NEED TO KNOW
- Kunal Nayyar, with a reported $45 million net worth, revealed in a December 2025 interview that he anonymously pays strangers’ medical bills through GoFundMe.
- The actor described the habit as his “masked vigilante thing,” saying wealth feels like “a grace from the universe” rather than a burden.
- The wholesome revelation sparked a surprisingly divided reaction online, with critics arguing true charity should remain private.
Kunal Nayyar spent 12 years playing lovable astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory, pocketing a reported $1 million per episode by the show’s peak years. Turns out, at least some of that cash is going to a pretty unexpected place: a stranger’s hospital bill, somewhere on the internet, in the middle of the night.
In a December 2025 interview with The i Paper, Nayyar casually dropped what is perhaps the most quietly heroic celebrity confession of the year. “But 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!”
Yes. He said, “masked vigilante thing.” And honestly? He’s not wrong.
Nayyar, who appeared in all 279 episodes of The Big Bang Theory alongside Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, and Kaley Cuoco, was ranked by Forbes as the world’s third-highest-paid TV actor in both 2015 and 2018, with annual earnings reportedly reaching $20 million and $23.5 million, respectively. His current net worth sits at a reported $45 million. So yes, the man has the budget for masked vigilantism.
And the giving doesn’t stop at GoFundMe. Nayyar and his wife, former Miss India and fashion designer Neha Kapur, have also funded university scholarships for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and support animal charities because, as he put it, “we love dogs.”
The full quote — which has since gone viral on X — is the kind of thing that feels almost too earnest to be real. “Money has given me greater freedom and the greatest gift is the ability to give back, to change people’s lives,” Nayyar said. “So, no, money doesn’t feel like a burden. It feels like a grace from the universe.”
Which, fine. Hard to argue with that.
The actor’s most recent project, Christmas Karma, leans directly into this philanthropic energy. He stars as Mr. Eshaan Sood, a modern-day Scrooge-like businessman in a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol, directed by Gurinder Chadha, with Hugh Bonneville, Eva Longoria, Billy Porter, and Boy George rounding out the cast. Life imitating art, apparently.
Nayyar also used the interview to reflect on broader kindness, remarking, “Right now people are not happy because we are all expecting someone else to be kind.” He continued: “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 neighbour comes to your door wanting some sugar for their tea and you lock it against them and say, ‘Get away.'”
The internet, being the internet, responded with its usual blend of warmth and suspicion. Some criticized Nayyar for making his charity public at all — “Charity must be done without another person knowing,” one user posted, while another wrote, “He would’ve gained more rewards in remaining anonymous than sharing it with the world and seeking glory.”
Others pushed back: “Hot take – Doing good things for social media fame is okay too, because as long as people are being helped, nothing else really matters.” And at least one person nailed the real takeaway: “I am glad to know that somebody is doing the thing I would absolutely be doing if I had money.”
That last one feels right. The debate over whether Nayyar “should” have shared this is, ultimately, a little beside the point. Somewhere out there, a family’s medical debt just quietly disappeared. Raj Koothrappali did that.
