For the average teen, their parents might be the most boring person on the planet. Some researchers go as far as to say that teens develop an “allergy” towards them. They wish they were sired by Hollywood royalty, pop legends or Olympians.
So we’ve gathered stories from folks with famous parents or relatives to see if it really lives up to the hype. Get comfortable as you read through what it’s like to have Christmas dinner with rockstars, upvote your favorites and if you happen to be related to a celebrity, feel free to share your own stories and experiences in the comments section down below.
#1
Apparently my boyfriend's uncle is Steve Harris from Iron Maiden and me being a huge fan of Iron Maiden since I was like four? I had no clue he has a house in my country and walks around town in pink polos. Once I was walking with my boyfriend and I saw Steve Harris walking across the street and I freaked out and then my boyfriend told me "chill, he's my uncle" and calls him to introduce me. We've been dating for two years now and I'm still shook at family gatherings (especially my dad because he's also a huge iron maiden fanboy 😂)
Image credits: anaperarocha
#2
Bill Nye is my uncle, and it wasn't really until third grade that it sunk in for me that everyone else thinks it's incredible that they're now only 2 degrees of separation away from someone on TV. That was the year that we started watching his videos for science lessons.
And no I don't really like Saves the World. Based on his irl personality it's easy to see why the original Science Guy show worked; he genuinely loves explaining things. Explaining fundamental scientific ideas to little kids, in humorous and easy to understand ways, made for some great TV. This new show is full of assumptions and inane debating, like it's trying to "get" the "other side."
But he's a good person. If you've heard stories about him being a jerk they're probably true; strangers can get pretty unbearable sometimes.
Image credits: hcnye
#3
My father is very well known in his scientific field. I never really thought twice about it as a kid. I got to do lots of cool things (field trips, nature tv shoots, etc.) and it was just the norm. I went to a convention with him when I was 21 and he was the keynote speaker, and I realized he was a rock star. Folks just loved meeting him. They brought his books to sign, asked for pics, etc. My dad is super humble and chill, so it was at that point I realized the greatness of my dad. He put his kids (and now his grandkids) on his shoulders so they could see the amazing world he got to experience because of his success.
Image credits: graptemys
#4
I don't think my father, the inventor of **Toaster Strudel**, would be too pleased with me answering this question.
Image credits: CaliforniaStoked
#5
My boss is a celebrity and her 5 year old kid is starting to realise something is up. He recently questioned why random people always ask her for photos and my boss told him that people were just being friendly. Since then he started asking people for selfies when he wants to be friendly, it’s cute.
Image credits: anon
#6
Both my parents are actors. I've been used to seeing and hearing them perform (theatre and radio) for my whole life. My dad has done voice work for some computer games. I was playing one once and he walked in the room and said "that chimpanzee is me" then walked out again.
#7
Not particularly famous with younger people now, but Chief Dan George is one of my relatives. When I tell anyone this who's over 40 years old, they generally get really awkward about it. I never knew him personally because he died before I was born. I know what he was famous for, and I knew his son really well who recently died. Native people are my father's side of my family and I grew up my whole life around my extended family on his side who are also all related to him. Whenever it gets out who I'm related to, people like to gimme their opinions about native folks, which I find unnecessary. They're my family, that's about it. I also find it awkward when people gush about it, since Ive grown up being partially native myself and have had to deal with racism and everyone's negativity about them as a people.
Dan George wanted everyone to recognize that it's not easy being native in a white person's world. Even today it's not easy for a lot of my relatives and other ones all across this continent.
#8
My great uncle was Mickey Rooney. His active career was a lifetime ago but it is still pretty interesting seeing him in movies. He was an amazingly kind and wonderful person.
#9
My grandma grew up with/was friends with James Dean, and she stayed active in the fan club until she passed. She was in a documentary about him, and she loved talking to fans because she just loved people and was so proud of Jimmy and loved being able to talk to people about him. When she passed away, there was a piece about her in their fan club newsletter even.
