Simon Cowell is a British music executive and television producer who, at the age of 54, has accumulated a net worth of $400 million. He was born in Lambeth, London, England on October 7, 1959 and brought up in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His mother, Julie Brett, is a former ballet dancer and socialite and his father, Eric Selig Phillip Cowell Sr., was an estate agent developer and music industry executive. In addition to his younger brother Nicholas, Simon has three half-brothers; Michael, John and Tony and a half-sister, June.
Cowell dropped out of school aged 15 and worked several odd jobs before his father, who was working for EMI Music at the time, got him a job in the mail room. His connections within the company eventually got him hired as an assistant to an A&R man and from there he worked his way up through the ranks to record producer. Before long, Cowell had left the company to set up his own label, Fanfare.In 1989, Fanfare’s parent company folded and drove the business into bankruptcy leaving Cowell heavily in debt and forcing him to move back in with his parents.
Cowell had proved he had an ear for a hit and was snapped up by BMG, who offered him the position of A&R consultant. His time at BMG was hugely successful and saw him pioneer not only some of the biggest selling hits in the industry from bands such as ‘Five’ and ‘Westlife’ but also gain credit for the emergence of TV hits such as ‘Zig & Zag’ and ‘The Teletubbies’.Following the success of the TV show ‘Popstars’, Cowell joined forces with Simon Fuller to produce a new talent show where the public decides who wins. This became the idea for the hugely successful ‘Pop Idol’ which attracted over 11 million viewers. The winner of the first season, Will Young, won 4.6 million votes and broke the record for the biggest selling debut single reaching sales of 1.8 million.
Cowell makes sure he is in the production credits of most of his artists’ records, allowing him to secure a share of the royalties. After the massive success of ‘Pop Idol’, Cowell had now found fame in his own right and was on the judging panel of both the US and UK versions of the show. His straight talking style had made him a celebrity and earned him nicknames including ‘Mr. Nasty’ and ‘Judge Dread’.He then went on to set up his own production company called ‘Syco TV’ which co-produced another massively successful talent show, ‘X-Factor’. He was also on the panel of ‘American Idol’, earning $20 million per series and struck a deal with Fox to allow his production company to air ‘America’s Got Talent’ on other networks. He signed a multi-million pound deal with ITV which gave the channel rights to his talent show ‘X-Factor’.
Cowell has now left the judging panel on his shows but maintains a backstage presence. He is involved with many charities and appears as a guest on TV shows such as ‘The Simpsons’. He is romantically involved with Lauren Silverman, who he had a child with on the 14th February 2014. The relationship began in controversial circumstances as Lauren was married at the time of conception and went through divorce proceedings due to her affair with Cowell.
He currently makes an estimated $80-$90 million dollars a year and is listed at number 41 in a list of ‘The World’s Most Influential Figures’ and has been on the Forbes’ top 100 list several times.
