What Is Betty Gilpin’s Net Worth?
American actress and author Betty Gilpin has an estimated net worth of $4 million.
Gilpin rose to prominence as Debbie “Liberty Belle” Eagan on Netflix’s wrestling comedy GLOW, a performance that brought her three straight Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Since then, she has built a remarkably diverse résumé across action, prestige television, science fiction, dark comedy, Westerns, and Broadway. Her film credits include The Hunt, Isn’t It Romantic, Stuber, and The Tomorrow War. On television, she has appeared in Nurse Jackie, Gaslit, Mrs. Davis, Three Women, and American Primeval.
In 2025, Gilpin made her Broadway debut as Mary Todd Lincoln in the hit comedy Oh, Mary! She also expanded her screen résumé with Death by Lightning, Hal & Harper, and Widow’s Bay. The following year, she won her first Primetime Emmy, receiving Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Widow’s Bay. Gilpin is also the author of the 2022 essay collection All the Women in My Brain: And Other Concerns, which examines acting, ambition, marriage, motherhood, anxiety, and the often-conflicting demands placed on women in Hollywood.
Early Life
Elizabeth Folan Gilpin was born in New York City on July 21, 1986. Acting was part of her family life from the beginning: her father, Jack Gilpin, and her mother, Ann McDonough, both established careers on stage and screen.
Even with that background, Gilpin has said she first approached acting with significant self-doubt. She attended Connecticut’s Loomis Chaffee School before studying theater at Fordham University, where actress Dianne Wiest was among her instructors.
After graduating from Fordham in 2008, Gilpin began pursuing theater opportunities and small television parts in New York. Her early career followed a familiar path for emerging actors, built largely on auditions, guest roles, and gradual progress rather than an overnight breakthrough.
Early Television and Theater Work
One of Gilpin’s earliest television credits came in 2006, when she appeared on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She would return to the broader Law & Order franchise several times, while also landing guest roles on shows such as Fringe, The Good Wife, Medium, and Elementary.
At the same time, Gilpin was building a career onstage. She appeared in several Off-Broadway productions and collaborated with playwrights including Sam Shepard. Theater continued to be central to her artistic identity, even after television provided the role that made her widely known.
Gilpin’s first major recurring television role arrived with Showtime’s Nurse Jackie. She joined the series in 2013 as Dr. Carrie Roman, an ambitious emergency-room physician whose self-assurance frequently outpaced her experience. Gilpin stayed with the show through its final season in 2015.
The part gave Gilpin consistent television exposure after years of smaller assignments and placed her in an ensemble led by Edie Falco.
“GLOW”
Her career took a decisive turn when she was cast as Debbie Eagan on Netflix’s GLOW.
Premiering in 2017, the series offered a fictionalized comedic take on the real Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling promotion from the 1980s. Alison Brie starred as Ruth Wilder, a struggling actress, while Gilpin played Debbie, Ruth’s former best friend. Debbie reluctantly joins the wrestling circuit and ultimately adopts the bold in-ring identity Liberty Belle.
Their damaged friendship became the emotional center of the series. Debbie begins as someone who views wrestling as absurd and beneath her, but gradually becomes one of its most committed performers and eventually pushes for greater creative and business control.
Gilpin had little wrestling experience before being cast and underwent extensive physical training for the role. The series required its performers to combine stunt work and wrestling choreography with comedy and character-driven drama.
“GLOW” also starred Marc Maron as director Sam Sylvia.
Gilpin’s performance earned Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2018, 2019, and 2020. The series was renewed for a fourth and final season, but production was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Netflix ultimately canceled the season rather than restart the large, physically demanding production.
Film Career
The success of “GLOW” opened the door to larger film roles.
In 2019, Gilpin appeared alongside Rebel Wilson in the romantic comedy “Isn’t It Romantic.” She also played Becca in “Stuber,” the action comedy starring Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani.
Her first major starring movie role came with the 2020 thriller “The Hunt.” Gilpin played Crystal, one of a group of people who discover they are being hunted for sport by wealthy elites. Hilary Swank played her principal antagonist.
The film became controversial before anyone had seen it. Its original 2019 release was postponed amid political debate over its premise, and Universal eventually released it in March 2020, just as movie theaters were beginning to close because of the pandemic. Although those circumstances badly limited its theatrical run, Gilpin’s dry, physically intense performance received considerable praise and demonstrated that she could carry an action film.
“The Tomorrow War”
Gilpin moved into large-scale science fiction with Amazon’s 2021 film “The Tomorrow War.”
She played Emmy Forester, the wife of Chris Pratt’s character Dan Forester. The story follows present-day civilians who are drafted to fight an alien war several decades in the future.
The movie had originally been intended for a theatrical release before Amazon acquired it during the pandemic. It became one of Prime Video’s major releases of 2021 and further expanded Gilpin’s profile beyond comedy and independent drama.
