Dustin Diamond Net Worth 2026: What Screech Left Behind

Dustin Diamond’s net worth was about $300,000 at the time of his death, according to a widely reported estimate cited by outlets including Showbiz CheatSheet and Grunge. Diamond, best known as Samuel “Screech” Powers on Saved by the Bell, died of lung cancer on February 1, 2021, in Cape Coral, Florida. He was 44.

Dustin Diamond: quick facts

Net worth

$300 Thousand

Source of wealth

Saved by the Bell, stand-up comedy

Profession

Actor, comedian

Nationality

American

Place of birth

San Jose, California, United States

Date of birth

January 7, 1977

Date of death

February 1, 2021 (aged 44)

That figure is modest for an actor who spent about 13 years playing the same character across four NBC series and two TV movies. Diamond said much of the money he earned as a child was gone by the time he reached adulthood, and he struggled with debt for most of his adult life.

After the show ended he earned a living from stand-up comedy, reality TV, a memoir and small film roles. His finances made headlines several times, from a 2001 bankruptcy and a 2006 foreclosure to state tax debts and a 2020 foreclosure on the same Wisconsin home.

Dustin Diamond at a glance

• Net worth at death: about $300,000 (widely reported estimate, 2021)
• Born: January 7, 1977, in San Jose, California
• Died: February 1, 2021, in Cape Coral, Florida, aged 44
• Profession: actor, stand-up comedian, musician and author
• Best-known role: Screech Powers in the Saved by the Bell franchise (1988–2000)
• Biggest reported single payday: about $30,000 for his 2002 Celebrity Boxing bout, as reported by The Ringer
• Book: Behind the Bell (2009), later adapted into a Lifetime TV movie
• Spouse: reportedly married Jennifer Misner in 2009; they separated in 2013. No children.

His net worth over time is charted at the end of this article.

Where Dustin Diamond’s money came from

Source	Details	Estimate
Saved by the Bell franchise	Four series and two TV movies, 1988–2000	His main career income; much of it reportedly spent before he turned 18
Stand-up comedy	Club tours across the U.S. from the 1990s until his death	His main living in later years
Reality and game shows	Celebrity Boxing 2, Celebrity Fit Club, Celebrity Big Brother (UK), Weakest Link	About $30,000 reported for Celebrity Boxing
Book	Behind the Bell (2009)	Not disclosed
Merchandise	2006 “Save My House” T-shirts at $15–$20 each	Goal of $250,000; final total not disclosed
Endorsements	Spokesperson for Illinois-based Insurance King	Not disclosed
Real estate	Port Washington, Wisconsin, home bought around 2003	Valued at about $340,000 when he moved in

Reported earnings and paydays

Diamond never had a big film salary, and exact figures for his TV pay were never made public. These are the amounts that were reported during his life or after his death:

Year	Item	Reported amount
1989–1993	Saved by the Bell pay, as Diamond described it to a friend	About $1,250 a week (unverified claim)
2001	Take-home pay listed in his California bankruptcy filing (NBC as employer)	About $5,300 a month
2002	Celebrity Boxing 2 fight against Ron Palillo	About $30,000 per fighter
2006	“Save My House” T-shirt campaign target	$250,000 (goal)

The weekly pay figure came from his friend Dan Block, who repeated what Diamond had told him. It was never confirmed by NBC or the show’s producers.

Early life

Dustin Neil Diamond was born on January 7, 1977, in San Jose, California. His father, Mark, taught digital electronics, and his mother, Jaimee, worked as a computer operator for Pacific Bell.

He started acting as a child and landed the role that defined his career before he was a teenager. Because he was a minor for most of his time on Saved by the Bell, his parents managed his earnings.

Saved by the Bell years (1988–2000)

Diamond first played Screech on Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1988–89), a Disney Channel series that NBC retooled into Saved by the Bell in 1989. The show became a Saturday morning hit and ran until 1993.

He stayed with the character longer than almost anyone else in the cast. He and Dennis Haskins (Principal Belding) were the only actors to appear in each of the first three series:

• Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1988–89)
• Saved by the Bell (1989–1993)
• Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style (1992 TV movie)
• Saved by the Bell: The College Years (1993–94)
• Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas (1994 TV movie)
• Saved by the Bell: The New Class (1994–2000), where Screech worked as Mr. Belding’s assistant

That run of about 13 years gave him steady TV work through his teens and early 20s. It also tied him so closely to Screech that he later said it was hard to find other roles.

