Tommy Dorfman reveals underwhelming salary for hit Netflix show 13 Reasons Why: ‘This is why we strike’

Actor played student Ryan Shaver in the popular dark Netflix drama, but says her earnings meant she ‘barely qualified’ for insurance

Tommy Dorfman has shared the amount she earnt as a cast member on the first season of 13 Reasons Why.

The hit Netflix drama ran for four seasons between 2017 and 2020, and followed a group of high school pupils after the suicide of one of their classmates.

Dorfman played student Ryan Shaver in the first two seasons of the programme, both of which generated significant amounts of conversation for their dark and ambitious themes.

On Tuesday (25 July), the actor shared some insight into the disparity between a show’s popularity and the returns for the people working on it.

“My earnings for the entire first season of 13 Reasons Why were $29,953.24 [£23,300] prior to agency and manager fees (20 per cent) and taxes,” she began her post on Instagram Threads. “Eight episodes over six months.”

She clarified that her earnings meant that she “barely qualified for insurance”, despite being a significant part of the programme.

“I did all of the promo and had KEY ART for this show, flew round trip from NYC to SF [San Francisco] to shoot for every episode, was kept for days without pay/working. I barely qualified for insurance.”

She continued: “Within the first 28 days of release, the show’s season one garnered a total of 476 million view hours. This is why we strike.”

Tommy Dorfman on threads (Tommy Dorfman / Instagram Threads)

Dorfman is one of thousands of actors currently taking part in the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes, which saw 150,000 television and film actors stop working on 13 July. Combined with the writers’ (WGA) strike, which began in May, these actions have effectively shut down Hollywood.

Performers and writers have withdrawn their labour in protest of the conditions of the entertainment industry, and are striking for fairer pay and regulations around the use of AI, among other requests.

Dorfman is not the only figure to open up about their finances as part of the discussion around the Hollywood strikes. Last week, This is Us series star Mandy Moore revealed that she’d received a “very, very tiny” amount in streaming revenue from her lead role in the NBC show.

As family matriarch Rebecca Pearson, Moore was a major part of the acclaimed drama, which concluded after five seasons in May 2022. However, she claims not to have earned much pay after the show was made available on streaming services.

“I was talking with my business manager who said he’s received a residual for a penny and two pennies,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

On Monday (24 July), Dwayne Johnson reportedly donated a “seven-figure” amount to the union, as a way to help performers who will be hit hardest during the strikes.