Latest Shocking Entertainment News: Are They 'Nepo Babies'? These Celebrity Kids Have Spoken Out About Nepotism
Not everyone starts at the bottom in Hollywood — especially if their parents are already famous.
Some Euphoria fans were shocked to learn Maude Apatow had famous parents, actress Leslie Mann and writer/director Judd Apatow. Her family even gave Maude her first onscreen roles as a child in Knocked Up and Funny People. She wasn’t thrilled when she saw the internet calling her a “nepotism baby,” but she understands the label.
Lily-Rose Depp, meanwhile, said having model Vanessa Paradis as her mother and Edward Scissorhands star Johnny Depp as her dad may have scored her an audition — but she claimed nepotism never got her a job, telling Elle in December 2022, “Nothing is going to get you the part except for being right for the part.”
Jamie Lee Curtis, however, has acknowledged how her parents, actress Janet Leigh and actor Tony Curtis of the Golden Age of Hollywood, helped her career.
Scroll down to hear from more celebrities with famous parents who have spoken out about nepotism in Hollywood:
Phoebe Gates
Parents: Bill Gates and Melinda Gates Bill Gates’ daughter Phoebe has some insecurities about being a “nepo baby.” “I had so much insecurity and such a desire to prove myself [at Stanford],” Phoebe, youngest daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates, shared on her podcast, “The Burnouts,” in April 2025. “I came in, I was like, ‘I’m so privileged, I’m a nepo baby. I had so much insecurity around that and I feel like it’s so hard when you’re a freshman in college because you have no experience. You have nothing.”
Cashel Day-Lewis
Parents: Daniel Day-Lewis and Rebecca Miller Cashel acknowledged how his famous parents might have helped his career as a musician. “Oh, I’m sure it’s a help. It has been a help in that my parents have had the resources to help me,” he told The Sunday Times in April 2025. “I think it is a double-edged sword, because you never know how people are going to respond. Who knows after [my National Concert Hall] debut what will happen?” He added, “I’ve been able to be relatively underground at the Cobblestone, which has been really great. Especially in the trad scene, which is so small. I think of it as somewhat of an accomplishment. But, at some point, [my identity] always gets out. I could have changed my name, but I like it. It’s a nice name.” Cashel noted that his parents “have been incredibly supportive and encouraging of my music,” saying, “I’ll show my parents a [compositional] piece and they’re like, ‘That sounds great.’ I go back and forth between them. I wish I could talk about [my music] in more detail. But I am able to talk to them.”
Hayley Hasselhoff
Parents: David Hasselhoff and Pamela Bach "It's difficult because at the end of the day, everybody's journey is going to be different," the model told the Daily Mail of her opinion on the nepotism debate in March 2023. "So you can't compare everybody's journey on how they got into the industry if they are a nepo baby, or however you call it. But at the end of the day, I know mine — and mine was a very genuine one." She added: "I had to get my own agent. I got my own agent at 14. I auditioned for it like everybody else. ... I actually didn't do theater in school because of the relationship to my family. I think really because I think I didn't want people to think that I was just doing it to do it."
Tallulah Willis
Parents: Demi Moore (St. Elmo's Fire) and Bruce Willis (Die Hard) The former couple's youngest daughter poked fun at the social label via Instagram in March 2023, writing, "All my sisters are nepo babies 🎨." She wore a T-shirt with the same phrase in the photo.
Jason Ritter
Parents: John Ritter (actor) and Nancy Morgan (actress) “Oh, as a little kid, when I was maybe 6 or something like that, my dad [John Ritter] was doing this cartoon called The Real Story of O Christmas Tree. I will say, without any hesitation, this was like a full-on nepotism hire,” the Parenthood alum recalled of his first acting gig during an appearance on SiriusXM's “The Jess Cagle Show” in March 2023. “ I will admit that. He for sure got me the job. I did try to stay away from that later.” He added: “I got to play Little Acorn in The Real Story of O Christmas Tree, and [my dad] played my Uncle Piney. It was funny because, as I grew up and I found that recording again, I went, 'Oh, they must have sped up my voice to make it that high.' Both my mom and dad were like, 'No, no. That was [it], yeah... It was pretty high. Jason, that was your voice.'”
Maude Apatow
Parents: Leslie Mann (This Is 40) and Judd Apatow (writer/director) “A lot of people [in a similar position] have proven themselves over the years, so I’ve got to keep going and make good work," Apatow told Net-A-Porter in September 2022. "It’s so early in my career, I don’t have much to show yet, but hopefully one day I’ll be really proud of the stuff I’ve done by myself.”
