Courtney Harrell (Host)
speaker
376 appearances
10 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard May 2025
Courtney Harrell (Host)’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Will you walk me through what your resume looks like on paper?
For Olivia, being an actor living in New York means her financial life has been unpredictable. Like she said, she's doing what every actor dreams of. She's been on Broadway, in TV and films. She has made it. But being a working actor means you have to just keep working, keep looking for the next thing. And you have to figure out what to do when there is no next thing.
That means Olivia's financial picture is a mix of things we usually associate with success and things we associate with hardship. I mean, she owns an apartment in New York City on the Upper West Side. And she has a platinum Amex card. But she's also been on food stamps. And in the past, she's had to rely on unemployment. In fact, when we talked, she was about to be on unemployment again.
This week, we're going to follow Olivia through her last week in her Broadway show, and we'll hear how she feels as she gets closer every day to another phase of uncertainty. I'm Courtney Harrell, and this is What We Spend.
Olivia's dad was a sushi chef who moved to the U.S. from Japan in his late 20s. Her mom was a stay-at-home parent who moved to New York to be a ballet dancer. And when Olivia was growing up, they all lived together in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.
Wow. And that's still your rule that you go back?
Let's go into Olivia's numbers. Olivia's income varies from month to month and year to year, depending on what acting job she gets. But for now, she's making between $60,000 and $70,000 a year. That's before taxes and health insurance. And about 50% of that money is from her most recent Broadway show. She lives alone, so all of her expenses are on her.
I rode 35 because that's what I was billed last month. So that's $2,122 a month for housing-related expenses. My phone bill is $50. We're on the family plan. We each pay 50 bucks. Transportation on the subway? About $200 a month. ClassPass for exercise classes, $17 a month.
You're doing a community service. I'm doing a community service, yeah. Her streaming services are about 60 a month. Groceries, 400 a month.
She already paid for her insurance for the year in one big payment that was a little under $2,000, so that's not a monthly consideration. But there is one more thing. She regularly buys tickets to Broadway shows.
It's up there with food.
Was there a moment in your life that you knew that that's what you wanted to do?
Olivia got that check thanks to something known as the Coogan Law. It says that 15% of a child actor's earnings have to be placed in a trust until they turn 18. How big was that check?
It may not be up to her, but Olivia says if you can get it, even a few days as a guest star on a network TV show can keep you afloat while you keep doing the theater that doesn't pay as much. But it's hard to know when those jobs will come.
Sometimes, even when she does get a gig, it doesn't last long. Like the job Olivia had during the week of her audio diaries. She knew that would be temporary, because the show had a limited run. For that job, she was offered the role of the understudy for one of the main characters.
As an understudy, Olivia got the same base pay as she would have if she were performing on stage, so there was no financial downside to taking it. But it did mean she wouldn't be acting every night, which is what she loves. What do you love about it?
After the break, we'll dive into Olivia's week.
Total for day one, $8.70.
You have the most intricate credit card system I've ever heard. I think that I counted 15 cards.
Basically, what Olivia does is she finds a credit card that has some kind of big points offer. Like, open this card, spend $3,000 in the first three months, and you get 100,000 bonus points.
Showing 181–200 of 376 · page 10 of 19
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