Aaron McGruder Net Worth | Celebrity Net Worth
What is Aaron McGruder’s Net Worth?
Aaron McGruder is an American writer, cartoonist, and producer with an estimated net worth of $5 million. He is best known for creating the daily syndicated comic strip The Boondocks, which was published from 1996 to 2006 on the music website Hitlist.com and in the American monthly hip-hop and entertainment magazine The Source. The strip, known for its satirical take on politics and African American culture, was distributed by the Universal Press Syndicate starting in 1999 and quickly appeared in about 200 newspapers.
Early Years
Aaron Vincent McGruder was born on May 29, 1974, in Chicago, Illinois, to Bill and Elaine McGruder. At six, he moved with his older brother Dedric to Columbia, Maryland, when his father secured a job with the National Transportation Safety Board. McGruder began his education at Loyola Blakefield, a private Catholic preparatory school in Towson, Maryland, before transferring to Oakland Mills High School in Columbia. Following graduation, he attended the University of Maryland in College Park, where he graduated with a degree in African American studies.
While working as a deejay at the University of Maryland’s student-run radio station WMUC-FM in 1996, McGruder’s comic strip The Boondocks debuted on Hitlist.com and continued until 2006. Within ten months, it was also published in the college’s independent student newspaper, The Diamondback. The Source, a monthly hip-hop magazine, featured the strip in 1997, and by the spring of 1999, it was picked up by the Universal Press Syndicate.
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The Boondocks
The Boondocks centers around African American brothers Huey and Riley Freeman, offering a satirical perspective on American politics and African American culture. The boys, originally from Chicago’s West Side, are sent to live with their grandfather in the fictional predominantly white suburb of Woodcrest. While Huey is committed to the principles of black radicalism, Riley is absorbed in gangsta rap culture, leading to a generational clash with their grandfather. The political and often controversial nature of the strip led some newspapers to move it to their opinion sections, while others canceled it altogether. Certain controversial strips were removed from circulation, including one mocking singer Whitney Houston’s struggles with addiction and another that resulted in the suspension of the strip from The Washington Post after it featured a fictitious dating ad for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
In 2003, McGruder enlisted artist Jennifer Seng to illustrate the strip while he focused on writing, later passing the artistic duties to illustrator Carl Jones in 2004.
Television
On November 6, 2005, The Boondocks was adapted as an adult animated sitcom on the Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block, Adult Swim, and ran for 55 episodes until June 23, 2014.
In 2008, McGruder created The Super Rumble Mix Show, which featured sketch comedies infused with racially charged humor. Following that, he developed the live-action sitcom “Black Jesus,” which premiered on Adult Swim on August 7, 2014, concluding in 2019. The show depicted an African American Jesus residing in modern California and portrayed him engaging in drug and alcohol use, as well as profanity, leading to controversy and calls for its removal from the network.
(Photo by L. Cohen/WireImage for Temp Account)
Public Speaking
At the 2002 Hackers on Planet Earth conference, McGruder expressed his belief that President George W. Bush had either directly or indirectly been involved in the September 11 attacks. The following year, he supported Ralph Nader at a reception hosted by The Nation, which resulted in mixed reactions, including boos from attendees.
According to reports, McGruder confronted politician Condoleezza Rice during the 2002 NAACP Image Awards, calling her a mass murderer. Later, he was quoted in the Palladium-Item describing Barack Obama as “not black” during a Martin Luther King celebration at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, although he later argued he had been misquoted.
Writing
In 2004, McGruder co-authored the graphic novel “Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel.”
In 2010, he contributed as a screenwriter to the treatment of “Red Tails,” an American war film focused on the Tuskegee Airmen from World War II.
McGruder has also published several books related to The Boondocks, including “The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don’t Read the Newspaper” (2000), “Fresh For ’01… You Suckas!” (2001), “A Right To Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury” (2003), “Public Enemy #2: An All-New Boondocks Collection” (2005), and “All The Rage: Boondocks Past and Present” (2007).
Awards
The Boondocks television series received a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series in 2000 and won a Peabody Award in 2006.
Personal Life
Aaron McGruder resides in Los Angeles, California, and is known for keeping details about his personal life private.
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