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Sixteen years later, the sitcom, ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’, is still running with a whopping 14 seasons. Rob McElhenney is best known for his role as Ronald “Mac” McDonald on the FX/FXX comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia from 2005 until the present. He’s also one of the show’s creators, executive producers, and writers, with writing and directing credits on many episodes. He’s also recognised for his role as Ian Grimm in the Apple TV+ comedy Mythic Quest (2020–present).
He also acts as a writer and executive producer for the show, as well as creating it. He developed a cult sensation that catapulted him into the public eye as one of a quartet of the most egotistical, amoral, depraved, and hilarious losers to ever grace American television. One must wonder how much is the Rob McElhenney Net Worth? He has a net worth of $40 million. Of course, he has earned his wealth from his many TV and film appearances. He is most popularly known for portraying the character of Mac on the comedy show – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Childhood and Early Beginnings
McElhenney, the eldest of three children, was born in Philadelphia. His father and mother are both Irish. He grew up as a devout Catholic. His mother came out as a lesbian when he was eight years old, and his parents split. McElhenney was largely reared by his father, but he has stated that despite their divorce, his parents remained close. McElhenney has two homosexual brothers and has “always been part of the gay community,” according to him. He has a half-sister and a stepsister as a result of his father’s following marriage. Joseph Dougherty Jr. of Delaware County, one of his closest friends, offered the concept for What’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
He attended Moyamensing and Dickinson high schools in South Philadelphia before moving to Delaware County after graduation. McElhenney attended St. Joe’s Prep for high school. He used to act in school plays as a youngster, but he never considered it as a professional choice. He didn’t consider it as a job until he moved to New York City and encountered waiters and bartenders who put on performances at night. McElhenney began acting after enrolling at Lee Strasberg [Theatre and Film Institute], which is affiliated with the Screen Actors Guild.
Career Breakthroughs and Performances
McElhenney’s first major part was in The Devil’s Own, followed by minor appearances in A Civil Action, Wonder Boys, and Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, however his appearance in The Devil’s Own was deleted from the final edit. Latter Days and The Tollbooth were among his later appearances, as was a brief appearance in the Law & Order episode “Thrill.” At the age of 21, McElhenney’s first script was optioned, with writer-director Paul Schrader set to helm, but after a year of editing and rewrites, the project fell through.
After graduating from high school in New York City, McElhenney relocated to Los Angeles at the age of 25. McElhenney met Glenn Howerton through his agency and Charlie Day in New York while shooting a horror film in 2004 while serving tables in between acting jobs. His comedy proposal, starring himself, Howerton, and Day, was filmed for $200 and offered to a number of cable networks. McElhenney picked FX over the other channels after receiving proposals from a number of them. FX gave him more creative flexibility. It’s Always Sunny’s showrunner was McElhenney, while executive producers Howerton and Day were also mentioned.
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McElhenney states that acting, producing, and writing for the programme consumes 50 weeks of his year, yet he eventually found time to get involved in the third season of Lost in the episode “Not in Portland.” McElhenney met Lost co-creator and executive producer Damon Lindelof, who is a fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, as a consequence of their encounter. McElhenney reprised the role in Lost, appearing in a single episode in the sixth season. McElhenney is a big fan of Game of Thrones, so when the show’s creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss approached him about writing an episode of It’s Always Sunny, he was ecstatic.
Mojang named McElhenney as the director of the forthcoming animated Minecraft film in 2015. Since then, he has quit the project.
He was a guest star in the critically praised Fargo episode “The Law of Non-Contradiction” in 2017. Critics praised him for his performance, seeing his role as a parody of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
He co-created the comedic series Mythic Quest with Charlie Day and Megan Ganz in 2020, which ran on Apple TV+ for two seasons. On the programme, he also plays Ian Grimm and acts as a writer and executive producer. The series has garnered positive reviews, with an 89 percent rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia – Formulation of one of the most beloved American Sitcoms
The successful programme that launched McElhenney’s career was inspired by his love of classic comedies like “Family Ties” and “Friends,” but it turned the idea of a loving group of close friends on its head, “essentially satirising a sitcom,” as he described it. “Sunny,” which stars McElhenney, Howerton, Charlie Day, Danny DeVito, and Kaitlin Olson (McElhenney’s wife), is on track to become the longest-running live-action comedy in American television history.
Growing up in the Philadelphia city, McElhenney recalls practising plays at an all-girls school and being inspired by the comedies his family would watch—but never believing the two might lead to each other. “There was such a huge gap between my ever considering acting and what acting was in the Philadelphia Catholic school circuit,” he recalls. “I never put two and two together before. It didn’t make sense to me since California might have been on Mars.”
