What Is Leslie David Baker’s Net Worth and Salary?
Leslie David Baker is an American actor, producer, and occasional musician who has a net worth of $4 million. Baker is best known for playing Stanley Hudson on the NBC sitcom “The Office” (2005–2013). Leslie has more than 40 acting credits to his name, including the films “Wish I Was Here” (2014) and “The Happytime Murders” (2018) and the television series “Malcolm in the Middle” (2000; 2003), “That ’70s Show” (2001), “The Guardian” (2001–2003), “Scrubs” (2003), “Scorpion” (2016), “Still the King” (2016), and “Living the Dream” (2019).
Baker has lent his voice to the films “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie” (2017) and “Vivo” (2021) and the TV shows “The Life & Times of Tim” (2012), “Puppy Dog Pals” (2017), and “Doug Unplugs” (2020–2022). Leslie executive produced the 2013 short film “Old Rivalry,” and in 2011, he released “2 Be Simple,” his debut single and music video (which he executive produced). “Washington Post” pop culture writer Jen Chaney described the song as “a track destined to be the party anthem at all your yuletide throwdowns.” In 2020, Baker appeared in a series of popular Honey Nut Cheerios commercials.
Early Life
Leslie David Baker was born on February 19, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois. Leslie attended Loyola University Chicago, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, then he earned a Master of Science degree in human services administration from Chicago’s Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. Before finding fame on “The Office,” he appeared in OfficeMax commercials as an office worker and taught special education. Baker also worked for Chicago’s Department of Public Health, Board of Education, and Office of Cable and Communications.
Career
Leslie began his acting career with guest-starring roles on “Maggie” (1998), “Action” (2000), “Judging Amy” (2000), “That ’70s Show” (2001), “Just Shoot Me!” (2002), “Scrubs” (2003), and “Line of Fire” (2004), and he appeared on “Malcolm in the Middle” as a cop in 2000 and a customer in 2003. From 2001 to 2003, he had a recurring role as Teddy Desica on the CBS drama “The Guardian,” and his first film was 2001’s “Road to Redemption.” In 2005, Baker began starring as Dunder Mifflin sales representative Stanley Hudson on “The Office.” The series aired 201 episodes over nine seasons, and Leslie appeared in 188 of them as well as the web series “The Office: The Accountants” (2006) and “The Office: Kevin’s Loan” (2008). He got caught in traffic on the way to his audition, and he told “Chicago” magazine that by the time he arrived at the audition, “I was kind of sweaty, my clothes were rumpled, and I was cranky. The character was written the way I was feeling that day, and I just let ‘er rip. Two weeks later I got a call: ‘You got the pilot.”
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At the end of “The Office,” Stanley says that he’s enjoying retirement in Florida, and in 2020, Baker launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the pilot of a spin-off called “Uncle Stan.” He made the announcement on social media, sharing a press release that read, “After several years of enjoying a relatively uneventful retirement lifestyle, Uncle Stan receives an urgent call for help from his favorite nephew, Lucky: a recent widower with two small children and a motorcycle repair/flower shop in Los Angeles. Soon Uncle Stan finds himself dishing out all the support and guidance he has to offer in his new California home.” More than 1,600 people donated to the campaign, and $336,450 was raised for the pilot.
After “The Office” ended, Leslie appeared in the films “Wish I Was Here” (2014) and “Fallen Stars” (2017) and the TV movie “When Duty Calls” (2015). He guest-starred on “Key & Peele” (2013), “Marry Me” (2014), “The Exes” (2015), “Austin & Ally” (2015), “Scorpion” (2016), “Life in Pieces” (2017), “Raven’s Home” (2017), and “Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television” (2017), and he played Curtis on the Billy Ray Cyrus sitcom “Still the King” in 2017. Baker voiced Officer McPiggly in 2017’s “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie,” which grossed $125.4 million at the box office, and he co-starred with Melissa McCarthy, Joel McHale, Maya Rudolph, Elizabeth Banks, and several puppets in 2018’s “The Happytime Murders.” In early 2018, Leslie appeared in a FileMaker Inc. commercial with his former “The Office” castmates Kate Flannery and Paul Lieberstein, and he played Marvin Pepper in six episodes of the British series “Living the Dream” in 2019. In 2022, he guest-starred on the Apple TV+ anthology series “Roar.”
Personal Life
After launching the “Uncle Stan” Kickstarter campaign, Leslie received racist messages that included racial slurs as well as images of lynchings. He shared screenshots of the messages on Instagram, along with the caption “For those of you who don’t believe racism is still alive in the world… here’s the proof.” Baker told ComicBook.com, “All is not well in America. America has a very sick problem with racism and racists. And as an actor, we’re often told, ‘Oh yeah, people love as long as you’re there to entertain them and make them smile and laugh and giggle.’ But the moment you talk about how people who look like me, black people, are treated, then all of a sudden people get uncomfortable, and they start squirming and wiggling, and saying, ‘Oh no, it’s not that bad.'”
Awards and Nominations
For “The Office,” Baker and his co-stars shared four Gold Derby Award nominations for Ensemble of the Year, winning in 2007. They also received seven Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, taking home the prize in 2007 and 2008. The series also won the Future Classic Award at the 2008 TV Land Awards.
Real Estate
In 2007, Baker paid $880,000 for a 1,986 square foot home in Los Angeles. The home includes four bedrooms and two bathrooms.