I’m always surprised at the amount of James Dean fans I have who recognize me and approach me and talk to me about my grandma and how much they loved and appreciated her. I love it. My grandma and I were so close, and I think the happiness and warmth I feel talking to them about her must be kind of what she felt like talking to them about Jimmy, and it’s just the warmest, coziest thing.
#10
My dad is a famous professional golfer and my godfather is in the golf hall of fame. I spent my entire childhood at golf courses. I was used to people at golf courses and even restaurants coming up to say hi to him, but I didn't really realise he was anything special until I was probably 7 or so. I told my friends I was going to be missing school for a week because I was going with my dad to the Uk for the British Open. It wasn't the first time I'd missed school, but I was finally at that age where it actually mattered if I missed school. Nothing really changed since none of my friends cared about golf. I never even learned to play golf so I stopped spending time at golf courses and it was easy to forget he was anything different.
Image credits: ShayBriar
#11
My Nana was an actress on a popular British TV soap and a few films in the 70's, and my Grandpa was a director/producer of a few very popular TV shows too. My Mum told me it was just normal for people to recognise her parents in the street, and she didn't really know any different, and I suppose growing up I didn't really know any different too. I sometimes see old reruns of one of the films my Nana was in so I like to watch the part with her in it. Avid fans of my Grandpa's TV show (Dr Who) who would know the old episodes always like to ask me lots of questions about him, so that's nice :).
#12
My dad is famous in the Folk Music world and every now and then people will stop him to say hi or whatever. I wouldn't call him a celebrity, but he's certainly well known in the scene.
He's had a long career and I've been aware of it forever, but it doesn't really affect me too much in general day to day life. I have had some really incredible experiences because of it though!
My favourite thing by far is reading through the comments on his Facebook page. It could be a super trivial post about shoveling snow or mowing the lawn and yet without fail, someone will comment "There's a song in that!" It's hilarious.
Edit:
To those of you guessing, he has 3 Juno awards. That should be a decently revealing hint!
Image credits: ISAPS
#13
My friend’s grandpa sculpted the statue of the Christ in Rio, Brazil! I could not believe it when she told me, but a quick search confirmed it. Apparently it’s only one of the many pieces he’s created over the years and she seemed pretty casual about it. Pretty impressive thinking your art can let people identify a city or even a country in a split second.
#14
Don't know of this counts but here goes. I've known Stephen Colbert since I was a child because my parents were his neighbors in Greenwich MA. I didn't know he was anything other than just a normal guy up until somewhere around 8 years old (give or take a couple years).
#15
Since most of these comments are by people loosely connected to famous people, I'll throw mine in. My Great-Great Uncle was Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, one of four men to hold the rank of Fleet Admiral. I'm also a descendant of Johns Hopkins, the namesake of the famous school.
#16
Not my parent, but my great uncle (kind of). He’s been dating my great aunt for nearly 40 years. He was the lead guitarist for Blondie. It didn’t seem like anything big to me until he got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That’s pretty sweet. I don’t see him much, but I’ve gotten to chill with him a couple of times.
Edit: It’s Frank Infante - not Chris Stein. Just for clarification.
Image credits: Captain_Crux
#17
My best friend's step cousin (step great cousin?) is Tim Curry. He's the reason she has a fear of clowns.
#18
My great grandfathers cousin was patsy cline... no one knows, no one cares, doesn’t change how I live my life, but it’s not often I get to bring it up :).
#19
My cousin is a professional tennis player and it's very interesting to see his athletic persona compared to his real day to day traits.
He almost never talks about tennis outside of matches and training, and he's an amazing nice guy but when you see him playing, he goes into a zone and looks completely intimidating. Very cool switch to watch.
#20
Not an actor, but I'm a TV News Helicopter Reporter. My kids cringe every time they see me on air.
