Celebrity Kids Following Their Parents’ Acting Footsteps: Busy Philipps’ Daughter Birdie and More

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Celebrity Kids Following Their Parents' Acting Footsteps: Busy Philipps’ Daughter Birdie and More

Several celebrity children have inherited their famous parents’ acting genes. Busy Philipps’ eldest daughter, Birdie, appeared alongside the actress in two episodes of Cougar Town and on the Prime Video series With Love. Philipps shares daughters Birdie and cricket with ex-husband Marc Silverstein. Much like Birdie, Milla Jovovich’s eldest daughter, Ever, began her acting career at a young age by appearing as a young Natasha Romanoff in the 2020 Marvel film Black Widow. "On the one hand, I'm terrified because I know how difficult this industry is,” Jovovich, who also shares daughters Dashiel and Osian with Paul W. S. Anderson, told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "And on the other hand, I'm overjoyed because I feel like my child has found their passion, and she has been very focused on it since she was 5." Keep scrolling to see more celebrity parents whose kids are following in their footsteps:

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Celebrity Kids Following Their Parents' Acting Footsteps: Busy Philipps’ Daughter Birdie and More

Several celebrity children have inherited their famous parents’ acting genes. Busy Philipps’ eldest daughter, Birdie, appeared alongside the actress in two episodes of Cougar Town and on the Prime Video series With Love. Philipps shares daughters Birdie and cricket with ex-husband Marc Silverstein. Much like Birdie, Milla Jovovich’s eldest daughter, Ever, began her acting career at a young age by appearing as a young Natasha Romanoff in the 2020 Marvel film Black Widow. "On the one hand, I'm terrified because I know how difficult this industry is,” Jovovich, who also shares daughters Dashiel and Osian with Paul W. S. Anderson, told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "And on the other hand, I'm overjoyed because I feel like my child has found their passion, and she has been very focused on it since she was 5." Keep scrolling to see more celebrity parents whose kids are following in their footsteps:

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Kevin Costner

Costner’s second youngest child, son Hayes, is set to make his big screen debut in his dad’s latest directorial outing, Horizon: An American Saga. In the film’s February 2024 trailer, Hayes’ character seemingly sacrifices himself to save Sienna Miller and a young girl, who appear to be playing his mother and sister.

“It’s all right,” he says before shutting a trap door above the women’s heads. “I’m gonna be with Dad.”

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Thandiwe Newton

The Westworld alum's daughter Nico Parker, who she shares with Ol Parker, made her big screen debut in 2019's live-action Dumbo when she was 14 years old. The following year, she starred in the HBO limited series The Third Day before working alongside her mom in the 2021 feature Reminiscence. Nico returned to HBO in 2023 for the highly-anticipated video game adaptation of The Last of Us.

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Charlie Hall, the Veep alum’s youngest son with husband Brad Hall, followed in his mom’s acting footsteps in 2019. Charlie later landed the role of Andrew on HBO Max’s Sex Lives of College Girls ahead of its second season premiere in 2022. 

“It means that my children now really respect what I do for a living,” Louis-Dreyfus gushed to Entertainment Tonight that September. “He’s really digging being an actor and he’s really good. Good on him.”

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David Tennant

The Doctor Who alum's son Ty Tennant joined HBO's House of the Dragon as the teenage version of Aegon Targaryen II in September 2022. When David left Who in 2010, Matt Smith (who stars as Daemon Targaryen) took his place. Ty's mom is Georgia Tennant (née Moffett), who is also an actor, appearing in Who as well as Merlin.

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Tim Allen

Elizabeth Allen-Dick scored a role as her dad's daughter in Disney+'s The Santa Clauses series. "It's difficult to believe, but it had very little to do with me," Allen told Entertainment Weekly in September 2022. "I wanted to put my youngest daughter as an elf, just so she'd see herself in a movie. But as she was reading for that, she read so well that they said, ''We'd like to read her for more of a part.' I said, 'Whatever you want to do. I want nothing to do with it. I don't want to pitch my daughter for a part in the movie.' But she ended up moving to the high ranks. They loved how she read, loved it so much, because she's playing a 13-year-old girl and she is 13. They ended up casting her as Santa's daughter. It was a surprise but it became the most amazing experience."

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Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe

The Cruel Intentions stars' son, Deacon Phillippe, scored his first acting role on Netflix's Never Have I Ever season 3. The August 2022 project was created by Mindy Kaling, who worked with pal Witherspoon on A Wrinkle in Time, The Morning Show and more.

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Chris Hemsworth

During an interview with reporter Kevin McCarthy in June 2022, Hemsworth confirmed that his sons appeared in Thor: Love and Thunder.

"It was really cool. They really wanted to be in it. Taika [Waititi] had his children in there. Christian Bale had his. Natalie [Portman] had her kids, as well," said the Marvel actor, who shares his twin sons, Tristan and Sasha, with wife Elsa Pataky.

At the time, Hemsworth hinted that his daughter, India, will make a cameo as well, adding, "She plays the character of Love."

