Two and a Half Men star Melanie Lynskey reveals paycheck after ‘insane’ salary rumours

Two and a Half Men star Melanie Lynskey has shut down the “insane” rumour she earned up to $420,000 per episode from the Emmy-winning series.

The New Zealand actress, 49, who played ‘stalker’ neighbour Rose in the hit 2000s comedy, responded to a fan comment under a video of a former co-star discussing their own salary from the sitcom.

That co-star was Emmy-winning actress Holland Taylor, 83, who played the on-screen mother of Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer in the series.

In the comments section, the fan claimed Taylor only made US$75,000 per episode, while claiming Lynskey made “US$200,000 to US$300,000 ($420,000)” per episode.

The comment amassed close to 2000 likes before Lynskey jumped in.

“Hey! Sorry, but this insane number is floating around on the internet and I must tell you how wrong it is,” she replied.

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The actress confirmed she only did 63 out of 262 episodes of the series before confirming her true salary per episode.

“I made literally one tenth of that stated number per episode (started at US$20,000 with I believe a 5% raise each season, but more than half of the episodes I did were in the first two seasons).

“The highest paycheck I got on the show was I think US$43,000 ($61,000) for one episode in the final season,” she wrote.

“This is before agents, managers, business managers’ cuts, and taxes, so you take home around 50% of what you are paid,” she added.

The Yellowjackets star reassured fans she was “extremely grateful for the job and for the money”.

“But there is this insane idea that I made millions of dollars and it’s so ridiculous. If Holland’s talking about it I’ll talk about it too 😂.”

In the original clip, speaking on the Alchemy with Anthony Mason podcast, Taylor explained why she left the series after her six-year contract ended.

“They never paid me very well on that show,” she said, citing one reason.

“I was paid on that show what I made in a series like eight years before.

“I got four Emmy nominations, and they never gave me a raise. They usually do... just as a courtesy.”

“I loved a lot about that show, but they were not full of courtesies,” she smiled.

Taylor agreed to come back a guest role, and in the video claimed Cryer (who played Alan Harper in the series) had “quadrupled his salary”.

In 2025, Cryer claimed he got “a third” of what co-lead Sheen was earning as he opened up about their unequal pay in Sheen’s documentary aka Charlie Sheen.

“[Sheen’s] negotiations went off the charts because his life was falling apart. Me, whose life was pretty good at that time, I got a third of that,” he said.

Sheen and Cryer earned millions from their time on the series, although their official salaries have not been confirmed.

The show ran from 2003 to 2015, starring Sheen and Cryer as brothers, while Angus T. Jones played Cryer’s on-screen son Jake.

In 2011, after Sheen entered drug rehabilitation, his character was killed off the show and replaced with Ashton Kutcher, who played a billionaire who purchased the house after Charlie’s death.

Over 12 seasons, the hit series earned 46 Primetime Emmy nominations and won a total of nine Emmy Awards, with multiple nods for Outstanding Comedy series.

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