What happened to his child-star earnings

In a 2015 interview with FOX6 in Milwaukee, Diamond said his parents had spent most of what he earned as a minor. “It’s a shame. My parents wasted so much of my hard work,” he said.

He said California’s Coogan Law, which sets aside part of a child actor’s pay, left him with what FOX6 described as “a few hundred thousand dollars” at 18, but not enough to be set for life. In 2006 he told reporters that his parents’ spending and tax miscalculations had left him in debt as a young adult.

His father disputed this. In a 2026 TV interview reported by Sinclair stations, Mark Diamond said agent commissions, taxes and work costs such as headshots and fan-mail postage used up most of the money, leaving little or nothing for the family.

Stand-up, reality TV and boxing (2000s)

After The New Class ended, Diamond turned to stand-up comedy. He toured comedy clubs on and off for the rest of his life, and he described it as his main source of income. “I’m not rich, but I make a living,” he told FOX6 in 2015.

He also had small film parts, including cameos in Made (2001) and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003), and later roles in American Pie Presents: The Book of Love (2009).

Celebrity Boxing

On May 22, 2002, Diamond fought Ron Palillo, who played Horshack on Welcome Back, Kotter, on Fox’s Celebrity Boxing 2. He won by stoppage in the second round after knocking Palillo down twice.

According to The Ringer, each fighter was set to earn about $30,000 for the bout, one of the larger single paydays reported in his post-Bell career.

Celebrity Fit Club and Celebrity Big Brother

In 2007 he joined season 5 of VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club, where he clashed with other cast members and staff. He told FOX6 he took the job partly because it paid more than his other options.

In August 2013 he entered the house on the 12th series of Celebrity Big Brother in the U.K. He was the fourth housemate evicted, on Day 16. His fees for these shows were not made public.

Music and wrestling

Diamond co-founded the alternative metal band Salty the Pocketknife, playing bass and writing much of its music. The band split shortly after recording its first album. He also made appearances in professional wrestling from 2000 onward.

Money troubles in his lifetime

Diamond’s finances were a public story for two decades. These are the main episodes that were reported.

2001 bankruptcy

Diamond filed for bankruptcy in California in 2001. The filing listed NBC as his employer and take-home pay of about $5,300 a month, according to the Associated Press.

2006 foreclosure and the “Save My House” T-shirts

In June 2006, a foreclosure order was filed in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, against his home in Port Washington, about 25 miles north of Milwaukee. He also faced a small-claims suit over about $800 in landscaping bills.

To save the house, he went on The Howard Stern Show and began selling T-shirts through his website. The front read “Save My House,” and the back joked that the buyer had paid to save “Screeech’s house.” Shirts cost $15, or $20 signed, and his goal was to sell about 30,000 and raise $250,000.

He later said the campaign raised enough to keep the home, though he admitted some buyers never received their shirts.

The 2006 sex tape

Also in 2006, a sex tape titled Screeched: Saved by the Smell was released. Diamond first said it had leaked from a circle of friends, and later claimed a body double had been used with his face added. Any money he made from it was never reported.

Behind the Bell

In 2009 he published a memoir, Behind the Bell, with unflattering claims about his former castmates. Several of those claims were disputed. In 2013 he said the book had been ghostwritten from his interview answers and that some stories had been exaggerated.

The book was adapted into Lifetime’s The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story, which aired on September 1, 2014. Sales figures and any rights fee were not disclosed.

The 2014 stabbing case and jail time

On December 26, 2014, Diamond was arrested after a fight at a bar in Port Washington in which a man was stabbed. In May 2015 a jury convicted him of two misdemeanors, carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct, and cleared him of a felony charge of recklessly endangering safety.

In June 2015 Judge Paul Malloy sentenced him to four months in jail and 15 months of probation. He served about three months. In May 2016 he was arrested again for violating the terms of his probation.

State tax debt and the 2020 foreclosure

In June 2016, Milwaukee’s WISN reported that Diamond owed the state of Wisconsin more than $93,000 in taxes, based on the Department of Revenue’s public list of delinquent taxpayers.

