Alfred Joseph Benza was born on the 2nd June 1962, in New York City, USA, and is a gossip columnist as well as a television host and an author, but probably most famous for his appearances on E! Entertainment Television’s “The Gossip Show”, and “Mysteries and Scandals”. He is also widely known as the author of two books – “Fame: Ain’t it a Bitch: Confessions of a Reformed Gossip Columnist” published in 2001, and more recently “’74 and Sunny” released in 2015.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this television personality has accumulated so far? How rich A. J. Benza is? According to sources, it is estimated that the total size of A. J. Benza’s net worth, as of early 2017, is over $500,000, acquired through his gossip columnist career which has been active since the late 1980s.
A. J. Benza Net Worth $500,000
Benza was the only son of three children to Lillian and Al Benza. He matriculated from West Islip High School New York in 1980, then enrolled at C.W. Post College in Brookville, New York, from which he obtained his degree majoring in journalism. During his studies, Benza was heavily interested in music and theatre – in 1983 he formed his own rock band – “Fred Can Wait” – in which he played harmonica. However, he soon left the band in order to begin his professional journalism career as a part-timer with Newsday, writing about high school sports. This provided the basis for A. J. Benza’s net worth.
Soon after, Benza began his gossip columnist career in The New York Daily News. However, after being fired from this position, he relocated to Los Angles, California, where he turned himself towards television – Benza began hosting “The Gossip Show” which aired through the mid-1990s on E! Entertainment Television. This venture was followed by several other on-camera appearances, such as in “The Maury Povich Show”, “Hard Copy” and “The Montel Williams Show”. Between 1998 and 2001, Benza served as the host of another E! Network’s TV program – “Mysteries and Scandals”. It is certain that all these ventures and engagements have helped A. J. Benza to dramatically increase his popularity and fame, as well as his overall wealth.
In 2001, he even hosted his own but short-lived late-night talk show – “A.J. After Hours”. Later that year, after appearing on “The Howard Stern Show” and slapping one of its crew members in the face, Benza was permanently banned from this show. In 2006 he was the host of ION Television’s “Cold Turkey II” reality show, and in 2007 he began serving as a co-host of “High Stakes Poker”, GSN’s television program which was aired ’til 2011. Doubtlessly, this five seasons-long engagement increased Benza’s net worth by a significant sum.
In 2001, Benza published his first book – “Fame: Ain’t it a Bitch: Confessions of a Reformed Gossip Columnist” providing an insight into the world of show biz, telling the stories behind the stories about celebrities including famous actors, millionaires and billionaires, athletes as well as rock stars, models and Hollywood’s “bad” girls. His second book, his childhood memoir “’74 and Sunny” was published in 2015, and was well received by the public. These successful ventures have helped A. J. Benza to further increase his net worth by a large margin.
Apart from all those already mentioned above, Benza has put some efforts towards another aspect of the entertainment industry – acting. He featured in several motion pictures, including “Ransom” (1996), “The Deli” (1997), “Rocky Balboa” (2006) and “Fatal Femmes Fighting: Asian Invasion” (2008) as well as “V.I.P.” and “Numb3rs” TV series. The most recent engagements of A. J. Benza include “Demons in the City of Angels” and “Case Closed with AJ Benza” reality television series. All these engagements have certainly made a positive impact on Benza’s net worth.
When it comes to his personal life, Benza has been married to Virginia Folk since 2003, with whom he has two children. It has been publically acknowledged that before this marriage, Benza was dating Samantha Phillips, Barbara Dare and a fashion model, Kara Young.
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