Jennifer Shrader Lawrence is an actress, activist, and brand spokesperson with a net worth of $135 million. To date, her films have grossed over $6 billion at the box office worldwide. In 2015 and 2016, she was the highest-paid actress in the world. Jennifer now earns a minimum of $15 million in basic salary for each film she stars in. She was named to Time's list of the world's 100 most influential people in 2013, as well as Forbes' Celebrity 100 lists in 2014 and 2016. The Hunger Games film series is her most well-known performance to date.

She struggled with hyperactivity and social anxiety as a child, and when she began acting, it helped her combat the anxieties. She participated in many local theater productions through her school and church while still living in Kentucky. When she was nine years old, she had her first acting part as a prostitute in a church play based on the Book of Jonah. She continued to perform in church plays and school musicals for the next several years. A talent scout saw the actress on the street when she was 14 and scheduled an audition for talent agents when she was on a family holiday in New York City. The agents said she was the best they had ever seen from someone so young after her first audition. The actress's mother was not pleased with her daughter's wish to be an actress but eventually would be made proud. She entered the CESD Talent Agency and started auditioning in Los Angeles for roles. Lawrence dropped out of high school when she was 14 years old. She never completed high school or earned her GED.

Her acting career started with a small part in the TV pilot Company Town, which was never broadcast. She went on to guest star in a number of television shows, including Monk and Medium. The stunning humble actress's first role was as a series regular on the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show, in which she played Lauren, the troublesome teen daughter of a family living in the suburbs. The show debuted in 2007 and lasted three seasons.  Lawrence was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Actor in a Television Series in 2009 for the role.

Lawrence made her big-screen debut in the 2010 film Winter's Bone. The actress was cast as the lead in Winter's Bone, a gritty drama about a teenage girl forced to track down her drug-dealing father while caring for her two younger siblings. For Winter's Bone, she was paid $3,000 a week. Lawrence was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her breakthrough role, which gained critical praise. The film was undeniably a turning point in Lawrence's still-developing career. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the film.  In the 2011 film X-Men: First Class, she played the shape-shifting mutant Mystique, a lighter role than her previous one in Winter's Bone.

In 2012, Jennifer landed arguably her most popular and well-known role to date as Katniss Everdeen in Suzane Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. Her salary for the first Hunger Games film was just $500,000, but after its huge box office success, her salary for the next two films skyrocketed, she received $10 million for the second and $30-40 million for the fourth along with other bonuses. In the same year, she starred in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook alongside Bradley Cooper. For her role, she won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Hunger Games and X-Men films both had sequels. Jennifer received $20 million for her role in the 2016 film Passengers, which was $8 million more than her co-star Chris Pratt. She was paid $15 million for her appearance in the 2018 film Red Sparrow. Since 2012, she has been the face of the luxury brand Dior, for a fee ranging from $15 million to $20 million. She was able to make a fortune with her great performances in action, comedy, or drama movies.

Lawrence purchased a 5,500-square-foot Beverly Hills home for $8.225 million in 2014, previously owned by Ellen DeGeneres and Jessica Simpson. She paid $15.6 million for a penthouse apartment in the Upper West Side of New York City in 2016. In 2019, she listed the property for $15.45 million on the market. Unfortunately, she ended up losing $5+ million on the property when she sold it for $9.9 million in 2020. She paid $9 million for a second NYC apartment in Tribeca in 2017. This unit is currently leased for $25-$30,000 a month. Jennifer paid a record $22 million for a 5,000 square-foot apartment in New York City's West Village in October 2020.

Lawrence is a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood and a vocal feminist. She founded the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation in 2015, which has supported organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the Special Olympics. In 2018, she started the production company Excellent Cadaver. She is an advocate for female body positivity. The actress criticized the gender pay inequality in Hollywood in a 2015 essay for Lenny Letter, writing about her own experiences in the industry, such as the lower pay she got for her work on American Hustle compared to her male co-stars. She has contributed to a variety of charities, including the World Food Programme, Feeding America, and the Thirst Initiative. Her husband is Cooke Maroney, a wealthy art dealer, and she has more film work to do as time will tell.

Sources: Celebrity Net Worth, Wealthy Genius, The Observer, Hollywood Reporter

This article was updated on March 22nd, 2021 by Vanessa Shumbanhete

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