Lily-Rose Depp
Parents: Vanessa Paradis (model) and Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean) “It’s weird to me to reduce somebody to the idea that they’re only there because it’s a generational thing. It just doesn’t make any sense," she told Elle in December 2022. "If somebody’s mom or dad is a doctor, and then the kid becomes a doctor, you’re not going to be like, ‘Well, you’re only a doctor because your parent is a doctor.’ It’s like, ‘No, I went to medical school and trained.’ ... I just hear it a lot more about women, and I don’t think that it’s a coincidence.”
Jack Quaid
Parents: Meg Ryan (You've Got Mail) and Dennis Quaid (Parent Trap) The star of The Boys said he once considered changing his last name and refused to let his dad get him an agent. "I knew that people would constantly say, 'Oh, I know how he got that job,'" he told Thrillist in June 2022. "And they're still going to say that. It's fine. But as long as I knew how I got there, that would be enough."
Jamie Lee Curtis
Parents: Janet Leigh (Psycho) and Tony Curtis (Some Like It Hot) "It’s important for me, given that I’m this bougie princess from Los Angeles — even if I claim I worked hard, I’ve never really worked hard a day in my life," she told The New Yorker in December 2019. "I wrote a short story once that was semi-autobiographical, which I’ll never publish, a novella actually - the child in the story was raised in New York with famous parents. The father in that story wrote an autobiography, titled Access of Kings. It was that idea that, when you’re famous, you get this incredible access, you get opportunities to see things that other people don’t get to see, you get ease of access everywhere you go. All of that is a great, lovely benefit to the part that you give up, which is your privacy. So it’s a balance."
Gwyneth Paltrow
Parents: Blythe Danner (Meet the Parents) and Bruce Paltrow (St. Elsewhere) "As the child of someone, you get access other people don’t have, so the playing field is not level in that way," the Goop founder said on Hailey Bieber's YouTube show, Who's In My Bathroom?, in July 2022. However, I really do feel that once your foot is in the door, which you unfairly got in, then you almost have to work twice as hard and be twice as good."
Ireland Baldwin
Parents: Kim Basinger (L.A. Confidential) and Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) "I don’t think I ever would’ve been scouted as a model if it weren’t for who my parents are," the model said while on Red Table Talk with her mom in April 2022. "You have a lot more to prove because you’re always going to have that comparison to your parents." She later added via TikTok: "Nothing is worse than when someone is born into a famous family or between two famous parents... and they fail to, like, acknowledge how these doors were opened for them and how they've had it a lot easier than other people."
Gigi Hadid
Parents: Yolanda Hadid (model) and Mohammed Hadid (real estate developer) "I know I come from privilege, so when I started there was this big guilt of privilege, obviously. ... I’ve always had this big work ethic because my parents came from nothing and I worked hard to honor them," the model told Vogue Australia in June 2018. She added: "There are so many girls who come [from] all over the world and work their arses off and send money home to their families like my mother did, and I wanted to stand next to them backstage and for them to look at me and respect me and to know that it’s never about me trying to overshadow or take their place." In March 2023, Hadid openly referred to herself as a nepo baby. “Technically I’m a nepotism baby,” the model told the Sunday Times. “My parents came from very little, [but] I’ve always acknowledged that I come from privilege. My parents told me, ‘Just because you have parents who were successful, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t walk into the job being as nice and as hard-working as you can be.’ ”
Maya Hawke
Parents: Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) and Ethan Hawke (Boyhood) "I feel like the only way to handle the nepotism thing — which definitely gives you massive advantages in this life — is, you will get chances for free, but the chances will not be infinite," the Stranger Things star told Rolling Stone in September 2022. "So you have to keep working and do a good job. If you do a bad job, the chances will stop. That's my ethos."
Dan Levy
Parents: Eugene Levy (American Pie) and Deborah Divine (producer) "I’ve never really turned to my dad for anything, I think out of fear of the label of nepotism,” the Schitt's Creek creator told Page Six in March 2018. “Entertainment seems to be the only arena where children who pursue the work of their parents, which is an inherently natural thing to do, is met with a lot of skepticism. And so for my whole life, leading up to [Schitt’s Creek], I’ve always tried to do everything on my own, I guess to prove, mainly to myself, that I could do it.” He added, “Now that we’re working together it’s a completely different story, but I needed to prove to myself that I could stand on my own.”
by Nicole Massabrook
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