“Gaslit” and “Roar”
In 2022, Gilpin played Maureen “Mo” Kane Dean in the Starz limited series “Gaslit,” which revisited the Watergate scandal through several of the lesser-known people caught up in it.
The series starred Julia Roberts as Martha Mitchell and Sean Penn as Attorney General John Mitchell. Gilpin played the wife of White House counsel John Dean, portrayed by Dan Stevens.
That same year, she starred in an episode of Apple’s anthology series “Roar.” The project featured an ensemble that included Nicole Kidman, Cynthia Erivo, Merritt Wever, and Alison Brie.
“Mrs. Davis”
Gilpin received one of the most unusual leading roles of her career in the 2023 Peacock series “Mrs. Davis.”
She played Sister Simone, a nun who becomes involved in a global battle against an enormously powerful artificial intelligence known as Mrs. Davis. The series was created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof and combined science fiction, religion, action, comedy, romance, and deliberately absurd plotting.
Gilpin’s character travels on a mission to locate the Holy Grail while confronting both the artificial intelligence and elements of her own past. Jake McDorman co-starred as Wiley, Simone’s former boyfriend.
“Mrs. Davis” lasted one season but became one of Gilpin’s most critically admired post-“GLOW” performances. The role allowed her to alternate between broad comedy, action, grief, romance, and philosophical questions within the same series.
“All the Women in My Brain”
Gilpin became an author with the publication of “All the Women in My Brain: And Other Concerns” in September 2022.
The collection of personal essays examines her upbringing, acting career, marriage, body image, ambition, anxiety, motherhood, and the often contradictory expectations placed on women in entertainment. Rather than writing a conventional celebrity memoir, Gilpin structured the book around the competing internal personalities she imagines occupying her mind.
The book reflected the distinctive comic voice she had displayed in interviews and essays for years. Gilpin also narrated the audiobook herself.
“Three Women”
Gilpin starred as Lina in the television adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s bestselling nonfiction book “Three Women.”
The project follows the intimate and sexual lives of several women whose stories Taddeo documented over a period of years. Gilpin’s Lina is an Indiana homemaker whose unhappy marriage and rekindled relationship with a man from her past become central to the series.
Shailene Woodley, DeWanda Wise, and Gabrielle Creevy also starred.
The project experienced an unusually long route to audiences after Showtime decided not to air it despite completing production. Starz acquired the series and released it in 2024.
“American Primeval”
Gilpin returned to physically demanding drama with Netflix’s 2025 Western limited series “American Primeval.”
She played Sara Rowell, a mother traveling across the dangerous Utah Territory with her young son during the violent conflicts of 1857. Taylor Kitsch co-starred as Isaac Reed, a skilled frontiersman who becomes their guide.
The production required Gilpin to work outdoors in difficult conditions, ride horses, and perform action sequences while dressed in period clothing. She described the experience as something closer to acting school than the controlled environments of many television productions.
The role gave Gilpin another showcase as a dramatic lead and continued a pattern in her career of alternating sharply between comedy and intense physical drama.
(Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)
Broadway and “Oh, Mary!”
Gilpin made her Broadway debut in January 2025 when she took over the title role in Cole Escola’s hit comedy “Oh, Mary!”
The play presents an intentionally ridiculous fictional version of Mary Todd Lincoln as a frustrated, hard-drinking aspiring cabaret performer during the weeks before Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Gilpin succeeded Escola in the role and performed at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre through March 2025. The production became one of Broadway’s biggest comedy successes and later won Tony Awards for Escola and director Sam Pinkleton.
Her Broadway run represented a return to the stage after years in film and television and demonstrated that Gilpin’s career remained rooted in live theater despite her screen success.
Later Work and Emmy Win
Gilpin remained especially busy after “American Primeval.” In 2025, she appeared in the family drama “Hal & Harper” and portrayed First Lady Lucretia Garfield in the historical limited series “Death by Lightning.”
In 2026, she appeared in the romantic comedy “Office Romance” alongside Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein.
Gilpin also guest-starred as Sarah Westcott Warren in Apple TV’s horror-comedy “Widow’s Bay.” The performance earned her the 2026 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
It was Gilpin’s first Emmy victory after her three earlier nominations for “GLOW.”
Personal Life
Gilpin is married to actor and nurse Cosmo Pfeil. They met while working together on the 2009 independent film “The Northern Kingdom,” in which they played siblings, and married in 2016.
The couple has two daughters, born in 2020 and 2024.
Gilpin has generally kept her family life outside the celebrity spotlight, although marriage, motherhood, and the tension between domestic life and an acting career feature prominently in her writing. Her career has similarly resisted a straightforward Hollywood trajectory: years of small roles eventually led to “GLOW,” but rather than settling into one genre afterward, Gilpin has moved continuously between action films, historical dramas, science fiction, Westerns, comedy, Broadway, and literary work.
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