind shields of trains or setting fire to tree-houses, but when he got to high school the trouble followed him and intensified.
Casey hung out with the bad kids at high-school and was constantly in trouble. At the age of fifteen his parents divorced and Casey, who blamed his mom for the split argued with her one night and she gave him an ultimatum, either shape up or get out, so Casey the young rebel left home aged just fifteen, and never went back. He stayed with some friends for a while, where he met Robin Harris, a girl who was slightly older than him, and who later ended up becoming his girlfriend. A short while later Robin became pregnant, and Casey dropped out of high school. The young couple moved into an apartment in a dangerous neighborhood and then onto a trailer park, which was cheap, and in a far safer area. Son Owen was born just after his seventeenth birthday and he supported his young family with a low-paid job in a restaurant. Casey loved being a dad, but gradually Robin became less happy, and in mid 2001, when Casey was just 20 she ended their relationship and Casey moved to New York City to follow his dream of becoming a film-maker.
Casey’s Early Film-Making Career
Casey later described his first year in New York as the hardest time of his life, he didn’t know anyone and had no money. He got a job as a bike messenger at first and then a job with his brother Van making a series of short films for an artist and sculptor named Tom Sachs. He only received $10 an hour for his film-making work and was still desperately poor. Casey would save all his spare cash so that he could visit Owen back in Connecticut regularly, and after six months in New York his rental agreement ended and a friend agreed to let him sleep on his couch in the financial district for a month. But just a week later everything changed.
Casey was woken up on the morning of September 11th 2001 when the terrorist attacks on the twin towers began, he got on his bike and fled the area. Casey was so close to the towers that he was thrown off of his bike by the blast of the second plane hitting the towers. Shortly afterwards his Dad called him and asked him to come back to Connecticut, but Casey knew that things couldn’t get much tougher for him than they already were, and he was determined to stay in New York and become a film-maker. He and brother Van took on any film-making job they were offered, filming everything from childrens birthday parties to editing acting reels to make ends meet, but in 2003 Casey’s determination to succeed finally paid off, with a three minute video entitled ‘iPod’s Dirty Secret’.
Casey Neistat and ‘iPOD’s Dirty Secret’
Casey, annoyed that Apple didn’t offer replacement batteries for the first version of their iPOD, uploaded his short film onto the internet in September 2003, two years before Youtube even existed, and it was incredibly well-received, eventually gaining over six million views in less than a month. He hit the headlines around the World for the film and was featured by media sources ranging from Fox News and CBS to Rolling Stone Magazine, and even the BBC in England. The Washington Post called his film ‘wonderfully renegade’ and Apple announced shortly afterwards that they were to begin a battery replacement program, as well as an extended warranty program, all the while insisting that the new programs had been in the pipeline for months and were not connected to the popularity of ‘iPod’s Dirty Secret’. But it was clear that Casey’s work was largely responsible for this improved deal for Apple customers Worldwide, and he was hailed as the hero in this modern version of the David and Goliath story.
Now far more established as a film-maker, Casey made a series of films entitled ‘Science Experiments’ the following year with his brother. They were featured in Times Square and a Brazilian film festival, but in 2008 HBO network commissioned a short series of eight shows for TV entitled ‘The Neistat Brothers’ featuring an autobiographical look at the lives of Casey and Van, and the brothers received just under a million apiece for the series. Reviews were mixed, with some critics calling the series ‘a pretentious mess’, but Casey and Van’s irrepressible enthusiasm for life won them many fans too, and the show was reasonably successful when it finally began to be aired on HBO in 2010.
Casey Neistat’s Success on Youtube
Casey began sharing his films on Youtube in February 2010, beginning with a quirky constructive analysis of the Emergency Brake Cord on trains in the New York Subway and followed shortly afterwards by a video about the internet chat site Chatroulette. His film-making experience and ability to communicate with his audience soon won Casey many subscribers on Youtube, as well as plenty of attention both virally and in more conventional media sources. A video criticizing NYPD’s policy on bike lanes was named as one of Time magazines top ten most creative videos of 2011, and in 2014 Casey’s Youtube channel was included in New Media Rockstars Top 100 channels list, but surprisingly Casey wasn’t making anything from his Youtube work.
