Nick Cannon: Biography, Net Worth

Nick Cannon is an American comedian, singer, rappers, and TV host. He started off his career in the entertainment industry as a teenager, today, he has gained the fame and fortune that comes with his career. Mr. Nick Cannon currently has a net worth of $30 million with a $5 million salary.

Nick Cannon's Early Life and Education

Nicholas Scott Cannon was born on October 8, 1980, in San Diego, California. Cannon spent much of his childhood with his paternal grandfather whom he calls “dad” in Bay Vista Housing Projects of Linking Park, Southeast San Diego. The neighborhood which was gang-ridden caused Cannon to join the street gang “Lincoln Park Bloods”. He would later state that he left the gang after losing a close friend.

He attended the Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, where he served as the president of the African Student Coalition and did a lot of track and field. He graduated from high school in 1998. Cannon started doing stand-up comedy in his teenage years, using his father’s local cable access program.

Early Career: Stand-Up Comedy, Music, Film

Cannon kicked off his first career in music as a teenager. He was a member of the rap group ‘Da G4 Dope Bomb Squad”, they opened for big names like Will Smith, Montell Jordan, and 98 Degrees.

Cannon’s Hollywood career launched after he moved to Hollywood in the early 2000s, where he landed several stand-up comedy gigs. He performed in shows like The Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store, and The Improv. His big television debut came after he got a role in Nickelodeon’s “All That”, a sketch comedy show.

In 2001, Cannon was signed on Jive Records, and later featured on the Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius soundtrack alongside Romeo Miller and 3LW. By 2002, Nick started mixing his TV appearances both as a rapper and an actor. He made a small appearance in “Men in Black II”, and played the lead role in “Drumline” in 2002. He also played a lead role in “Love Don’t Cost a Thing”, a comedy romance. He later co-starred in other films including “Roll Bounce”, “Shall We Dance” and “Bobby”.

 In 2003, he had his debut album titled after himself, including hit single “Your Pops Don’t Like Me (I really Don’t Like This Dude)”. In 2005, he formed his own record label called Can-I-Ball Records as he planned to release his second studio album, Stages late that year. From 2005-2007, he hosted “Wild & Out”, a television comedy sketch show on MTV, which became a hit at the time. The show was later revived in 2012 with Nick as the host. In 2007, Cannon was recognized in the Actors Guild Award for his role played in “Bobby”.

Cannon canceled his old label Can-I-Ball Records in 2009 to form a new record label, N’Credible Entertainment. In the same year, Cannon replaced Regis Philbin as the host of “America’s Got Talent”, until 2016. As the host of America’s Got Talent, he earned $70,000 per episode. He was later replaced by Tyra Banks in 2017 after his contract with NBC was terminated for breach of contract. In 2010, he created a copy character of Slick Rick, calling himself Slick Nick and later released two singles as the character. In December 2011, he released a mixtape titled “Child of the Corn.

Career: 2015- Present

In 2015, Cannon starred in Spike Lee flick “Chi Raq”, shuffling between several gigs, including serving as the host of America’s Got Talent. In November 2016, Cannon released a second mixtape titled The Gospel of Ike Turn Up: My Side of the Story. Some of his other songs released over the five past years include “If I was Your Man”, “The Invitation”, “Family Ties”, “Pray for Him”.

At the close of the year 2016, America’s Got Talent season, Cannon announced that he wasn’t going to be back for 2017 due to differences between himself and the executives of NBC. The news of his resignation came after it was reportedly stated that NBC was going to fire him due to inappropriate remarks he made about NBC on his Showtime comedy special, Stand Up, Don’t Shoot. He was replaced by model, Tyra Banks.

“I love art and entertainment too much to watch it be ruined by controlling corporations and big businesses,” Cannon said in a statement.

In 2019, it was said that Cannon would debut his own syndicated daytime talk show sometime in 2020. The show was supposed to run via Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury in collaboration with Nick Cannon’s N’Credible Entertainment.

On July 14, 2020, Cannon was reportedly fired from ViacomCBS’s Wild ‘n Out over race supremacism and anti-Semitic comments he made on his podcast. The termination of the contract came after Cannon’s refusal to apologize for his comment. The broadcasting corporation said its relationship with Cannon had to be terminated because of his promotion of “hateful speech and… anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”

Nick Cannon v Viacom CBS over rights to Wild 'N Out show. 

Other Businesses

Nick Cannon is the chairman of Nickelodeon’s TeenNick and doubles as the creative consultant of the network since 2009. In 2012, Cannon wrote and produced a sketch-comedy series titled Incredible Crew which was produced by Cartoon Network Studios in collaboration with NCredible Entertainment. The series aired only 13 episodes before it was canceled. In November 2012 it was reported that Nick signed a deal with NBCUniversal to create scripted and unscripted content for the network.

In 2015, Cannon became the Chief Creative Officer of RadioShack with the aim of attending to the younger crowd. According to the company, Cannon’s role involved “creating the in-store experience.” They later launched the NCredible line of consumer audio electronics as part of their deal with Cannon. The first product was the NCredible 1 wireless headphones.

Personal Life

On April 30, 2008, Nick Cannon married singer Mariah Carey at her private estate on Windermere Island in The Bahamas. Three years later, the couple welcomed their first children, fraternal twins: daughter Monroe (named after Marilyn Monroe) and son Moroccan Scott (named after the Carey’s Moroccan-style room where Nick proposed to her and Nick’s grandmother’s maiden name, Scott), on April 30, 2011. In 2014, the couple filed for divorce, but briefly reunited in 2015. Their divorce was made final in 2016.

Cannon has a son with model Brittany Bell, Golden “Sagnon” Cannon (born February 21, 2017).

Nick Cannon's Ex-wife speaks about his health.

In 2016, Cannon enrolled at Howard University and graduated in 2020 with a BS in Criminology/Administration of Justice and a minor in Africana Studies. His choice of study can be traced to his brief history of activism.