Battle of the Nepo Babies: Who'll Make It and Who Won't in Hollywood

The 18-year-old offspring of actress Brooke Shields and director Chris Henchy is already making waves as a model since teaming with her mom for the Victoria’s Secret 2022 campaign. She has since landed gigs with Jones Road Beauty and Tommy Hilfiger. But Brooke barked she tried to talk Grier Henchy out of modeling!

“If you’re gonna do this, I’m not gonna be your manager,” she warned Grier, and the Pretty Baby star also insisted her daughter attend college.

“Everybody knows the problems Brooke faced as a child actress and model, and she wants to protect Grier from that,” said top publicist Tommy Garrett. “But Grier truly is a classic beauty — and her mom can guide her past the pitfalls!”

The 21-year-old son of soccer great David Beckham and Posh Spice pop star Victoria will have a hard time trying to bend it like pop as a pro soccer player — but luckily, he’s getting a nepo baby boost!

Romeo Beckham played on the junior team for Inter Miami, a major league team his father co-owns, before moving on to the B team of Brentford F.C. in the English Premier League.

“Romeo is always going to have to live in his father’s shadow,” said Tommy. “But he seems willing to put in the hard work, and he’s okay with being his own man. You have to credit his parents for having a good head on his shoulders — but he obviously isn’t going to reach his father’s heights in the sport!”

Unlike many nepo babies, industry insiders say the 18-year-old daughter of Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and director Jordyn Blum has the talent to match her famous last name. The then 12-year-old wowed the audience at a benefit in 2018, when they covered Adele’s "When We Were Young."

Dave dished, “I remember her saying, ‘Dad, you’re not even the best singer in the family.’ And she’s right!”

Since then, the two have recorded a duet and Violet [Grohl] joined the Foo Fighters onstage.

“Although she seems to have a shy and unassuming look, when Violet opens her mouth to sing, she is a powerhouse!” celebrity author Mark Bego said. “Beyond having a famous pop, you can see she’s destined for big things.”

When your parents are the biggest publicity w------ in Hollywood, you’re bound to follow in their spotlit path. For North West, 11, it started with her baptism in Jerusalem, which was covered by the international press. Her music career kicked off when she was just 18 months, when she appeared in her dad’s "Only One" music video.

Last February, she stepped things up, rapping on his track "Talking / Once Again." Then she made her stage debut as Simba in The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl in May. She’s also appeared on multiple episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians with her mom. But this nepo baby doesn’t totally rely on her famous parents.

She also has a lemonade stand, where her mom claims she charges customers up to $20 a glass.

The 18-year-old son of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and actress Gwyneth Paltrow has music in his blood. Moses Martin joined his father on stage to sing with his band and received a vocal credit on a Coldplay album. But for the moment he seems more interested in pursuing an Ivy League education — he’s heading to Brown University in the fall!

“Moses is a big music fan and has some leanings toward expressing himself through music, but it’s just experimenting, not something he takes very seriously,” Tommy said. “Of course, his famous mother and father could give him a hand up if he really wanted to pursue a musical career, but he just doesn’t seem that into the entertainment business.”

The 20-year-old daughter of supermodel Heidi Klum and businessman Flavio Briatore — who was adopted by pop superstar Seal after he married Heidi in 2005 — is following her mom down the catwalk.

But Leni Klum openly acknowledges her advantages. “It’s just a fact. My parents are famous. I did get help starting off, and I know that people would dream to start off with what I had," she said.

But the levelheaded beauty is also attending college, studying interior design.

“Leni grew up loving what her mom did for a living, so it’s natural she would want to pursue that,” Tommy said. “It’s doubtful she’s ever going to be as big as her mother in the modeling world, but to her credit, she seems OK with that.”

Tragedy has tempered the privileged life of Ella Bleu Travolta, who’s endured the heartbreaking deaths of her mom, Kelly Preston, and big brother Jett, and she’s still trying to find her foothold in Hollywood.

John Travolta’s 24-year-old daughter has dabbled in many entertainment fields, from writing and recording her own music to doing runway modeling. But so far her career as an actress has yet to grow wings after she made two movies with her famous dad and appeared in the little-seen fantasy film Get Lost.

“Ella is gorgeous, and she can act,” praised Tommy. “But her father was a megastar, and it’s hard to see her as the next Travolta to scale those heights.”

