Sophie Dahl has a net worth of $8 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The English author and former fashion model built it first on the runway — discovered by British Vogue editor Isabella Blow and shot by Lindbergh, Avedon and Meisel — and then as a writer of novels, acclaimed cookbooks and children’s picture books.
Quick Facts
| Born | 15 September 1977, London, England (as Sophie Holloway) |
| Family | Granddaughter of author Roald Dahl and actors Patricia Neal and Stanley Holloway |
| Career | Author; former fashion model |
| Married | Jamie Cullum (2010); two daughters, Lyra and Margot |
| Net worth | $8 million (Celebrity Net Worth) |
Early Life
Sophie Dahl was born Sophie Holloway on 15 September 1977 in London, to actor Julian Holloway and author Tessa Dahl. Her paternal grandfather was actor Stanley Holloway, and her maternal grandparents were actress Patricia Neal and author Roald Dahl. Her parents, who never married, separated shortly after her birth. Growing up, she attended numerous schools in London, New York and India.
Career
At 18, Dahl was noticed by British Vogue editor Isabella Blow, who helped launch her modelling career. The next year she modelled knitwear on the catwalk at Lainey Keogh’s London fashion show, and soon became heavily in demand, appearing in campaigns for Alexander McQueen, Banana Republic, Versace and Godiva, and on the covers of Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Tatler and British and Italian Vogue. She modelled for photographers Peter Lindbergh, Richard Avedon and Steven Meisel, and appeared in an ad campaign art-directed by Tom Ford for the Yves Saint-Laurent perfume Opium, whose nude images caused controversy in England.
Dahl published her first book, the illustrated novella “The Man with the Dancing Eyes,” in 2003, followed by the novel “Playing with the Grown-ups” in 2007. In 2009 she moved into cookbooks with “Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights,” adapted into the six-part BBC Two cooking series “The Delicious Miss Dahl” in 2010, which she wrote and presented. A second cookbook, “From Season to Season,” followed in 2011, the same year she wrote and presented a BBC Two documentary about Victorian writer Isabella Beeton. Later in the decade she published her first children’s picture book, “Madame Badobedah,” as part of a four-book deal with Walker Books, followed by “The Worst Sleepover in the World” (2021) and “Madame Badobedah and the Old Bones” (2023).
Beyond her books, Dahl wrote a regular column for Men’s Vogue from 2005 to 2008 and served as a contributing editor there and at British Vogue for ten years, winning a Jasmine Award for her column. She has written essays for the Guardian, the Observer and American Vogue, became a monthly columnist and contributing editor at House & Garden in 2020, and is a contributing editor at Condé Nast Traveller. She serves as an ambassador for the charity Place2Be, which provides mental health services and advocacy for schools across the United Kingdom.
Personal Life
In early 2010, Dahl married singer-songwriter and musician Jamie Cullum. Together they have two daughters, Lyra and Margot, and live in Buckinghamshire.
Dahl’s model-to-author journey sets her apart from most of her contemporaries, though her early modelling career ran alongside those of Hailey Clauson, Josie Maran and Beverly Johnson.
Sources and notes: Net worth figure and career details per Celebrity Net Worth; figures are estimates drawn from public sources. No usable freely licensed photograph of Sophie Dahl was found on Wikimedia Commons (the only portrait is 219 pixels wide), so the original at-a-glance graphic is used as this article’s featured image.
