What Is Poppy Montgomery’s Net Worth?
Poppy Montgomery is an Australian-American actress and producer who has a net worth of $8 million. Poppy Montgomery is best known for starring as Samantha Spade on the CBS police procedural “Without a Trace” (2002–2009) and Carrie Wells on the CBS/A&E crime drama “Unforgettable” (2011–2016). Poppy’s first lead role was Marilyn Monroe in the 2001 miniseries “Blonde,” a “dream role” for the actress, who had posters of the icon on her bedroom walls during her youth. She also portrayed author J.K. Rowling in the 2011 TV movie “Magic Beyond Words.” Montgomery has more than 30 acting credits to her name, including the films “Dead Man on Campus” (1998), “The Other Sister” (1999), “Life” (1999), and “How to Lose Your Lover” (2004), the TV movies “Murder in the Hamptons” (2005), “Lying to Be Perfect” (2010), “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: From Paris with Love” (2015), “A Surrogate’s Nightmare” (2017), and “Christmas on the Farm” (2021), and the television series “Relativity” (1996–1997), “Glory Days” (2002), and “Reef Break” (2019). Poppy has served as an executive producer on “Unforgettable,” “Reef Break,” and “Christmas on the Farm” as well as the 2013 Lifetime movie “An Amish Murder.”
Early Life
Poppy Montgomery was born Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue on June 15, 1972, in Sydney, Australia. She is the daughter of restaurateur Phil Donahue and executive/market researcher Nicola Montgomery. Poppy has five siblings, sisters Rosie, Lily, Daisy, and Marigold and brother Jethro Tull. Montgomery was expelled from six different private schools, then she dropped out when she was 15 years old to pursue an acting career. At the age of 18, Poppy moved to Florida to meet up with a boyfriend who she’d met in Australia when he was an exchange student, but as she told the “Seattle Times” in 2005, “After five days in Sarasota, I realized I couldn’t stand him.” Montgomery subsequently got on a bus to Los Angeles, where she stayed with some of her brother’s friends. Every day, she sent a head shot to Bob McGowan, who had previously managed Julia Roberts, until he agreed to sign her.
(Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)
Career
Poppy made both her film and television debuts in 1994, guest-starring in the two-part “Silk Stalkings” episode “Natural Selection” and playing Party Girl No. 1 in the sci-fi comedy “Tammy and the T-Rex.” In the ’90s, she also guest-starred on “Party of Five” (1996) and “NYPD Blue” (1996) and appeared in the films “Devil in a Blue Dress” (1995), “Dead Man on Campus” (1998), and “The Other Sister” (1999) and the TV movies “Jake Lassiter: Justice on the Bayou” (1995) and “The Cold Equations” (1996). From 1996 to 1997, Montgomery played Jennifer Lukens on the ABC drama “Relativity,” and in 1999, she co-starred with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence in the film “Life.” In 2000, she played Elizabeth Waclawek on the short-lived UPN drama “The Beat,” and in 2001, she portrayed Marilyn Monroe in the CBS miniseries “Blonde,” which was based on the 2000 Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name. Poppy spoke to “Entertainment Weekly” about the role, stating, “When I told my mother I got the part of Marilyn Monroe, she didn’t even bat an eyelash. She said, ‘Well, you’ve been rehearsing for it your whole life.'” In 2002, she played Ellie Sparks on The WB series “Glory Days,” and she began starring as FBI agent Samantha Spade on “Without a Trace,” which aired 160 episodes over seven seasons.
Next, Montgomery appeared in the films “How to Lose Your Lover” (2004) and “Between” (2005) and the TV movies “Raising Waylon” (2004), “Murder in the Hamptons” (2005), “Snow Wonder” (2005), and “Lying to Be Perfect” (2010), and she portrayed J.K. Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” series, in the 2011 Lifetime movie “Magic Beyond Words.” From 2011 to 2016, Poppy starred on “Unforgettable” in the lead role of Carrie Wells, a woman with the “rare ability to remember virtually everything she experiences.” The series aired 61 episodes over four seasons (three on CBS and one on A&E) and earned a People’s Choice Award nomination for Favorite New TV Drama in 2012. Montgomery appeared in the TV movies “Signed, Sealed, Delivered from Paris, With Love” (2015), “Furst Born” (2016), “A Surrogate’s Nightmare” (2017), “Mission Control” (2017), and “Christmas on the Farm” (2021), and in 2019, she starred as Cat Chambers on the French-American crime drama “The Reef.”
Personal Life
Poppy began a relationship with actor Adam Kaufman after meeting on the set of “Between” in 2005, and they welcomed son Jackson Phillip Deveraux Montgomery Kaufman on December 23, 2007. Her pregnancy was written into “Without a Trace,” and her co-star Anthony LaPaglia is Jackson’s godfather. Montgomery and Kaufman co-starred in the 2010 TV movie “Lying to Be Perfect,” and Adam appeared in 13 episodes of “Without a Trace,” playing the love interest of Poppy’s character. Montgomery and Kaufman split up in 2011, and later that year, Poppy started dating Microsoft’s director of lifestyle marketing, Shawn Sanford. The couple married at Disneyland on February 19, 2014, and they have two children together, Violet Grace Deveraux Sanford (born April 2013) and Gus Monroe Deveraux Sanford (born November 2014). Montgomery is a citizen of both Australia and the U.S.
VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images
Award Nominations
In 2001, Montgomery earned an Online Film & Television Association Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture or Miniseries for “Blonde.” In 2004, she shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series with her “Without a Trace” castmates. In 2013, Poppy received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for “Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story.”
Real Estate
In April 2013, Montgomery sold her home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles for $2.88 million. She paid $3.13 million for the home in 2005. After the sale, she purchased a 3,089 square foot home in Brentwood for $3.6 million. The home includes three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a library, and an office.
