Kenan Thompson has been a figure in Hollywood for more than four decades, dating back to his time on “All That” and “Kenan & Kel.” But the longtime “Saturday Night Live” star, who holds the record for being the longest tenured cast member, admits that trusting the wrong people early in his career almost put him in an inescapable financial hole.
Thompson, 47, was a guest on SoFi’s Richer Lives podcast with Vivian Tu and opened up about how someone he thought he could trust with his money as a child actor turned out to be someone he should have tried to avoid at all costs.
The former Nickelodeon star got his first big break in a commercial and was paid $800 for his role, which might have felt like thousands of dollars to a 12-year-old kid at the time. From there, checks and roles continued to come in. When an accoutant came to Thompson and his family looking to assist with his burgeoning finances, the Thompsons ignored most of the red flags about the man. Worst of all, he sought power of attorney, wanting to have final say over any and all of Thompson’s business.
“I was still a kid, and I hadn’t gone to business school,” Thompson explained. “Here he comes, and he wanted a power of attorney. We signed it and gave it to him. That was kind of like falling off a cliff without us really knowing it. Because there is some validity to it, because it allows him to make a lot of decisions without having to come and ask me every little thing.”
After Thompson was done with Nickelodeon, he attempted to purchase a house in Atlanta, only to be rejected because his accountant never showed up to the closing meeting with Thompson’s money. Soon after, Thompson realized that his entire Nickelodeon check, a whopping $1.5 million, was gone.
“I had to file for bankruptcy. It took a long time to fix my credit,” he confessed.
The moment proved to be a pivotal one for the actor. It opened his eyes to the idea that everything he had worked for could be gone in an instant. It hardened him financially and made him less open to trusting people with his finances. “I definitely watch my money every day,” he told Tu.
Now, Thompson can say he might have had the most star-crossed experience on television’s longest-running comedy show. Since joining the “SNL” cast in 2003, he’s shared the stage with comedy legends such as Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and a host of others. In 2019, show creator Lorne Michaels called Thompson, “the person I most rely on in the cast.”
But Thompson never forgets that dark period before “SNL” when he had to rebuild himself after leaving Nickelodeon. “It was like a two and a half year period of uncertainty. That’s the life of an actor, which is why I’ve been doing ‘SNL’ for 23 years. I know the importance of holding on to steady work.”