Blonde beauty Grace Van Dien, the 27-year-old star of Greenhouse Academy, The Village and Stranger Things, is a bona fide nepo baby as the kid of Starship Troopers hero Casper Van Dien and The Bold and the Beautiful’s Carrie Mitchum, who’s the grandkid of macho movie legend Robert Mitchum.

As a child, Grace appeared on the Lifetime reality show I Married a Princess with her dad and now ex-stepmother Catherine Oxenberg, the Dynasty alum who is descended from Serbian royalty.

Now an avid gamer, Grace has more than 300,000 followers on Twitch!

“Grace just oozes personality, and you got to believe the best is yet to come for her,” Tommy said. “She’s going to be a bigger star than her father ever was!”

She’s got dad Brad Pitt’s eyes and mom Angelina Jolie’s lips — but she’s following the lead of older sister Zahara by petitioning on her 18th birthday in May to have her “Jolie-Pitt” last name chopped down to “Jolie!”

While she’s on the outs with Brad, Shiloh Jolie is depending on Angelina to burnish her burgeoning career as a dancer, and it seems to be working as fans and dance pros applaud her moves.

“Yes, she’s a nepo baby,” said Tinseltown publicist Tommy, “but she seems to have a strong work ethic. Angie had encouraged her to go into acting, but it’s dancing that’s her muse — and she’s working hard at it.”

Rocker Jack White and his ex-wife, model/singer Karen Elson, handed down the music bug to their 18-year-old daughter, a budding musician in her own right — strapping on the bass to record on Papa Jack’s records and joining him onstage.

But although she has won acclaim for her musical chops, Scarlett White is also known for being shy and reserved!

“Music is obviously in Scarlett’s DNA, but her own father says she is not someone who craves the spotlight,” said Mark. “She seems to be aiming her sights on playing bass, so you’ll probably see her down the line playing in a really cool band rather than becoming a solo artist.”

Kingston Rossdale, the 18-year-old son of Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, and the stepson of Blake Shelton, had his musical coming-out party when he performed at Ole Red in Oklahoma last year.

As he enters adulthood, there’s little doubt that he will continue to follow the family tradition!

“With a daddy who is a grunge rocker, a mama who is a pop princess, and a stepdad who is a country star, Kingston has no shortage of musical mentors,” said Mark. “He’s already shown he has talent, but I guess the biggest question is what lane will he choose for his own music?”

Rock icon Bono and wife Ali Hewson raised their daughter to earn her own way in life, and they actively discouraged the 33-year-old beauty from becoming an actress!

“Both of my parents were against it,” said Eve Hewson, who has appeared in several small films but found her niche with TV work, including starring roles in the acclaimed miniseries The Luminaries and Netflix’s Behind Her Eyes.

“Eve’s dad is one of the richest rock stars in the world, but she has shown an amazing work ethic and carved out an acting career for herself,” noted Mark. “Bono never made so much as a phone call on her behalf to get ahead in the acting world. Many people don’t even know she’s Bono’s daughter!”

Suri Cruise, the daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, 18, sang on the soundtrack of her mom’s 2022 movie, Alone Together, and acted in school plays. But she clearly doesn’t want to rely on her famous father’s last name for her big break. In fact, in the playbill of her most recent high-school show, she ditched “Cruise” and was credited as just “Suri Noelle.”

Although she’s college-bound in the fall to study fashion, if she does decide to pursue acting, her dad may cast a long shadow over her career, said Tommy.

“The spotlight will shine on her and she’s going to be asked a lot of questions about her father, with whom she’s had no relationship since she was a little girl,” he said. “That’s a lot to take on.”

The sassy 17-year-old, daughter of director Sofia Coppola and Phoenix singer Thomas Mars, and grandkid of Godfather mastermind Francis Ford Coppola, blew up the internet last year with a bratty TikTok video.

In the clip, Romy Mars whined about being grounded for using her dad’s credit card to try to charter a helicopter for an out-of-state dinner with a pal. But her recent record debut showed she was dead serious about music!

“Romy obviously is staking out a career path influenced by her father,” noted Mark. “But it’s helpful her own mother is a nepo baby who took a lot of bull early on for riding her father’s coattails before showing she is a fine film director. Sofia can help Romy navigate those minefields!”