I recently did a career day at their high school and the broadcast journalism class had me do a cheesy plug/commercial for their student-run morning announcements, so now my kids get to see me every morning.
I know they are probably mortified every time they see it, but it makes me happy knowing that I get to say 'Good Morning!' to them every day at school.
#21
We were at a restaurant when I was a kid and we noticed this family pointing and whispering. Finally, the little boy comes up with a paper and pen and asks for my Dad’s autograph. He was so nervous and could barely even get the words out. My brother and I looked at each other kind of weird and giggled. That was the first time I realized my parents weren’t bullshitting us.
We used to get weird phone calls, too, so we finally switched to an unlisted number. It was fans trying to see if it was really, actually my dad’s house.
My dad’s only locally famous for football but, in the south, that’s no small thing. He’s been inducted into 4 different halls of fame but, outside of our state and his home state, he isn’t known.
The only real way it affected me is, when I was in high school or college, I got a lot of, “You have to behave. You can’t get in trouble. Everyone knows your last name. You don’t have the luxury of making stupid, young mistakes. Everyone will know about it.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Oh, and I swear I had guys ask me out simply because of who my dad was. It was always really clear very quickly if they were more interested in him than me.
#22
I have an Uncle, who I knew was important as he was in charge of the Manned Space Center in Houston, I had no idea how important until a few years ago when my sister looked him up and discovered that the ISS would not exist without him. He is known as the most important person in spaceflight, who you never heard of.
#23
Not a parent, but Joe Pesci is my cousin. It’s pretty cool because they come back home from filming and live their normal lives with family, then you see them on tv in some hit movie. I guess it’s a little different being it’s not a parent, but I’d say it’s definitely cool, also pretty weird some people go crazy over him. Still.
#24
A friend of mine is an actor, he mostly does commercials and small movies.
He did a spaghetti sauce commercial where the family was sitting down to dinner, and when his actual ~6 year old son saw it on TV he said “Who’s that woman? That’s not Mom.” He had to explain “that’s my TV wife.” That was about 8 years ago, they still joke about his TV family now and again.
#25
Slightly parallel than your question but my home and property has been used for a few tiny straight to TV films and a handful of photo shoots for magazines and such. My children have frequently played around in the yard with models’ and actors’ children. They always find it bizarre when their “friends that jumped on our trampoline and played with our chickens” end up on TV or in paparazzi shots in magazines.
The weirdest part for me is to see Victoria’s Secret models all dressed up for a clothing campaign standing in a certain spot in my yard that we would frequently use as our “bathroom” when the house was being restored and we were without plumbing and electricity. I have signed copies of those images hanging in my bathroom now as the best little inside joke.
#26
My paternal grandmother was an actress. She was in a few Little Rascals shorts and a few movies, and also did lots of radio voice acting. I never got to meet her because she passed away from cancer when my dad was 20. I would’ve loved to, especially because Dad says we’re very similar. He says we have the same singing voice. She was also very into fashion and shoes like me and we would’ve worn the same shoe size. I feel very lucky that some of her movie clips are on YouTube. Watching her act makes me feel close to her, even though I never got to have her in my life.
#27
My grandpa is a local news reporter. He's well know in my state. The first time I learned about him me and my parents were watching the news and my mom told me that was my grandpa. Didn't really affect me then and doesn't really affect me now, except for the occasional hello from complete strangers when I'm out with him. But there was one time when he took me to his job when I was really young and I ran on the set while the weather man was on. I had to announce that it would be snowing(which never happens here) and to give candy to my neighborhood. I was also really confused because the weatherman was pointing at nothing except a green screen which I didn't know how it worked. I realize that had nothing to do with my grandpa but i'm gonna keep it in anyway.
