Kunal Nayyar, Worth $45M, Donates to GoFundMe Anonymously

Kunal Nayyar at Berlinale 2024. (Photo: Elena Ternovaja via Wikimedia Commons, CC 3.0)

In a recent interview with The i Paper, actor Kunal Nayyar revealed that he often donates large sums to GoFundMe campaigns, providing anonymous support to families grappling with medical bills. The revelation has since gone viral on social media, especially considering Nayyar’s reported net worth is $45 million, per Fortune.

“Money has given me greater freedom and the greatest gift is the ability to give back, to change people’s lives,” Nayyar said, noting that he and his wife, fashion designer Neha Kapur, also fund university scholarships for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds as well as animal charities. “What I really love to do is go on GoFundMe at night and just pay random families’ medical bills. That’s my masked vigilante thing.”

Nayyar is perhaps best known for his role as Rajesh Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory, the CBS smash-hit that ran from 2007 to 2019. At the height of the sitcom’s success, Nayyar and his castmates were earning an estimated $1 million per episode. In 2015 and 2018, Forbes also ranked Nayyar as the world’s third-highest-paid TV actor with annual earnings of $20 million and $23.5 million, respectively. That’s precisely why Nayyar feels so strongly about donating part of his fortune, claiming that, because of this, money doesn’t “feel like a burden.” In fact, the actor describes it more like a “grace from the universe,” allowing him to help those in need.

Though published in December, the interview has gained revived attention amid James Van Der Beek’s friends launching a GoFundMe campaign after the late actor’s death on February 11, 2026. The initiative seeks to raise money for his wife and six children, all in an effort to cover the medical costs of Van Der Beek’s previous cancer treatments. The campaign has already pooled together some $2.7 million, and has also sparked traction on social media.

“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for showing up for James and his beautiful family,” Van Der Beek’s friends said in a statement. “In the middle of deep grief, your support has been a light. It reminds us that love is real, that community is strong, and that James’s spirit continues to bring people together.”

Several people have praised Nayyar’s actions following the interview’s online circulation. “People are shaming [Nayyar] because he broadcast his anonymous payments toward people’s medical bills,” one user wrote on X. “Yet it’s amazing to know there are still kind souls who use their wealth for good. After seeing all these revelations of the Epstein list, this news puts a smile on my face.”

Another user on Instagram commented: “That’s amazing—what a wonderful thing to do. It just shows how so many other rich celebrities have the ability to do things like that and just choose not to.”

Other users, though, offer a different perspective, objecting to the healthcare system within the U.S. being prohibitively expensive. “While admirable of Kunal Nayyar, this is (again) not a feel-good story. People should not have to get lucky and hope a TV star pays their medical bills,” one person claimed, while yet another echoed the sentiment: “Props to him for using his wealth to help people, but it shouldn’t have come to this. You can’t tell me this is what a functional society looks like.”

This frustration, however, isn’t lost on Nayyar. “Right now people are not happy,” he said, “because we are all expecting someone else to be kind. We are expecting a president or a politician, some leader, to come and bring us world peace. But there is no world peace if your neighbor comes to your door wanting some sugar for their tea, and you lock it against them and say ‘get away.’”