Recently, TikTok has become obsessed with nepotism babies. For the uninitiated, a nepotism baby is someone working in Hollywood right now who has some sort of family connection to the industry — usually famous parents. The idea of “nepotism babies” also opens up an interesting conversation about the world of the Hollywood elite. Do nepo babies deserve their fame? Should we be more critical of them? Are they even all that talented? Who’s to say.
I am deeply fascinated by the world of nepotism babies because sometimes they are actually hard to spot, until you see their parents have their own separate Wikipedia page. They are also a group of people who have probably never heard the word “no” before, which means they likely have attained an ethereal level of confidence that I will never even dream of knowing.
Anyway, using their Instagram metrics to my advantage, here’s a list of 17 nepotism babies in Hollywood today based on how good they are are nabbing followers online.
Allison Williams – 826k followers
Allison Williams’ biggest role to date is probably the HBO dramedy Girls, as on of the four titular girls who all live together in Brooklyn as the navigate their twenties. Believe it or not, all four actresses (Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, and everyone’s favourite white feminist Lena Dunham) are nepotism babies in one way or another, coming from parents who are filmmakers, painters, playwrights, and actors. Williams, however, may have the largest claim to fame, however, as her father is journalist and former MSNBC anchor Brian Williams.
Gracie Abrams – 931k followers
Gracie Abrams is a newcomer to the music scene, carving out a niche for herself in the confessional young-adult songwriter genre that Gen Z is eating up lately. Abrams has been booked and busy lately, working on her upcoming debut album, releasing her new single “Block me out,” and opening for Olivia Rodrigo on her Sour Tour. Oh, she’s also the daughter of Mission Impossible director and Lost creator J.J. Abrams.
Matt Healy – 1.3M followers
“You said your mother only smiled on her TV show,” Halsey muses in her song Colours, which is allegedly about singer-songwriter Matt Healy. Healy is the frontman of the alt/pop band The 1975, and if you went through your Tumblr phase between 2013-2015 like I did, then you are intimately familiar with the band and their songs like “Somebody Else” and “Chocolate.” Matt Healy’s mother is indeed actress Denise Welch and his father is actor Tim Healy, both of whom have starred in several UK TV shows.
Billie Lourd – 1.5M followers
I’m gonna cut to the chase, Billie Lourd is the daughter of Star Wars alum Carrie Fischer and the granddaughter of Halloweentown and Will & Grace star Debbie Reynolds, who both tragically passed two months apart in 2016. Billie followed in the footsteps of her family’s matriarchs, appearing in the critically acclaimed coming-of-age film Booksmart, FX’s American Horror Story, and the final three films in the Star Wars “Skywalker Saga.”
Maya Hawke – 3.6M followers
Try to convince me that Maya Hawke doesn’t look exactly like her mum Uma Thurman. Her father is also a seasoned veteran in Hollywood: Ethan Hawke. Stranger Things fans have probably known this for a while, as Maya Hawke had her breakout with her portrayal of Robin, a queer mall worker, in season 3 of Netflix’s sci-fi horror series.
Dakota Johnson – 4.6M followers
Dakota Johnson is a household name at this point, if not for her acting chops in The Lost Daughter and Fifty Shades of Grey, then definitely for her confrontational Ellen interview heard ‘round the world. Her father is Miami Vice lead Don Johnson and her mother is 1980’s it-girl actress Melanie Griffith. She is also definitely not allergic to limes.
Maude Apatow – 4.8M followers
You may recognise Maude Apatow from a little show called Euphoria, which is the insanely popular HBO drama series, and second most-watched show on the platform behind Game of Thrones. Apatow plays Lexi, a book-smart teen living in the shadow of her more popular sister, and when she’s not on the Euphoria set, she’s living in the shadow of her mother and father: producer Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann.
Dan Levy – 4.9M followers
Pretty much everyone on the planet has seen Schitt’s Creek at this point (a big “Ew, David” to you if you haven’t), and we have Dan Levy to thank. Dan Levy created and stars in the show about a rich family losing their fortune, forcing them to move to a quirky, rural town. The show has been praised, specifically for its groundbreaking queer representation, and Dan created the show alongside his father, the infamous Eugene Levy, who also plays his character’s dad.