In 2020, Wells Fargo asked a court to approve a foreclosure on the Port Washington house. Court papers obtained by TMZ showed he owed about $269,000 on the mortgage. He had moved to Florida in 2018, and the empty house had been damaged when a water main broke in late 2019.

Endorsements

Diamond’s main brand deal later in life was with Insurance King, an Illinois-based auto insurance company. He served as a spokesperson for the company, and its founder, Dan Block, was a close friend.

After his death, Block’s company sponsored a tribute race car for him at the 2021 Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, a NASCAR race in Indianapolis.

Real estate

Diamond’s only well-documented property was his house in Wisconsin.

Property	Year	Reported price
Port Washington, Wisconsin, house	About 2003	Worth about $340,000 when he moved in, with a $68,000 down payment (his own account to TMZ)

He listed the house for sale in 2019 and faced foreclosure on it in 2020. In his final years he lived in Florida, where he died.

Illness and death

In January 2021, Diamond was diagnosed with stage 4 small-cell lung carcinoma. He completed one round of chemotherapy in Florida.

He died on February 1, 2021, about three weeks after his diagnosis, in Cape Coral, Florida. He was 44. His girlfriend, Tash Jules, was with him when he died.

Estate

No probate filing or estate value for Diamond was widely reported. Given his tax debts and the foreclosure on his main property, the estimate of about $300,000 should be treated as a rough figure. It is not based on court records of his estate.

What is well documented is that he spent most of his adult life working to pay off debts. Stand-up comedy and occasional TV jobs were his main sources of income, not savings from Saved by the Bell.

Personal life

Diamond reportedly married his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Misner in 2009. They separated in 2013 and later divorced; his death certificate lists him as never married. He had no children.

He lived in Port Washington, Wisconsin, from 2003 and moved to Florida in 2018. In his later years he said he regretted parts of Behind the Bell and hoped to make peace with his former castmates. Several of them shared tributes after his death.

Philanthropy

No major charitable gifts by Diamond were reported.

How Dustin Diamond compares

Actor	Role	Estimated net worth	Main source
Mario Lopez	A.C. Slater	About $25 million	TV hosting (Extra, Access Hollywood), radio
Tiffani Thiessen	Kelly Kapowski	About $10 million	TV acting and cooking shows
Mark-Paul Gosselaar	Zack Morris	About $9 million	TV acting (NYPD Blue, Franklin & Bash)
Dustin Diamond	Screech Powers	About $300,000	Saved by the Bell, stand-up

Figures are widely reported estimates cited by Showbiz CheatSheet in June 2020. His co-stars’ figures may have changed since. Unlike Diamond, his co-stars moved on to long-running adult TV careers. For more actor fortunes, see our actors net worth list.

Frequently asked questions

What was Dustin Diamond’s net worth when he died?

About $300,000, according to a widely reported estimate at the time of his death in February 2021.

How much did Dustin Diamond make on Saved by the Bell?

His exact pay was never made public. A friend said Diamond told him he earned about $1,250 a week, and Diamond said his parents spent most of his earnings while he was a minor.

Why did Dustin Diamond sell “Save My House” T-shirts?

In 2006 his Port Washington, Wisconsin, home faced foreclosure. He sold shirts for $15, or $20 signed, aiming to raise $250,000, and later said the campaign raised enough to keep the house.

How much did Dustin Diamond get paid for Celebrity Boxing?

About $30,000, according to The Ringer. He beat Ron Palillo on Fox’s Celebrity Boxing 2 in May 2002.

Did Dustin Diamond go to jail?

Yes. After a 2014 bar fight in which a man was stabbed, he was convicted of two misdemeanors in 2015 and sentenced to four months in jail. He served about three months.

How did Dustin Diamond die?

He died of stage 4 small-cell lung cancer on February 1, 2021, in Cape Coral, Florida, about three weeks after being diagnosed. He was 44.

Sources: Associated Press/CBS News (2006 foreclosure and bankruptcy filing), FOX6 Milwaukee (2015 interview), NBC News (2015 sentencing), WISN (2016 tax debt), TMZ (2020 foreclosure), The Ringer (Celebrity Boxing), Showbiz CheatSheet (2020 cast estimates), Sinclair stations (2026 interview with Mark Diamond), Wikipedia. All net worth figures are estimates.