He continued: "It felt sort of like a one-off, fun family experience. I don't want them to be child stars and actors. It was just a special experience we all had."

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Candice Accola

The Texas native was joined by her daughter Florence, whom she shares with Joe King, for the Legacies finale in June 2022.

"You grew in mommy’s belly while I filmed scenes in front of that fire place… you were a little baby visiting mommy at work learning to crawl in front of that fireplace," Accola wrote via Instagram. "What a truly epic day when we got to stand side by side in a scene together in front of that fireplace.

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Rob Lowe

The West Wing alum and his son John Lowe have worked together on many projects over the years, including The Lowe Files, The Grinder and 9-1-1: Lone Star. News broke in April 2022 that the father-son pair will costar in Netflix’s Unstable.

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Laura Dern

The Jurassic Park star is "making" her daughter, Jaya, wait to pursue an acting career, she told Ellen DeGeneres in March 2022, explaining, "I started very young at 11 and am so happy she’s waiting and wanting to go to school [even though] she knows in her heart she wants to act. … I saw the consequences of not being in school, just doing my thing."

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Uma Thurman

The Kill Bill star was “anxious” when her daughter, Maya Hawke, began acting, she told Access in February 2022. “It’s a complicated career. She’s a sensitive person,” Thurman said of the Stranger Things and Good Lord Bird star. “She’s, in the end, such a brilliant actress. Obviously, there’s nothing else that she would have ever done. Her talent was so big. It’s what she had to do.”

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Arnold Schwarzenegger

Joseph Baena, the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mildred Baena, exclusively told Us Weekly about the acting tips his father gave him for breaking into the industry.

“The biggest thing that my father has taught me is to just do the reps, and what do I mean by that is practice, practice, practice,” he told Us in February 2022 at the Revolve x H. Wood Group “Homecoming Weekend” party. “Preparation is key, so learning how to say the lines and read the lines [so] that I can be interrupted and distracted in any way, and I can still regurgitate the lines no matter what.”

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Mario Lopez

The Saved By the Bell alum’s daughter, Gia, joined him in Holiday in Santa Fe in 2021. "She did a really good job,” Lopez exclusively told Us in October at Mohegan Sun's 25th Anniversary Celebration. “We worked together, but she gave me more tips probably. She's pretty good and talented so we'll see [where that goes]. I'm not discouraging her. I'm just supporting whatever she wants to do."

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Kate Beckinsale

"I think it's really important to her to have her own thing and blaze her own trail and do her own stuff,” Beckinsale told Entertainment Tonight in October 2021 of her and Michael Sheen’s daughter Lily's acting career. "So as much as it's quite difficult not to be poking into her business all the time, I really do respect that and admire how much she wants to be independent from us. … It's onerous enough to sort of look like me and her having the same [last] name. She's been asked since she was about 3 months old, like, 'Oh, are you going to be an actress like your mother?'"

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Tim McGraw

McGraw and wife Faith Hill’s youngest daughter, Audrey, made her acting debut in his “7500 OBO” music video in August 2021. “Couldn’t be more thrilled to have my youngest daughter, Audrey, play the lead role in the music video for #7500OBO!!!” the country crooner, who is also an actor, wrote via Instagram. “So proud of all our girls. Was real special to work together on this one.”

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John Travolta

"Here’s my daughter Ella starring in a live action re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland!” the Grease star captioned a July 2021 Instagram post of the 21-year-old in a blue dress on set. “Called Get Lost. I’m a very proud dad!”

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Busy Philipps

Busy appeared alongside her eldest daughter on Cougar Town and the Prime Video series With Love.

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Milla Jovovich

"I want to work hard and make my own path so that people don't only see me as their daughter, but also as someone who has worked for it, and that I really know what I'm doing and it wasn't just all handed to me,” the actress’ eldest daughter, Ever, told Flaunt magazine in 2020.

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Angelina Jolie

Vivienne appeared alongside her mom in Maleficent in 2014.

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Will Smith

The actor and his son Jaden Smith have acted alongside each other in The Pursuit of Happyness, After Earth and more.

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Johnny Depp

After a small role in Tusk in 2014, the Pirates of the Caribbeans star’s daughter, Lily-Rose Depp, has since starred in three period dramas and more movies.

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Leslie Mann

The This Is 40 star’s daughter Maude started her acting career in her mom and dad Judd Apatow’s movies and now plays Lexi Howard in HBO’s Euphoria.

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Carrie Fisher

The late Star Wars star’s daughter, Billie Lourd, played Lieutenant Connix in her mom’s sequel trilogy. She is also a regular in the American Horror Story series.

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Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon

The “Fantasy” singer revealed in December 2022 that she may have passed down her musical talent to twins Moroccan and Monroe.

"Rocky is a technical genius," she told E! News. "He could do anything he wanted, and I will support him. He and Roe are both such creative geniuses! Honestly, their tone when they sing is so beautiful, and I'm so thankful that they inherited that from me."

She added, "I can't wait to see what and who they grow up to be!"