Hugh Laurie becomes highest-paid actor in US television drama

Hugh Laurie has been named as the highest-paid actor working in television drama in the US, marking him out as one of the most successful Britons to make a transatlantic career switch.

Laurie, who first appeared on British television screens in the 1980s in a comedic partnership with fellow actor Stephen Fry in the Blackadder series and Fry and Laurie, tops a list of the country's best-paid drama actors.

He currently earns $400,000 (£255,000) for each episode of the hit series House, according to TV Guide magazine, which compiled the survey.

Laurie has already been awarded two Golden Globe awards for his leading role in the show, which has become the most-watched drama series in the world. He plays the protagonist, Dr Gregory House, a grumpy, awkward and arrogant Vicodin-addicted misfit, based on Sherlock Holmes.

The survey, which lists the top earners in US television by category, states that the former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan is the third best-paid performer in reality television. His earnings for appearances on the show America's Got Talent are estimated to be $2m.

Reports have recently suggested that Morgan is poised to replace the veteran talkshow host Larry King on the US news channel CNN in a deal said to be worth £5.5m.

Laurie, one of a generation of successful comedic actors who began in Cambridge University's Footlights society, was virtually unknown in the US before he took the part in House.

A polymath, Laurie is also a talented musician – he played the piano on Meatloaf's newly-released album, and is in the process of recording a Blues album for the record label Warner – and in 2007, was the recipient of an OBE for his services to drama.

He is also a bestselling writer. His first novel, The Gun Seller, originally published in 1996, became a runaway success in France last year.