Mythic Quest – McElhenney’s New Show
The show is set at a fictional video game business managed by Ian Grimm, the developer of Mythic Quest, a major MMORPG (Rob McElhenney). The company is preparing to release Raven’s Banquet, a significant expansion pack for the game, at the start of the series. Lead engineer Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao), head of monetization Brad Bakshi (Danny Pudi), and head writer C.W. Longbottom fights with Grimm, the game’s creative director.
The actor-producer gets the apprehension; video games still have a hard-to-shake popular reputation, as if they’re an all-or-nothing proposition that requires non-gamers to go all in or leave. However, this is a common misunderstanding. Mythic Quest is ostensibly a video game show, but it isn’t. He’s forced to remember that his viewpoint as a white male in his 40s is restricted, and he never wants to lose sight of the depth of real people, even the cartoonish ones he creates and portrays. That knowledge is fueling a heady, humane, and, despite all chances, hilarious sense of comedy.
Rob McElhenney emphasizes that shows are primarily about the people in the show. For example, The Office is about a bunch of employees in a paper manufacturing company. On the surface, it does seem dry but it just happens to be one of the best sitcoms to ever exist. Reason being, the people on the show. Mythic Quest is about video games on the surface but it also isn’t since it is more importantly about the people on the show and the characters.
Other Ventures contributing to the Rob McElhenney Net Worth
The Wrexham Supporters Trust stated in 2020 that a corporate partnership led by McElhenney and fellow actor Ryan Reynolds was in discussions to buy Wrexham Association Football Club in Wales. After gaining support from the Wrexham Supporters Trust, Reynolds and McElhenney were able to effectively take control of the club in November.
Ryan Reynolds was surprisingly simple to persuade to join the project. The actors had been DMing since October 2019 after Reynolds noticed a photo of McElhenney sipping tequila and promised to give him a case of Aviation Gin (Reynolds is a minority investor and the brand’s face; it was sold to Diageo for an estimated £465.7 million last year).
Over the following year and a half, they developed a primarily text-based connection, and when McElhenney planned to take over a British football club, Reynolds looked like an easy choice as a partner. “I thought, well, one way to develop the club and build on its history is to bring in someone with an entrepreneurial mentality, so he would immediately see what I was trying to accomplish and, on top of that, would be able to exponentially increase the visibility.” He wrote an email, and Reynolds answered quickly and enthusiastically. He was on board after a quick phone conversation.
They wanted to locate a club that they could start from the bottom up, a true underdog with strong roots in the community. They chose Wrexham AFC, a National League club based in a North Wales town (population: 65,692) that has been out of the Football League since 2008, primarily because of its history as the world’s third-oldest football club, and because they believed they could restore Wrexham’s “lost sense of glory.” They wouldn’t have to pay any money up front because the team has been fan-owned since 2011, so any resources could go immediately into renovating the facilities and a transfer purse that could get them back into the top leagues.
Rob McElhenney and Katie Olson – A wholesome and hilarious duo
McElhenney cast actress Kaitlin Olson in the character of Dee Reynolds before the first season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia went into production.He fell in love with Olson “about season 2” of the programme, considering her to be the funniest woman in the industry. Married in 2008, the couple now have two kids together. The two fell in love during the early seasons of the hit show.
The purchase of Skinner’s Bar in Philadelphia by McElhenney and Olson was revealed in 2009. Mac’s Tavern was given a new name. On September 1, 2010, they welcomed their first child, Axel Lee, a boy. Olson gave birth to Axel at their California home during a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. On April 5, 2012, they had their second child, Leo Grey McElhenney.
Rob McElhenney Transformation
We have seen actors go through drastic physical transformations for their roles. Although not always seeking the healthiest way, actors stay determined for the passion of their work. Christian Bale, Jared Leto, Jake Gyllenhall, Chris Pratt, Natalie Portman, Halle Berry, Gal Gadot and many others have been through rigid diets and workouts to get the desired results for their roles. Rob McElhenney has joined the club recently.
McElhenney gained 60 pounds and let his beard grow out in preparation for the seventh season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in order to offer his character more comedy and a fresh comic approach for the season. Charlie Day, his co-star, called the weight gain “disgusting” and claimed the rest of the cast was “on the fence about it for his own personal health and safety.” After the season was completed filming, McElhenney dropped 23 pounds in a month. Eventually that year, he shed more to shoot the next season.
McElhenney’s transformation had begun months before. Between the sixth and seventh seasons of the FX sitcom, the 42-year-old gained weight by eating four 1,000-calorie meals every day.
McElhenney had a similar transformation in preparation for the thirteenth season, this time becoming incredibly fit.
Conclusion
Despite spending the bulk of his time in L.A., Rob McElhenney might be more of a Philadelphian than he ever was. Instead of getting to his head, the huge success of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has connected him more with the city. His time away leaves him with nothing but good things to say about his memories of growing up, his time at Temple and all the things about Philadelphia that make it the perfect setting for a hit TV show.