Image credits: anon
#28
Clancy Brown is my uncle, it’s nice to remember me as a ten year old taunting him to do the Mr. Krabs voice, I would always tell kids at school that ‘Mr. Krabs is my uncle’ and they would never believe me. He would always hate the attention but I knew inside he really liked it, he also disliked me talking to the other kids at school about him being Mr. Krabs, but over the years I’ve learned to get used to it, Yes, A very successful actor is my uncle but Yes, he also has a family. And if you are wondering, the SpongeBob move is in progress and the series won’t be ending soon.
Image credits: anon
#29
My mother was a actress and I remember sitting in school one day watching one of those movies they made you watch in class. Anyway I was sitting there, half asleep and I heard my mother's voice. Must have jumped 10 feet in the air, completely freaked me out. I looked around, thinking she was in the classroom, and then I looked up at the screen and there she was. I remember trying to tell the teacher that, that was my mother and I got the "there, there dear, of course it is. We all want our parents to be movie stars." I'm like, no really it's my mother...no one believed me and when the credit rolled, she of course had used her stage name.
#30
To be honest, I never realised my father was famous until I came to Reddit and mentioned that he had invented peanut butter and Graham cracker sandwiches.
Image credits: TentativeGosling
#31
Not celebrity status but my father was very influential in the community. I chose the same career and have always just been called by my last name because that's all I am to most people. It's honestly annoying cause I'm not near as good at the job and don't plan on ever getting to that level. Worst part was I failed a substance test and was denied a job, somebody in that office broke confidentiality laws and called him that day to give him the news. Got a call from my dad scolding me before the clinic even got back to me with the official news. Ended up leaving the country to work because I was tired of living in his shadow. Can't imagine how stressful that life can be for real celebrities where a simple move can't alleviate the issue.
Image credits: seinfeld11
#32
My mom's in some really random stuff, and has been for a while. She has her own page on a star trek wiki, she's been in backgrounds of movies like Hangover, and other times she's just a prop for "mean old Asian lady." The weirdest was seeing her on TV at the MTV Awards as Will Ferrell's Asian wife (????). It's almost always really weird.
#33
My husband is an athlete and it is always so funny to see this super intense guy on tv, versus the dad of our kids at home who is rolling around on the carpet being a rolly polly with our son or playing barbies with our daughter. It was jarring at first, and now I don't even watch his games any more because ain't no one got time for that. Just have the wine open when he gets home!
#34
My dad hands Richard Dreyfuss a bag of bagels during the opening scene of 'The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.'
I still get excited for that little scene. My dad is a part of Montreal history.
Edit: I should note that while not an actor, I do appear on television regularly and am kinda blase about the whole thing. But my parents still text me after each TV appearance to say I looked handsome/did a good job.
#35
My mom was on "days of our lives" for 16 years, I never even told my friends.
#36
I'm directly related to John Proctor, of the witch trials.
A witchcraft store once gave me a free candle for it.
#37
I know the granddaughter of an American political figure you have probably all heard of. She said that she spends some time with her grandparent, but it is very constrained by the grandparent's job. Also she said that her sister would not write about her relationship to the grandparent to get into college or anything because she did not want an unfair advantage. My friend said that she herself had no such qualms.
#38
My mom was one of the 2 final torch bearers and lit the cauldron in the 1976 Montreal olympics. It was fascinating for me and my friends from grades 1-4 but then kinda died down.
Lately my brother has been coming home with his drunk friends and they get absolutely amazed at the shrine we have at the top of our staircase which includes one of the torches used.
#39
Not me, but I worked with Neil Young’s son. When he first told me that I didn’t believe him. Then I looked him up and he looks exactly like his dad. He never really talked about his dad. I guess his dad wanted him to live a normal life which explained why he had worked at a retail store.
#40
My old boss was the former US Olympic Head Cycling mechanic. I’m like a son to him because he has no kids, but I worked for him for about 10 years. It has affected me in all positive ways. I got to know famous cyclists. I have worked on Jeremy Powers’ bike and have ridden with him a few times. I touched Tom Danielson’s bike, I’ve ridden with Greg LeMond and worked on his bike. I’ve worked on Kent Bostick’s bike as well. I know J.P. Weigle personally. I also know many industry people which has gotten me a lot of perks and products below wholesale cost. I know a lot of those names are meaningless to the majority of people so take that as you will.
