Reynolds was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the youngest of four sons of James Chester Reynolds, a food wholesaler and former semi-professional boxer, and Tammy, who worked as a retail sales clerk. He attended Kitsilano Secondary School and began acting as a teenager, landing a role on the Canadian teen drama Hillside (released internationally as Fifteen) before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time in his early twenties.

Reynolds first built a following on the ABC sitcom Two Guys and a Girl (1998-2001), then broke into film comedy with National Lampoon’s Van Wilder (2002). He moved between action and romantic-comedy roles through the 2000s, including Blade: Trinity (2004) and The Proposal (2009) opposite Sandra Bullock, before a poorly received turn in Green Lantern (2011). His fortunes changed permanently with Deadpool (2016), a role he had championed and helped develop for nearly a decade before the studio greenlit it.

Photo: Gabriel Hutchinson via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Deadpool became a surprise commercial phenomenon, grossing over $780 million worldwide against a modest budget, and its 2018 sequel performed similarly well. Reynolds went on to star in Free Guy (2021) and the Netflix action film Red Notice (2021), one of the platform’s most-watched releases at the time. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), which brought Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine into the Marvel Cinematic Universe alongside Reynolds’ character, grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing R-rated films in history.

Reynolds’ annual income now blends acting fees with substantial business proceeds, and in several recent years Forbes and other outlets have ranked him among the highest-earning actors in the world largely because of his ownership stakes rather than salary alone. His Deadpool & Wolverine payday, combined with backend participation in the film’s record-breaking box office, added significantly to his 2024 earnings on top of his ongoing business income.

Reynolds’ Deadpool salary reportedly grew across the franchise as the character’s box-office value became clear, with reports of his Deadpool & Wolverine deal including a substantial upfront fee plus box-office bonuses given the film’s blockbuster performance. His Netflix deal for Red Notice was reported as one of the largest ever for an actor on a single film, reflecting his drawing power as both star and producer through his Maximum Effort production company.

Much of Reynolds’ commercial work runs through Maximum Effort, the marketing and production company he co-founded, which has produced ad campaigns for brands including Mint Mobile itself before its sale, as well as partnerships tied to his other ventures. Rather than taking traditional third-party endorsement checks, Reynolds has increasingly folded brand marketing into his own companies, an approach widely credited with boosting the value of both Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile ahead of their sales.

Reynolds bought a stake in Aviation American Gin in 2018 and helped drive its marketing before Diageo acquired the brand in 2020 in a deal reportedly worth up to $610 million including performance-based payouts. He took a similar approach with Mint Mobile, buying in during 2019 and selling the wireless carrier to T-Mobile in 2023 in a deal valued at roughly $1.35 billion, with Reynolds’ personal share reported at around $300 million. In 2020 and 2021 he and Rob McElhenney purchased Welsh football club Wrexham AFC, whose rise through the English football pyramid was chronicled in the docuseries Welcome to Wrexham and has substantially increased the club’s commercial value.

Reynolds and his wife, actress Blake Lively, own a estate in Bedford, New York, in the Hudson Valley area popular with celebrities seeking privacy outside Manhattan, along with other residential property reported in the New York area over the years. Beyond real estate, his most valuable assets are largely tied up in his business stakes, including his ownership share in Wrexham AFC, rather than in cars, jewelry, or other traditional luxury holdings.