Mike Epps has collected Hollywood checks, Netflix specials, and an estimated $5 million fortune. Still, the comedian has not forgotten how to work a drive-thru window.
Epps’ Mickey DTIme
The “Next Friday” star recently returned to an Indianapolis McDonald’s where he worked before becoming famous. Epps greeted employees at the restaurant on West 38th Street. He also stepped behind the counter and handed orders to surprised customers.
However, the homecoming was not simply a celebrity photo opportunity with a side of fries. Three Indianapolis-area McDonald’s restaurants donated a portion of their Aug. 28 sales to the Mike Epps Foundation.
“Indianapolis will always be home, and giving back to the people and neighborhoods that helped shape me means everything,” Epps said, according to WTHR 13. “McDonald’s was part of my story before anybody knew my name, so having McDonald’s of Greater Indiana support the foundation and the work we’re doing in the community makes this partnership really special.”
Epps’ story has certainly moved beyond the Golden Arches. His reported net worth is approximately $5 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. He was able to establish himself as a dynamic comic, box office draw, and television star. For the “Sparkle” actor, it is not enough to be famous. He wants to give back.
Yet Epps keeps returning to the same Indianapolis neighborhoods that knew him before Hollywood did.
His latest McDonald’s appearance coincided with the third annual Mike Epps Community Festival at Washington Park. The free event featured live music, entertainment, wellness checks, children’s activities and a marketplace for small businesses.
The Mike Epps Foundation also supports underserved communities through education, mentorship and neighborhood revitalization. Its work gives Epps’ McDonald’s return more substance than a famous former employee dropping in to supervise the fry station.
Restaurant owners Morris and Laurie Henry-Bradley said Epps’ journey showed what could grow from a first job and a connection to the community.
“What makes his story even more meaningful is that no matter how successful he has become, he continues to come home and invest in Indianapolis,” Laurie Henry-Bradley said.
Epps and his wife, Kyra, purchased six houses on the block where he grew up. The properties included his grandmother’s former home and houses his family once occupied before being evicted.
Their renovation project became the HGTV series “Buying Back the Block.” The couple restored several neglected properties while attempting to preserve the neighborhood for longtime residents.
One of their biggest undertakings was “Big Blue,” a former firehouse constructed in the 1880s. They converted the historic building into a home while retaining much of its original character.
Epps said he had owned land in the area for more than 25 years. One property that he reportedly purchased for $26,000 in 2006 later rose in value to about $209,400.
For the comedian, those investments are also a response to gentrification. He has warned that longtime residents can be priced out when wealthier buyers suddenly discover neighborhoods that others preserved for decades.
“A lot of people claim a hood, a city, or a block but don’t own it,” Epps previously wrote while encouraging younger people to pursue property ownership.
