Actor James Nesbitt pays himself dividends of £460,000 over two years

Gordon Deegan

Actor James Nesbitt has received dividends totalling £460,000 (€546,000) from his production firm over the past two years.

New accounts for Brown Cow Films Ltd show the star of Netflix hit Stay Close received a dividend of £240,000 in the 12 months to the end of March last year. This followed a dividend payout of £220,000 to the Co Derry man in the 2020 financial year.

The dividend payout resulted in the firm’s accumulated profits increasing only marginally from £5.808 million to £5.828 million last year.

The actor's TV career includes roles in Cold Feet and Murphy's Law, while in the year under review he made a brief one scene appearance in the BBC’s hit police procedural drama Line of Duty.

The company’s cash funds last year reduced by £721,765 from £1.22 million to £499,939 while the amount owed to the company by debtors increased from £5.19 million to £5.85 million.

This includes £1.5 million owed by the 'directors loan account' and £3 million owed by Nesbro Ltd.

The numbers employed by the company stood at one. In the prior year, profits at the company increased £782,555 to £5.808 million after dividend payouts were taken into account.

During a highly successful career, the 57-year-old has also starred in the award-winning film Bloody Sunday, the BBC’s hit primetime drama The Missing, and has gained worldwide recognition after featuring in The Hobbit series of films that have amassed almost €3 billion at the box office.

More recently Nesbitt starred in Bloodlands, a Northern Irish police procedural TV drama that was first shown in February last year.

In 2016, Nesbitt was awarded an OBE in a New Year’s list for services to Northern Ireland and to acting after years of work helping families affected by the Troubles.

Nesbitt initially had ambitions of being a teacher, but dropped out of his college course to pursue a career in acting.