Actress Brenda Song has amassed an impressive net worth from her time as a child star. The California native began her career when she was just 6 years old and has continued to make money over the decades.
Brenda’s net worth is estimated to be about $5 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
The Scandal actress first appeared in national commercials for brands like Little Ceasars pizza and Barbie when she was still in elementary school before transitioning to film and television.
“We were very, very poor. We had no money. My mom was still in school, my dad was in college to be a schoolteacher,” Brenda previously told W Magazine. Her grandmother cleared out her personal savings account of $523 to put her in acting classes, where the young starlet scored an agent.
“My parents had no idea what this industry was,” she admitted about gaining traction as an actress. “They were immigrants, refugees, they didn’t understand.”
Her big break came in 2005 when she was cast as London Tipton on Disney Channel’s hit show The Suite Life of Zack and Cody starring twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse, Ashley Tisdale, Phill Lewis and more. However, the role came at a complicated time in her life.
“My mom got breast cancer for the first time, I booked Suite Life and I was accepted into the college I’d always wanted to go to,” Brenda recalled. “My dad, who’s a schoolteacher, sat me down and said, ‘Here’s the thing. You have an amazing opportunity if acting is what you want to do. Education is the most important thing. You go to college to figure out what you want to do, but if this is what you want to do, you have an opportunity to do it.’”
Brenda played heiress London until 2008 and then continued with the same character in the spinoff series The Suite Life on Deck and film The Suite Life Movie.
“I didn’t get a lot of auditions. It wasn’t until I got into the Disney family that they were so very open,” she said. “So, I feel really proud of that because for me, growing up, I didn’t see a lot of girls who looked like me on TV and it was a little disheartening.”
At the time, her career continued skyrocketing and she acted in a string of films, including The Social Network, A Cinderella Story and Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior.
“I never looked at the big picture as a kid. I just loved acting so much,” she gushed to Refinery29. “I loved the day to day. I loved getting a script. I loved auditioning. It was never about winning an Oscar or being a movie star.”
Brenda still acts today, and her career is going strong. Fans can catch her in popular series like Dollface, Station 19 and New Girl, and she will also lend her voice to the revival of The Proud Family.
In her personal life, she is engaged to fellow child actor Macaulay Culkin, and they share one child, son Dakota, whom they welcomed in April 2021.