Listicle: 10 celeb kids who’ve found fame away from their parents

The adopted son of British actors Greg Wise and Emma Thompson was a refugee from Rwanda. He lost his biological father to AIDS when he was just nine. Today, he has two degrees, including a Masters in Human Rights Law, speaks eight languages and works with the Metropolitan Police, helping refugees just like him. A true hero.

Wilson and her twin brother Griffin were born to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s first wife, author Justine Musk. His transgender daughter has revealed, publicly, that Musk was an absentee father, who was cruel to her when she was a child simply because she was queer and feminine. While she’s largely stayed out of the public eye, Wilson, in 2022, sought court approval in California to change her name and then denounced her father. Good for her.

Granddaughter of actor Amitabh Bachchan, daughter of businessman Nikhil Nanda. She chose business over Bollywood, founding Project Naveli a non-profit for gender equality, and is pursuing a blended post graduate programme (BPGP) MBA at IIM Ahmedabad. Here’s how a professor silenced the trolls: “India has been debating why elite families move out of India for higher education… One lady makes it to IIMA for an online MBA & everyone is worked up.”

Son of actor Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen (though gossip, and blue eyes suggest he might be Frank Sinatra’s son). Farrow cut ties with Allen years ago and, as an investigative reporter, helped break the story about Harvey Weinstein’s history of sex abuse. He read law at Yale, has a Pol-Sci DPhil from Oxford, worked with Obama and Hillary Clinton, and wrote a book about how America’s military aid births its own enemies. Basically, Sharmaji ka beta.

Full name: Tanner Elle Schneider. Occupation: Singer. Dad: Rob Schneider, that guy in every Adam Sandler movie. On a podcast in August, King said that growing up, Schneider had been incredibly harsh about her weight, he’d make her wear sweaters in the heat because he didn’t like her tattoos, and he sent her to fat camp. She went four or five years without speaking to her father. No wonder she’s not a fan.

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has a son and a daughter, Charles and Bee. Neither work in fashion. Bee is a TV producer, Charles, like his father David, is a psychiatrist. Although we occasionally see him sitting courtside at Wimbledon with his famous mum, Charles stays incredibly low-key. But he is always impeccably dressed, better than most shrinks.

Yes, that Disney. Walt’s grand-niece. But instead of being part of the Disney machine, the documentary producer and philanthropist is part of Patriotic Millionaires, a group that supports hiking taxes for the rich. In April 2019, through several tweets, she criticised Disney CEO Bob Iger’s salary. She also wrote a fiery Op-Ed in The Washington Post, calling for pay equity reform. And she has a Ted Talk criticising working conditions at Disneyland. What a hero.

Bill Gates’s eldest daughter is a paediatrician who stays so far off-grid, she has no Wikipedia page. Nassar attended Stanford and Columbia and in the rare interviews she’s given, she’s been open about her privilege. “I think it’s about using those opportunities and learning from them to find things that I’m passionate about and hopefully make the world a little bit of a better place.” Good answer!

Dad Gordon is famous for his outbursts on TV. Megan, the oldest, is his most reclusive child. She was the first family member to receive a college degree back in 2019. She studied psychology and is now a police officer. Megan’s brother, Jack, is in the Royal Marines.

Robert De Niro’s son has had bit parts in some films (Love Streams, Raging Bull) but makes a living as a high-end real-estate broker. He worked many jobs while he was growing up in New York, including being a doorman, a production assistant on movie sets for his father, and a busboy at his father’s restaurant, Nobu. But selling homes makes good money.