With more than six million YouTube subscribers and millions more fans on Instagram, they are arguably Australia’s answer to the Kardashians – but they could not be more different.
The Norris Nuts have made a fortune from wholesome family fun after eldest child Sabre was propelled into the limelight after giving a hilarious interview on Today in 2016, which caught Emmy-winning TV host Ellen DeGeneres’ attention.
“I’d be surprised if [the family] weren’t already worth $100 million,” reveals media executive and TV Blackbox co-creator Rob McKnight. “The Brady Bunch has got nothing on the Norris Nuts when it comes to profitability and marketability. I think it is an amazing story and they’re definitely bringing in the money.”
They now have around seven million followers on social media.
(Image: Instagram)GOING VIRAL
The family are also likely making far more money than a typical TV star with their videos of the children playing games, doing shopping and eating challenges and even naming their new siblings.
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“These kids are famous around the world and each of their posts gets millions of hits. They actually don’t need traditional television to be famous or make money. They are going to make a lot more doing YouTube,” says Rob.
The family started their main YouTube channel nine years ago when former Olympic butterfly champion dad Justin Norris began filming Sabre’s exploits in the surf and on her skateboard.
She was just nine years old when a video of her landing a difficult skate trick on a half-pipe went viral worldwide, and was then featured in Kid Mac’s music video Higher. Two years later she became the youngest ever surfer to earn a wildcard spot in a major Australian surfing competition, coming in 25th in the Sydney International Women’s Pro.
Sabre is a wild card!
(Image: Instagram)It was an extraordinary achievement, but it was a sidesplitting chat with Today host Karl Stefanovic before the surf competition that propelled her onto the world stage and led to an interview with US chat show queen Ellen in LA.
In her cheeky interview she told Karl she would spend any prize money she won on doughnuts, and fat shamed her 42-year-old dad by joking that he “was an athlete but now he’s pretty fat”.
Sabre, who celebrated her 18th birthday in January, went on to captivate Ellen, and win millions more fans. From her endearing obsession with fast food, her refusal to follow her famous dad into the pool because “swimming sucks” and a health battle that saw her diagnosed with Chiari malformation – which causes her brain tissue to extend into her spinal canal – putting her sporting ambitions at risk, Sabre kept producing must-watch clips.
DIGITAL EMPIRE
Her siblings – Cerrus “Sockie” Jaye, 16, Coada, aka “Biggy”, 14, and Nazzy “Naz” Bea, 12 – and mum Brooke, 43, soon got in on the action, and a digital empire was born, with four other YouTube channels.
From eating only one colour of food for 24 hours to giving house tours, their fans can’t get enough of them. When brother Disco, now four, and sister Charm were born, the Norris Nuts uploaded clips of the four children deciding their names by doing running races and picking names out of a hat. To date, the name reveal for Charm has been viewed 11 million times.
It’s almost impossible to find out how much the Norris Nuts are worth, but experts estimate that they have earned more than $50 million through online advertising and sponsored posts.
The family recently moved into a new $15 million six-bedroom mansion in North Bondi after being forced to move from their Newcastle home after a series of incidents that reportedly saw the family import a $100,000 guard dog from the UK and employ armed security guards in 2021.
“It sucks that we just don’t feel that safe,” Sabre said in a YouTube video posted in December 2021.
The family have never revealed what threats were made, but Brooke said “we like making videos that make you feel happy and what’s happened is not very nice”.
The family haven’t let the threats stop them from growing even more famous. The Norris Nuts official TikTok account had more than 166 million likes at last count, and their channels – The Norris Nuts, Norris Nuts Gaming, Norris Nuts Do Stuff, Norris Nuts Clips and Norris Nuts Cooking – have attracted around 50 million views.
If that wasn’t enough to show just how famous this family is, consider that when youngest child Charm was born three years ago, she garnered 350,000 followers on Instagram in just a fortnight after her parents invited fans to “watch our baby grow”.
“I feel so lucky to be part of this big, crazy family,” says Brooke.
