James Buckley became the first UK celebrity to make $1million on Cameo (Image: Getty Images for Sky)
James Buckley makes an eye-watering £10,000 a week thanks to the personalised video app, Cameo.
The 37-year-old actor, best known for starring as Jay Cartwright in the hit E4 series The Inbetweeners, rakes in the cash by sending fans personalised videos as his character.
Joining the app in 2020, requests for James’ personalised messages became higher than he could have ever anticipated due to the -19 pandemic.
In 2022, he became the first non-US celebrity to make $1million (£920,000) from the app. He charges £40 per video, which typically include his most famous Jay Cartwright phrases.
James opened up about the venture on former Made in Chelsea star Spencer Matthews’ podcast, Big Fish, in 2023, admitting he feared no one would want a message from him.
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James is best known for his role as Jay Cartwright on The Inbetweeners (Image: Channel 4)
He said: “I kept saying, ‘This is going to be really, really embarrassing – my tiny fragile ego. I’m not the most confident person, this is going to send me to dark places. I’m going to sign up for this thing and nobody is going to want a video from me’, and it turned out everyone did!”
The Channel 4 star admitted he “never wanted to take the p**s” out of people, which is why he chose to charge fans £40.
He continued: “Two mates can go in 20 quid each for their other mate down the pub and I call him a bus w****r and take the p**s out of him and it makes a lot of people happy.”
Discussing the staggering amount of videos he had made at that point, the TV star added: “I have done 10s of thousands. 10s and 10s of thousands, maybe 30, 40,000 something like that.”
Asked if he was a “Cameo millionaire” by Spencer, James confessed: “Yeah, Yeah I am.”
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James charges £40 per video (Image: Getty)
According to Martin Blencowe, the platform’s founder, James “takes it very seriously” and is “ready to do the work” after it was reported he replied to 37 video requests per day in 2021.
He said: “James was incredibly popular from the start, but he’s stayed committed to his fans, always keeping an accessible price (even during his busiest periods) and giving his all to make each Cameo special.
“In return, he’s gained the financial freedom and overwhelming fan support to pursue the projects he’s most passionate about like 2:22 – A Ghost Story, the West End play and his family’s YouTube channel, At Home With The Buckleys.”
James and his wife Clair Meek, 36, give fans a glimpse into their lives on At Home With The Buckleys, which they started in 2020.
The couple, who appeared on James Martin’s Saturday Morning today (January 11), share two sons named Harrison and Jude.