‘Nepo Baby’ Was Just the Start: Inside the Expanding Nepo Universe

Are all nepo babies really created equal? Should Timothée Chalamet, whose uncle Rodman Flender directed Leprechaun 2, appear on nepo baby listicles that include stars with actually famous family, such as Lily-Rose Depp, Hailey (Baldwin) Bieber, or Sofia Coppola?

Outing supposed nepo babies is one of social media’s favourite parlour games, and it only grew more popular after becoming the subject of a 2022 New York magazine cover. Dynasties have existed since the dawn of the star system, but younger generations are more willing to count an Oscar-winning father or supermodel mother as a strike against an up-and-comer.

Sometimes, there are debates over the title’s true definition, as we see with Chalamet or Billie Eilish, whose mom is a television actor and indie screenwriter. But there is a certain category of nepo baby we can all agree on: the double nepo.

The double nepo baby

Also known as the full nepo, these kids are progeny of not one but two (and sometimes more) incredibly connected humans.

Take Brooklyn Beckham, son of Posh and Becks, known for his out-of-focus elephant portraits and being a professional Instagram husband to fellow nepo baby Nicola Peltz, daughter of a billionaire investor. Or the Oppenheimer actor Jack Quaid, the product of Dennis and Meg Ryan’s nine-year marriage. Or Dakota Johnson, known for her work calling out Ellen DeGeneres over a birthday-party feud — she’s not just the daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, but also Tippi Hedren’s granddaughter. Liv Tyler has a famous mom in Bebe Buell, a famous dad in Steven Tyler, and a famous father figure in Todd Rundgren.

There’s also Maya Hawke (Ethan and Uma Thurman), Zoë Kravitz (Lenny and Lisa Bonet), Maude Apatow (Judd and Leslie Mann), Willow and Jaden Smith (Will and Jada Pinkett Smith), and Deacon Reese Phillippe (Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe). The latter recently showed off his opulent “college apartment” during a TikTok house tour. “How much do you pay for rent in New York?” the host asked, to which Philippe replied: “West Village prices, man.” For some viewers, that could be translated as: “Dunno, ask Mom and Dad.”

These kids earn the most online scorn simply because they had the best chances of success. Sure, many of them are talented. Angelina Jolie has two famous parents and an Oscar. But should double nepos mess up, as Drew Barrymore did when crossing the picket line to film her talkshow during the writer’s strike, this is the first thing armchair critics point to.

The more self-aware nepo baby might cop to their privilege. Sean Astin, Allison Williams and Jamie Lee Curtis come to mind, as does Susan Sarandon’s brood, all of whom have their own IMDb pages. Her eldest son with Tim Robbins, Jack, leaned onhis famous folks with a little wink-wink when he made a satirical “day in the life of a nepo baby” Instagram video. (Sample joke: “I live in the coolest and most up-and-coming neighbourhood in New York City, the Upper East Side.”)

Miles, Sarandon’s other son with Robbins, recently posted on X thanking fans for supporting his mother, who was dropped by her talent agency after speaking at a pro-Palestine rally. He had one request, though: “I’m really grateful to see people on Twitter defending my mom amidst a new era of McCarthyist blacklisting but can you PLEASE stop using the clip of her getting her hair done with her honkers out,” he wrote. Sarandon’s daughter, Eva Amurri (another double nepo, as her father is the Italian film director Franco Amurri), makes no attempt to hide her connections, saying that she grew up alongside other celebrity kids, celebrating birthdays and holidays together.

But some full nepos, for all that networking, surprisingly lack savvy publicists who advise them to embrace their privilege. Instead, they deny their nepo status.

The extended nepo family

Gwyneth Paltrow, a double nepo baby herself and mother to two of them, called the ‘nepo baby’ term “an ugly moniker.” She might not like to know, then, that there are nepo baby-adjacent figures — such as the nepo boyfriend, a man who rides on his more celebrated partner’s coattails. Jake Bongiovi happens to be one, as he booked film roles after meeting his now fiancee, Millie Bobby Brown. (The fact that he is also Jon Bon Jovi’s son probably helped, too.) Ditto for Travis Kelce, though football fans who knew of the tight end before he hooked up with Taylor Swift might disagree. After news of their courtship broke, the NFL player enjoyed a flurry of attention, shooting him from a mere sports figure to internationally known arm candy.

Then there are nepo friends, formerly known as an entourage. These folks are more likely to earn social media followings than real work, though as Time reported in a piece on the phenomenon, Kylie Jenner’s longtime bestie Anastasia “Stassie” Karanikolaou recently launched a line of vodka. YouTubers like Tana Mongeau and MrBeast have also catapulted their friends (Imari Stuart and Kris Tyson, respectively) to influencer status.

Though the traditional beneficiaries of nepotism are offspring, there are nepo parents, too. The TikToker Charli D’Amelio gave her parents the gift of social media superstardom: Heidi and Marc D’Amelio starred in a Hulu docuseries about their lives. It could be argued that Kris Jenner, matriarch of the Kardashian clan, became a nepo parent after Kim broke through reality TV fame to become one of the most famous faces of our time. Though, of course, Kim and her sisters would never have gotten to capitalize on their fifteen minutes of fame if their mom-ager hadn’t set it up first for them.

And, as the Dallas Observer delightfully noted in a story on nepo parents, Rob Reiner brilliantly cast his own mother in the infamous When Harry Met Sally deli orgasm scene. Sometimes raw talent transcends nepotism — who else but Estelle could have delivered “I’ll have what she’s having” that memorably?

However, if you didn’t win the Hollywood lineage lottery or befriend the right people, consider this: you may be a double nepo without knowing it. On TikTok, regular people share how their parents’ unglamorous gigs come in handy. “I’m a double nepotism baby in the best way (i can’t get jury dutybc my dad was a cop & my mom was in prison),” one user wrote in a video.

Or, as another put it: “Both my parents were engineers so I’m fairly certain I could probs instinctively drive a train or whatever it is they did if I wanted to.” As the saying goes, you’ve got to network to get work.  

Published in The Guardian on December 23, 2023. Reprinted with permission.