English car guy Ant Anstead has had quite an adventurous life. Besides making a killing on Wheeler Dealers, alongside companion and gearhead Mike Brewer, he’s been on a variety of other shows and he’s had a diversified professional life that has given him a wealth of skills and talents.
Over the years, all of this has helped Ant Anstead amass a wealth of $5 million. It might not seem like much compared to the bombastic Richard Rawlings ($18 million) or other celebrity car people, but it’s not bad for a 40-year-old from Devon who used to be a semi-professional football (soccer) player!
Not to mention his show, Wheeler Dealers, is one of the most successful car shows of all time, and has featured some of the coolest cars, and also some of the weirdest cars! But the show has been going on since 2003, has a massive episode list of 174+ through 15 seasons (Ant has only been around in the show since season 14), and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Also, it has an 8.2/10 on IMDb, which is incredibly impressive considering most other car shows are somewhere in the 6-range. (Except, of course, Top Gear and The Grand Tour, which both enjoy an 8.7.)
Nonetheless, let’s see how Ant’s multiple career options, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his wealth of skills have helped carve out a healthy $5 million net worth.
Wealth Of Skills
Surprisingly, Ant Anstead’s first real professional was in law enforcement. He was a Police Constable in the Hertfordshire Constabulary in 1999, at the young age of 20. He was stationed at Bishop’s Stortford, then Cheshunt. He was a Tactical Firearms Team member and he was awarded citations for acts of bravery.
When he left law enforcement, he became a skilled car fabricator and restorer, he even built his own dream car. This skill, of course, would go on to carve out the rest of his life in terms of wealth and profession, but he wasn’t done carving yet…
Because Ant also had a passion for the arts! In particular, sculpting. And for a while, as Money Inc reports, he wanted to pursue his dreams of sculpting and make that his life’s work. He created a huge number of art pieces as an artist and has some displayed in private and in public galleries.
Multiple Career Options
In a move to diversify his career options, and after all that success as a policeman and then an artist and car fabricator, he then turned to semi-professional European football! Like his other ventures, he achieved success in this field, as it’s pretty dang hard to go professional, even if it’s semi.
He played for 15 years in the sport, initially as a goalkeeper, and then as striker. He played in the regional men’s football league and became the only player to win Ryman (a league covering London, East, and South East England) in both positions.
At some point, he even married up in life, finding time to marry Christina El Moussa, who was recently divorced. This was a big news item because Christina is an HGTV queen with her own show and a net worth of $12 million! So that definitely doesn’t hurt.
Moving Onto TV
When you consider Ant’s $5 million wealth, it’s obvious it wasn’t going to come from sculpting or policing or semi-pro football, unfortunately. Being a good-looking guy, he quickly shifted to TV and became a star there.
After hosting a Channel 4 show, Ant was employed by the BBC to host various shows, such as two episodes of the “Building Cars Live” show, which highlighted the busiest car factories on the planet. With demand on his side, Ant became a guest speaker to give inspirational speeches. He appeared on UK talk shows and showed up at schools, foundations, and car shows.
This brings us to today, where he enjoys popularity on the wildly successful Wheeler Dealers show, alongside Mike Brewer, who is also an incredibly interesting guy who's surrounded himself with cars all his life.
Ant joined in 2017, replacing Edd China as the co-host. Together with Mike, the duo give new life to rundown classic automobiles, so Ant gets to combine some of his artistry background with his car restoration shops. Mike Brewer has already seen some amazing cars in his day, from all over the world, so we can't wait to see what more Ant will add.
As he’s admitted to Drive Tribe, Ant was incredibly nervous taking over the reins on Wheeler Dealers because he had big shoes to fill. But he’s done well for himself, there’s no doubting that, and being only 40 years old, he clearly has a lot more in store! Interestingly enough, though Mike Brewer might be more renowned worldwide for his 17 years of Wheeler Dealers.
So, the guy is obviously doing something right!