Christopher Biggins effusively wished me a happy birthday last year. I don’t know the panto-loving light entertainment stalwart but my partner knows I’m a semi-ironic fan, so paid him £50 to record a bespoke message to camera.
I’m not ashamed to say I was thrilled, especially when he mentioned my beloved Ipswich Town FC. Thanks, Biggins. You made my day.
Such personalised video services, where members of the public can request shout-outs from celebrities, have become a lucrative industry in recent years. There are multiple apps out there – Celebrity VM and Memmo are popular – but Cameo is the daddy of them all.
It was founded in Chicago in 2017 but went stratospheric during the pandemic. Punters got a socially distanced way to send memorable messages to their loved ones. Performers got a much-needed revenue stream during lockdown. By 2021, Cameo had earned itself a $1 billion valuation.
Cameo has now hit the headlines with actress Miriam Margolyes’ confession that she makes a fortune on the platform, mainly thanks to her role as herbology teacher Professor Pomona Sprout in the Harry Potter films.
At Hay Festival, the 83-year-old thespian said she charges £100 to send video messages to fans and is inundated with requests.
“There is a website called Cameo where people pay you to say happy birthday to people they love,” she explained. “Sometimes I’m asked to cheer up someone with terminal cancer. This is not easy.
“Sometimes I’m asked to propose to somebody on behalf of the person who’s paying me. I enjoy it and do as many as I can. I’ve made an enormous amount of money.”
Harry Potter is big business on Cameo, with its own category on the homepage. Fans of the bespectacled boy wizard can buy messages from all manner of bit-parters, starting at £12 for barely recognisable faces.
Margolyes is the third most expensive at £133 per message (Cameo takes 25 per cent, the creator keeps the rest). She’s eclipsed only by Bonnie Wright (aka Ron Weasley’s sister Ginny) and the troubled Jamie Waylett (aka Slytherin bully boy Vincent Crabbe), both of whom cost £157.
Tom “Draco Malfoy” Felton charges three times that but he’s currently unavailable. Magic work if you can get it.
There are currently 50,000 Cameo providers waiting to congratulate your niece on her graduation or tell your grumpy friend to cheer up. They range from the sublime to the ridiculous. For a Logan Roy-worthy £537, Succession fans can get Brian Cox to drop an F-bomb or tell them they are “not serious people”.
Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino is available. So are rappers Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube. Sportsmen include World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst, golf titan Jack Nicklaus and sprint star Usain Bolt.
Even Nigel Farage will do your bidding for £70 a pop.
sashays onto the site from time to time, with all proceeds classily donated to the NYC Ballet. You can pay to pull the strings of puppets like Kermit the Frog or The Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.
Naturally, there are also more reality TV rent-a-faces and “influencers” than you can shake an iPhone at.
But who has made a mint like Margolyes? You might be surprised by some of the names on our Cameo rich list…
James Buckley
The comic actor, best known as potty-mouthed sixth-former Jay from The Inbetweeners, was Cameo’s first UK millionaire. He earns it, having been crowned Cameo’s most prolific performer, industriously recording up to 37 videos per day for £40 apiece.
Most involve him calling the recipient a “briefcase w**ker” or some other X-rated catchphrase. Buckley describes Cameo as a “godsend”, saying it has given him “financial freedom” to pursue other projects.
Brian Baumgartner
Who? Well, US sitcom fans will recognise the hangdog actor for his role as oddball accountant Kevin Malone in the American remake of The Office – the equivalent of the UK’s Big Keith.
His cult status has made him one of Cameo’s biggest earners. In November 2021, he became the platform’s first celebrity to pass the $1 million mark, charging £153 per video.
Caitlyn Jenner
The former Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete and reality TV star has a Cameo profile which describes her simply as “Icon”. The transgender trailblazer charges more than most with a whopping £1,961 per video.
Jenner says she’s “Here for fun and a cause greater than fun!” with proceeds going to her Caitlyn Jenner Foundation.
Floyd Mayweather
The undefeated ex-boxer’s nickname is “Money” and he lives up to it on Cameo. The 15-time world champion used to charge £13,000 per video, making him the most expensive celebrity on the app.
He currently does corporate bookings only. Even then, it costs £39 to send an inquiry. Fans seem impressed with the videos they receive. So they should be at that price.
Carole Baskin
After her rise to infamy on true-crime freakshow Tiger King, a lockdown hit for Netflix, Big Cat Rescue boss Carole Baskin joined Cameo in July 2020.
She reportedly made £18,000 on her first day. At her peak, Joe Exotic’s arch enemy was said to be raking in $120,000 per week. She currently charges £194 for a personalised video.
Hear her roar.
Michael Rapaport
The fast-talking US character actor popped up in the likes of True Romance and Friends but has become best known as a sports podcaster and all-round motormouth.
With his trademark “Noo Yoik” tones, regular spots on The Howard Stern Show and penchant for a public feud, he’s become one of Cameo’s biggest bankers, charging £155.
He’s performed a marriage proposal, telling the groom-to-be: “Don’t f--- this up.” Rapaport later posted the clip on Twitter, writing: “She accepted! I’m on Cameo, changing lives for the better.”
And an honourable mention for… Nigel Farage
The new leader of Reform UK and prospective MP for Clacton will do your Cameo bidding for £70 a pop. This hit headlines when it was reported that he’d been tricked into reading out online gaming in-jokes and wished a Happy Birthday to “Hugh Janus”.
He was even duped into repeating phrases which sounded like racial slurs and pro-IRA messages, with the resulting clips reshared on TikTok. But it’s not quite the gotcha that pranksters might assume.
Paid £70 for a 20-second clip, Farage had the last laugh. He’s made a minimum of £57,000 and that’s just from customers who bothered leaving reviews.
Besides, Farage freely admits in his Cameo profile that he “couldn’t care less” about being controversial, advertising his videos as a chance to surprise any “Meghan Markle-supporting, woke warrior remoaners”. We’re partial to the one where he declares his love of quiche, “even if it has got a European name”.
