Gracie Abrams Acknowledges She's a Nepo Baby: Other Celebrities Who Have Also Openly Acknowledged Their Privilege

Gracie Abrams has opened up about being labelled a 'nepo baby.' The singer, who is set to release her third album, Daughter From Hell, on 17 July, recently addressed the ongoing 'nepo baby' discourse, saying she recognises the advantages she had growing up.

Abrams is the daughter of writer and director J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath, chief executive of Bad Robot Productions.

'The nepo stuff is obviously in the discourse appropriately. I think about the privilege there, and it's like, I had a safety net, and that allowed me the ability to experiment and to concentrate, and I had the gift of time to dedicate to doing this thing I loved,' the singer told The New York Times' Popcast.

'I wasn't growing up afraid financially, and that's the biggest deal,' she added. 'The specific household that I was born into, there is just this vocabulary that I'm so lucky to grow up with. So like, when I see people pointing that out, it's like, I get it, hard-core. The jokes and things, I understand the tone of the internet.'

Her comments earned praise from many fans online. Abrams joins a growing list of celebrities who have openly acknowledged the privileges that came with their family backgrounds.

Jack Quaid

Jack Quaid is the son of actors Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. He is best known for his role as Hughie Campbell in The Boys.

In 2024, Quaid reflected on his success in the entertainment industry, saying he was 'inclined to agree' that he is a 'nepo baby.'

'People have called me a "nepo baby." I'm inclined to agree. I am an immensely privileged person, was able to get representation pretty early on, and that's more than half the battle. I knew the door was open for me in a lot of ways that it's just not for a lot of actors, and I've just tried to work as hard as I possibly can to prove that I deserve to walk through that door,' the actor told The Daily Beast.

Maya Hawke

Maya Hawke, the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, has also said she is comfortable being called a 'nepo baby.'

In 2024, the Stranger Things actress admitted that she believed her family connections influenced her casting in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

'I've been wildly made fun of for this clip when I said, on the red carpet, that I auditioned. I never meant to imply that I didn't get the part for nepotistic reasons — I think I totally did,' she told the Times of London. '"Deserves" is a complicated word...there are so many people who deserve to have this kind of life who don't, but I think I'm comfortable with not deserving it and doing it anyway,' Hawke added.

Hailey Bieber

Hailey Bieber is the daughter of Stephen Baldwin and the niece of Alec Baldwin. In 2023, the model made headlines for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words 'nepo baby.'

'That was me being, like, "I'm very aware of the situation ... I'm going to wear it loud and proud because you are already labelling me as such and it's true,"' she told The Times.

Allison Williams

Allison Williams is the daughter of former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and producer Jane Stoddard Williams. The actress, who stars in the romantic film Regretting You, said last year that her career was 'one of the first examples' of the 'nepo baby' phenomenon.

'It's 100% a phenomenon and one of the first examples is my career,' she told TODAY. She also acknowledged that being Brian Williams' daughter helped her land a role in HBO's Girls, which launched her acting career.

'There's a net that not everyone has. If you're going into a creative pursuit, knowing that there's only so far you can fall, is a fundamentally different pursuit than it is if you are leaving your hometown with nothing except your aspirations,' the actress said.