The devastating news came as the young actor was trying to buy his first home KENAN & KEL, from left: Kel Mitchell, Kenan Thompson, 1996-2000. had little to show for his Nickelodeon fame at the end of his years of work. The actor appears in 's new documentary, .
There, he talks to the fellow performer (who uses she/they pronouns) about the earliest years of their fame. Speaking of the start of his career, Thompson explained, “That first commercial when they paid me, it was like $800. I was 12 and it might as well have been a million dollars.
" Landing and keeping continuous work wasn't easy, however. As the two discussed rejection, Thompson admitted, "I really considered not wanting to act anymore if these are the kinds of things I had to go through." "It was almost like I was forced to stay humble, if you will, because when I could have been at my most boisterous, ‘everybody knows my name’ kind of years, I didn’t want that because I didn’t want people to know I was struggling.
It’s kind of the beautiful conundrum, the irony of life." Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Related: When the subject of finances came up, Thompson explained how due to a lack of laws protecting child performers in Florida, where he filmed with Nickelodeon, he was scammed out of a significant portion of his early earnings. “My mom met this dude somewhere through the community — either like church or neighborhood s---, through a book club or something, who claimed to be a good kind of tax accountant.