“He won’t tell anybody on the crew his full name because he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s related to me.”
There’s no one who knows you better than your family — so when celebrities need to hire someone, it’s not surprising that they often turn to their parents or siblings. Hollywood can be full of social climbers and fake friends so it makes sense that they’d want their team to be only people they truly trust. From job building sets on concert tours to working as a music supervisor, these celebrity relatives have all been put on the payroll by their famous family members.
Find out which celebrities hired their family members…
1. Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish’s parents have been incredibly supportive of her career and she enjoys bringing them on the road with her. While she has always invited her parents just to have them around, she says her dad has picked up a job as a carpenter, working on building the stage Billie performs on every night.
“Our dad wants to be useful so bad which I respect and love. He does set carpentry on our tour. When we started he was helping drive the van and carrying amps into the venues and stuff and now he’s one of the set carpenters. He builds the stage everyday,” Billie’s brother Finneas said on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Billie added, “Literally he builds little staircases and stuff and sweeps the floor…He gets there at 3 a.m. They load in all night long until 11 a.m. Then, they have a couple hours off, he goes back at 6 p.m., does the changeover. It’s crazy. He won’t tell anybody on the crew his full name because he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s related to me.”
2. Angelina Jolie
While working on the Broadway production of her musical The Outsiders, Angelina Jolie hired her teenage daughter Vivienne to be her assistant. Angelina explained that Vivienne is a huge theater fan, which caused her to take the job very seriously.
“She’ll correct me. She’ll say, ‘Didn’t you read the memo? We have to do this, we have to go through this,’” Angelina told People. “She’s been a really tough assistant. She takes it very, very seriously.”
3. Rachel McAdams
When it comes to makeup for premieres and events, Rachel McAdams often turns to her makeup artist sister Kayleen. She even hired Kayleen to work for her on the set of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Reflecting on the experience, Kayleen said it was very rewarding to work alongside her sister.
“We both packed up our families and our dogs and headed to Charlotte, NC to begin one of the best experiences of our lives. At times it was beyond difficult balancing motherhood, career and my own health while getting up twice a night to feed little baby Cal. But it was so rewarding and fulfilling and the time spent with my sister and all the cast and crew was incomparable,” Kayleen wrote on Instagram.
She continued, “No one took better care of me than Rachel. To work on a film about motherhood, coming of age and career choices while living all those things in real time was eye opening and perspective changing.”
4. Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s brother Austin has a background in film so she’s hired him on many occasions to help her work on movie projects. According to Billboard, Austin handles Taylor’s music licensing for multimedia and was the reason that vault track “Message in a Bottle” ended up in DC League of Super-Pets. He also produced Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions as well as Taylor’s “I Bet You Think About Me” music video.
5. Jimmy Kimmel
Since Jimmy Kimmel took on late night hosting duties, he’s made it a family affair. Back in 2013, he revealed that his cousin was a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live and his brother served as a director. On top of that, his childhood BFF was in the house band. His first family hire though was his late uncle Frank, a retired New York City cop who often appeared on camera.
“The first person that I brought on the air was my Uncle Frank,” Jimmy told NPR. “He was living in New York, and the only reason that he moved out to take the job on the show was…he was worried about transferring his checking account. He had a specific bank at which he had a checking account, and he found out there was one branch of the bank in L.A. So he rented an apartment right near that bank, and that’s what made it OK to come out.”
6. Katherine Heigl
Katherine Heigl’s mother Nancy has been a big part of career and her partner in many of her endeavors. In addition to managing her career, Nancy helped Katherine co-found her production company Abishag Productions. Since then, she’s produced several of Katherine’s projects including 27 Dresses and Life As We Know It.
“We have a partnership, we work in the business together. It just seemed like a progressive thing,” Nancy said during an NBC summer press tour in 2014. “I am her mother for sure, so of course I care about her interests, but I’m just learning about executive producing.”
Katherine also co-founded the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation with her mother in an effort to end animal cruelty and abuse.
7. Pink
Pink’s daughter Willow may only be 13 but she wanted a role on her mom’s tour. So when Pink hit the road in 2023, Willow tagged along to get some work experience. While Pink didn’t specify what Willow would be doing, she said she was taking the whole thing seriously.
“Willow has a job on tour. We just had to go over minimum wage, and it’s different state to state,” Pink told the Today show. “I said it’s about $22.50 a show depending how long I go, if I run over. She goes, ‘I’ll take $20. It’s easier to do the math.’ I’m like ‘That’s not how you negotiate for yourself.’ I’m like, ‘You’ll take $25, so it’s easier math.”
8. Patrick Dempsey
When Patrick Dempsey first met his wife Jillian, she was actually working as his hair stylist. The pair were friends for quite some time while Jillian worked for him before their relationship turned romantic. After tying the knot in 1999, Jillian has continued to take care of Patrick’s coif. Last year, Jillian even shared a behind the scenes video getting Patrick ready for the Ferrari premiere — and he’s still impressed by her work after all these years.
“Wow, it’s amazing what a little patch and paint can do,” Patrick said in the video. “Fantastic!”
9. Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel has worked with his sister Samantha since the early 2000s. After he founded his production company One Race Films, he hired Samantha to be the company’s president in 2001. Since then, Samantha has helped produce numerous films in the Fast & Furious franchise as well as flicks like The Last Witch Hunter and Riddick.
“You @vindiesel have lead us time and time again to places we never could have imagined, with a relentless work ethic, an unmatched passion for storytelling and all while keeping your heart open and accepting. I am so very proud and incredibly grateful to be a part of this epic journey,” Samantha wrote on Instagram in 2023.
10. Oscar Isaac
When Oscar Isaac landed his role in Moon Knight, he immediately hired his brother Michael Benjamin Hernandez to work for him. In the film, Oscar portrays a character with dual personalities who would often speak to one another through mirrors and reflective surfaces. He thought it would be a good idea to rehearse with Michael so that he would have someone to interact with.
“The first step was to hire my brother,” Oscar said, explaining that his brother would “come in and be the other me.” He added, “It was the closest thing to me there is on Earth. So, he came in and he would play either Steven or Marc and even did the accent and everything — both accents — and so that was really helpful to have someone that’s not only a great actor but also shares my DNA to play off of.”
11. Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp has worked with his sister Christi for the majority of his career. Beginning in 1994, she took on a role as his personal assistant on the set of movies like Sleepy Hollow and Pirates of the Caribbean, per her IMDb. Then as time went on, she took on a larger role on his team and helped Johnny found his production company Infinitum Nihil. She currently serves as president of the company and has produced films including The Rum Diary and City of Lies.
Meanwhile, Johnny has also worked with his brother Daniel. They founded the production company Scaramanga Bros, which Daniel says mostly involved listening “to writers pitch scripts that we liked but had to reject for one tedious economic reason or another.” Eventually, the brothers turned their focus to writing and Daniel helped revise Johnny’s script for The Brave.