Popularly known by his professional name Chumlee, Austin Russell is an American reality television personality. He is best known as a cast member of the popular History Channel reality show called Pawn Stars. The show depicts the daily business at the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas where he works as an employee. He started working at the shop five years before the show was filmed as he was the childhood friend of Corey Harrison, the son of the owner of the shop. On the show, he is usually portrayed as the comic foil and is known as the Village Idiot because of his lack of intelligence and incompetence, but he often gets appraised in his area of expertise of sneakers, has been a fan favorite. Austin Russell was given the nickname “Chumlee” due to his large stature when he was around 12 years old when the father of one of his friends said that he looked like the walrus named Chumley from the animated TV series Tennessee Tuxedo. After the end of the show, he started his own pawn shop but later sold half of the company to the Harrisons.
Chumlee had been working the shop since 2004 but gained a lot of attention as the first season for the reality show Pawn Stars was filmed. His hard work and dedication has not only made him famous but also fortunate. By now, he has accumulated a good sum of money. His net worth is estimated to be around $5 million dollars. In 2010, he sold half of his company to Rick Harrison for $5,000, so that the shop could handle orders of his merchandise more efficiently. He receives a handsome salary of $25 thousand per episode for his appearance on the reality television show. He earns most of his income from his television career and has been keeping it up adding more to his net worth.