In February 2014 Casey revealed to his one and a quarter million Twitter followers his exact earnings from Youtube. Surprisingly his ten most viewed videos, which had been watched over a million times in total in just one week, had earned him nothing at all, due to the fact that Casey had not monetized his channel at the time. Now in 2018 Casey has shifted his attention to Youtube full-time, and he has monetized his Youtube channel, and that is entirely appropriate, considering the amount of work he puts into the platform.
Casey uploads vlogs most days, usually a ten minute video four or five days a week, and his vlogs are not hastily put-together bits of footage filmed in a few minutes and uploaded with the minimum of effort, they are professionally put-together mini masterpieces that display superior editing and premium content for his growing audience of over seven million subscribers. He promotes other film-makers and creative content makers on not only Youtube, but also on Facebook, where he is followed by over 800,000, as well as Instagram, where he is followed by another 2.5 million. He has worked on movies and several commercials for high-profile clients such as Nike, Samsung, Google and Mercedes-Benz, but his most profitable endeavour to date came in 2016, with a multi-million dollar deal with CNN.
Casey designed and launched a video sharing app called Beme in 2014, and when it was released in July 2015 it was used by millions within a week. It was originally intended as a stripped-down version of Snapchat, and Buzzfeed described Beme as ‘Deceptively Simple’. It was the subject of much attention in the tech industry and hugely popular amongst the 13-25 demographic, and in November 2016 CNN announced that they were purchasing the app for $25 million. Casey decided to take a short break from vlogging on Youtube with the announcement that the deal with CNN hadn’t made him ‘Filthy rich’, but now in mid 2017 he has returned to Youtube, insisting that vlogging is the most enjoyable outlet for his considerable creative talents.
Casey Neistat Personal Life & FAQ’s
Is Casey Neistat married?
Casey married long-term girlfriend Candice Pool in Texas in 2005. The marriage ended in an annulment shortly afterwards, but the couple managed to reconcile their differences and married again in South Africa in 2013. In December 2014 the couple had their first Child, a daughter Francine. Casey frequently features both Candice and son Owen in his vlogs, and also featured his grandmother Louise and her annual tap-dancing show in one video from 2011, even though Louise was 92 at the time.
Casey Neistat’s Salary & Annual Earnings in 2017
Casey has insisted that his multi-million dollar deal with CNN for the sale of Beme wasn’t like winning the lottery, and has said that his cut of the deal was not that great, but with numerous endorsements, his regular uploads to Youtube that are watched by millions, and a range of other activities including film, commercial and TV work, as well as Casey’s growing popularity as a public speaker, it’s likely that his annual earnings are around the $2 million mark each year. Some estimates of Casey’s personal wealth put his personal fortune as low as $2 million, but his deal with CNN is guaranteed to have boosted his already impressive wealth and it’s likely that Casey’s committed work-ethic and likeable personality have now increased his wealth to at least $10 million.
Casey Neistat’s Charity Work and philanthropy
Casey frequently posts inspiring messages to his followers, reminding them of his own difficult road to success, and assuring them that they too can succeed in any field that they want to if they are determined enough, but he also promotes numerous charitable causes on a regular basis on his social media accounts. In March 2017 he joined forces with Ben Stiller and NFL star Colin Kaerpernick to raise money to combat famine in Somalia, and they managed to raise more than one million for the cause in a single day. Now in June 2017 Casey is using his Facebook and Twitter profiles to raise money for Red Nose Day USA and so far it’s going well, his initial target of $10,000 was surpassed in mere days, and he currently has raised over $60,000 for the charity, with all donations being matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Casey is always willing to share the spotlight too, he frequently supports other young film-makers and creative artists in order to promote their work.
Casey Neistat’s Accomplishments and Recognition
Casey Neistat’s work has earned him not only international recognition and millions of fans, but also recognition from the film-making industry. He won the John Cassavetes Award at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards, and in 2016 he was named Youtuber of the Year at the Shorty Awards. The same year he was also voted the best New Media Star by GQ magazine in their Men of the Year Awards, and at the 2016 Streamy Awards he won the Best First-Person Series award, and the Best Editing Award. He has lectured at the New York museum of Performing art and presented a lecture for the Nantucket Project, as well as speaking at the TEDx Parker School in Chicago.
