Ross Kemp's net worth is not published anywhere official, and the figures you will find online range from about $1.5m to $20m. The one hard number on public record is his own company: Freshwater Films Ltd, which he owns outright, reported net assets of £689,001 at 31 March 2025. Here is what that filing tells you, what it doesn't, and why the Celebrity Traitors star is being searched for this week.
Why everyone is Googling Ross Kemp right now
Kemp is one of the 21 celebrities in The Celebrity Traitors series 2, which started on BBC One on Thursday 1 October 2026, again hosted by Claudia Winkleman. The show airs on Thursday and Friday nights, and the celebrities are playing for up to £100,000 for their chosen charities, not for themselves. Two episodes in, Kemp is a Faithful who survived the first elimination and picked up a shield.
We have already looked at the finances of fellow contestant James Blunt and of the presenter, Claudia Winkleman. It also lands in a busy year for him: Grant Mitchell was back in EastEnders from 27 April to 26 May 2026, for a storyline built around his son Mark and Nigel's dementia.
Ross Kemp at a glance
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 21 July 1964, Barking, Essex (62) |
| Best known for | Grant Mitchell in EastEnders (main run 1990–1999, plus returns) |
| Documentaries | Ross Kemp on Gangs (BAFTA, Best Factual Series, 2006), Ross Kemp in Afghanistan, Extreme World |
| Current TV | Host of BBC One quiz Bridge of Lies (since 2022); The Celebrity Traitors 2026 |
| Company | Freshwater Films Ltd (07622204), 100% owned |
| Company net assets | £689,001 (31 March 2025) |
| Online net worth estimates | $1.5m (Celebrity Net Worth) up to unsourced claims of $15m–$20m |
What the Freshwater Films accounts show
Freshwater Films Ltd was incorporated in May 2011 and lists its principal activity as "a production company". Kemp is its sole director, and the notes to the latest accounts state plainly that "the ultimate controlling party is the company director Mr R Kemp who owns 100% of the issued shares". The accounts are filed under the small companies regime, so the publicly filed accounts include no profit and loss account and no turnover figure. What you get is the balance sheet.
| Year end | Cash at bank | Net assets |
|---|---|---|
| 30 September 2021 | £629,885 | £671,437 |
| 31 March 2023 (18-month period) | £515,031 | £612,925 |
| 31 March 2024 | £558,970 | £696,415 |
| 31 March 2025 | £451,075 | £689,001 |
A few things stand out. The company's net assets have stayed between roughly £610,000 and £700,000 across four sets of accounts. It had two employees on average, including the director, and a wage bill of £49,480 in the year to March 2025. Trade debtors rose to £192,698, up from £120,416 a year earlier, so more money was owed to the company at the year end. The balance sheet lists no fixed assets or bank loans, and only £29,332 of short-term creditors.
You can read the filings yourself on the Companies House record for Freshwater Films Ltd.
Important: company net assets are not the same as personal wealth. Money paid out to Kemp as salary or dividends over the years, any property he owns and any pension or savings sit outside these accounts. The filing reports the company's net assets at 31 March 2025; it does not establish Kemp's personal net worth.
His other active company, Cempa Clothing Ltd (incorporated February 2023, registered as a clothing retailer), has filed dormant accounts to 28 February 2024 and 28 February 2025, so it shows no trading so far.
Where Ross Kemp's money has come from
EastEnders
Grant Mitchell made Kemp a household name. He played the role from February 1990 to October 1999, then came back in 2005–2006, in 2016, for the show's 40th anniversary in February 2025 and again this spring, for a total of more than 1,000 episodes. We found no reliable source for his EastEnders salary, so treat any figure you see for those years with caution.
Documentaries
The documentaries changed how people saw him. Ross Kemp on Gangs ran on Sky One from 2004 to 2009 and won the BAFTA for Best Factual Series in 2006. It was followed by Ross Kemp in Afghanistan (2008–2012), Ross Kemp in Search of Pirates, Battle for the Amazon and 37 episodes of Extreme World. More recently he fronted Mafia and Britain in 2024.
Presenting and drama
Since 2022 he has hosted Bridge of Lies on BBC One, a regular daytime gig that has kept him on screen between bigger projects. Drama work includes Ultimate Force (2002–2006), in which he played SAS Staff Sergeant Henno Garvie, and an early stint in Emmerdale in the 1980s.
So what is Ross Kemp actually worth?
The short answer: no public source establishes it. Celebrity Net Worth estimates his wealth at $1.5m, but that figure is not backed by anything in his company accounts and the site does not show its working. The $15m and $20m figures doing the rounds come from content-farm pages that cite nothing at all, so we would not rely on them.
What the public record supports is narrower: a wholly owned production company reporting £689,001 of net assets at 31 March 2025, a long run of steady TV work across the BBC and Sky, and no bank borrowing in the company's filings. Any total beyond that is an estimate, and you should treat it as one. If Freshwater Films files its accounts to March 2026 later this year, that will be the next real data point.
Ross Kemp's personal life
Kemp was married to newspaper executive Rebekah Wade (now Brooks) from 2002 until their divorce in 2009. He married Renee O'Brien in 2012, and he has four children. In 2025 he appeared on Who Do You Think You Are?, where he learned that his maternal grandfather survived the sinking of the SS Duchess of York.
If you are following the rest of the Traitors line-up, you might also like our look at how Michael Sheen built his acting career, or at another TV regular, Ant McPartlin.
Sources: Companies House filings for Freshwater Films Ltd and Cempa Clothing Ltd; HELLO! on the Celebrity Traitors 2026 line-up; Irish News/PA on his 2026 EastEnders return. Net worth figures are estimates, not verified accounts.