Jake Gyllenhaal – 7.3M followers
Jake Gyllenhaal, actor and infamous scarf-stealer (YES, I’m bringing it up), has an incredible track record of leading roles, and definitely has some Hollywood in his family. His sister Maggie is also an actress as well as a director and executive producer as of recently, and their parents are screenwriter and director Naomi Foner and Stephen Gyllenhaal, who is a director and a poet.
Zoe Kravitz – 8.3M followers
So Lenny Kravitz, actor, songwriter, performer, and record producer meets actress Lisa Bonet and have a daughter. The daughter grows up to be the one and only Zoë Kravitz, who has starred in The Divergent Series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and more recently, The Batman. Also, fun fact: her stepfather was briefly Jason Mamoa.
Willow Smith – 10.1M followers
I don’t know that it’s possible to talk about nepotism babies without talking about nepotism babies: the Smith siblings (we’ll get to Jaden a little later). After a very brief acting stint as a kid, Willow Smith has recently been pursuing pop-punk music under the mononym WILLOW, working with Avril Lavigne, Travis Barker, and Tierra Whack. Oh yeah she’s Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith’s kid too.
Tracee Ellis Ross – 10.9M followers
I was caught completely off guard when I realised Tracee Ellis Ross is the daughter of disco darling Diana Ross, lead singer of The Supremes. To be fair, Tracee is sort of crushing it on her own right lately, starring in Black-ish — which recently came to an end — as well as creating and narrating it’s spin-off Mixed-ish. She also starred alongside fellow nepo baby Dakota Johnson in The High Note in 2020.
Emma Roberts – 17.7M followers
I’ve known Emma Roberts since her days starring as 13-year-old guitar player and dog mum Addy Singer on the Nickelodeon comedy Unfabulous. Roberts’ father is Eric Roberts, an actor who has appeared in Raggedy Man, The Dark Knight, and Inherent Vice. Eric’s sister, and Emma’s aunt, is Eat, Pray, Love star Julia Roberts.
Timothée Chalamet – 17.7M followers
Timothée Chalamet has been Hollywood’s it-boy ever since his roles in Lady Bird, Little Women, Call Me By Your Name, thrust him to the forefront of young Hollywood, while his role in the sci-fi epic Dune showed that he could carry a franchise on his back. The Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and NYU graduate’s mother is Nicole Flender, a real estate broker and former Broadway dancer, and his father is Marc Chalamet who works for UNICEF and is a journalist for the French daily newspaper Le Parisien.
Jaden Smith – 18.7M followers
And we’re back! When he’s not talking about the political and economic state of the world, Willow Smith’s older brother Jaden is kinda just doing a little bit of everything. Will Smith and Jada-Pinkett Smith’s son has dabbled in acting alongside his father, making music (he’s released three studio albums), modelling, and philanthropy.
Lily Collins – 26.9M followers
Lily Collins has been kicking around Hollywood for a while now. Her earliest roles include The Blind Side in 2009 and The Mortal Instruments in 2013, and is currently starring in Netflix’s Emily in Paris. With a surname as normal as “Collins,” you might have missed that her father is 80’s aficionado Phil Collins. Lily Collins is actually just a small part of a larger, more confusing famous family tree. After marrying director Charlie McDowell in 2021 (whose stepfather is Ted Danson) actor Malcom McDowell became Lilly’s father in law.
Miley Cyrus – 166M followers
While it feels like most nepotism babies live in the shadow of their parents, one could argue that Miley has eclipsed her dad — country superstar Billy Ray Cyrus — in terms of fame. In music alone, Miley has released seven studio albums, six of which reached the Billboard 200’s top 5, across pop, hip-hop, and country music, with bangers like Wrecking Ball, Midnight Sky, and Party in the U.S.A. in her portfolio. She’s also known for her high-profile romance with ex Liam Hemsworth, as well as her time on the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana (duh).