I think the best part though is knowing how to work on bikes because I was taught by him.
#41
It's pretty normal to me. I couldn't imagine what it's like to have parents with a regular 9-5 either.
Growing up, tons of people would ask me "What's it like having actors as parents?" and I'd always counter with "What's it like having as parents?"
If you've been seeing your parents on TV for as long as you can remember and that's all you've ever known, it's really hard to think anything of it. It's their job, y'know? And sometimes it's annoying when they get stopped in malls for selfies, but again, it's the job, and if it's been happening since you were born then you don't really think about it anymore.
Sometimes they have the odd violent scene or s*x scene and that can be a little weird sometimes, but way less weird for us in particular then it seems to be for people around us (i.e. my friends are way more weirded out seeing my dad shoot a dude in the face on the big screen than I am, cause I grew up around that).
EDIT: I live in a tiny country that's not in the USA/Europe, so you probably haven't heard of them but if I told you who they were it would still be pretty easy to find me.
#42
Jason Ralph (Quinten from The Magicians) was in my close group of friends from high school. I have some thoroughly embarrassing pictures of him stashed away. Not that he would care, he’s pretty chill.
I can’t watch anything with him in it. I just see “Jason, doing his acting voice.” It’s impossible to ignore if you know him.
He’s super nice though. His Mom and my Mom hang out sometimes.
#43
My dad is a journalist making documentaries, its pretty cool.
#44
Obligatory not an actor but I had a kick out of Chris Pratt's kids or something, it might have been another one of the avengers. Basically they were out trick or treating and the kids were like "Look it's Starlord!"
Pratt was like "But I'm actually starlord :(".
#45
My step brother does acting in what I call C movies, because they're not even B movies as far as I am concerned.
I can't watch them because they're not good movies, not well written, acted or shot.
I'm happy for him that he's pursuing his passion and getting paid(not well but paid is paid) for it. It makes him happy and he feels it is his purpose.
#46
Obligatory not my parents but...
My child hood babysitter left our small town and headed to Hollywood. She never really hit it big, but did some rolls on big TV shows, did a few commercials, and a few B movies with actors past their prime.
It was always pretty cool following her career and going out of our way to watch bad movies she made it on. Plus she had some great stories of which actors were nice and which were jerks.
Weirdest story was she was a murder victim on Criminal minds. In the episode the killer made her call her family and leave a message before he killed them, so her mom watched the episode and the voice recording messed with her pretty bad. Hearing your daughter say goodbye and beg for help is pretty messed up.
#47
My uncle is a super famous basketball player. He was fierce on the court but outside of his playing he was a well grounded individual who just loved the sport and not the fame that came with it. He does do a lot still for his community to this day and is on tv still a lot for highlights! So I think it’s cool but he honestly doesn’t get a kick out it. He lived it doesn’t have to watch it and brag again lol
Edit;
TV for highlights not a job as a sports caster.
#48
I would stop short of calling my father famous, but he did play in the NHL when I was growing up. I remember thinking it was another job just like all my friends fathers had. His career had ended and we moved back to our small hometown while I was still pretty young, like maybe grade 1 or 2. I played hockey myself and would regularly read hockey related books. One day while looking at a hockey book in the school library, I saw a picture of my father. I took the book and thinking it was pretty neat showed it to my teacher. Well she absolutely did not believe that it was my father, and I remember being so confused as to why the teacher would think that I would lie about something like that? She told me to take the book home and show it to my dad and let her know what he said. I did just that, my father confirmed it was him and I took the book back and told the teacher the next day. She was so excited that she showed the picture to the whole class and explained that it was my father, and that was the exact moment where I clued in that my what my Dad had been doing for a living was pretty unique.
