People Are Naming And Shaming The Most Undeserving Nepo Babies In Hollywood, And I'm Living For This Brutal Honesty

ScarletEntertainment2025-07-197330

Recently, we wrote about nepo babies who never truly "made it" — and now we're back with ones who did but *mayyyyybe* shouldn't have. Here are nepo babies people think NEVER would've been successful if they didn't have famous family members.

We used replies from the original Reddit thread, along with these three threads.

1.John David Washington (Denzel Washington's son)

Bruce Glikas / WireImage via Getty Images

"Jesus, he needs to open up. I feel like when I watch him in anything, he's only trying to look mysterious and stoic. Maybe it's the roles, but damn, he's a board."

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—u/Early_Acche'st2160

"He's not the worst, but he's just not endowed wth that charisma. He doesn't control the scene. I just remember in Tenet, watchinghis scenes he shared with Robert Pattinson (who I'd, up until that point, written off as a Twilight heartthrob) and…just wishing he was the protagonist."

—u/HiggsFieldgoal

"He has the charisma of a plank of wood but has landed the lead role in not one but two Sci-Fi epics directed by A-list filmmakers. Anytime he's on screen, it's difficult not to think how much better his dad would be in this role if only he were 30 years younger."

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—u/Crafty_Letter_1719

2.Kaia Gerber (model Cindy Crawford's daughter)

Mike Marsland / Getty Images for Omega

Suggested byu/mozzarellaguy

"As a model, Kaia is dull. She doesn't have that 'it' her mother has."

—u/yesmoreeggtalk67

"She's a beautiful woman, but she should stick to modelling. Every line feels like she's reading it off a cue card."

—u/video-kid

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3.Lily-Rose Depp (Johnny Depp's daughter)

Focus Features / courtesy Everett Collection

"Lily-Rose Depp was hack in Nosferatu, sorry to say. The most hack writing delivered in the most hack way possible. She's got great physicality in the horror and possession scenes, which I for sure respect, but she's not that natural on camera, and there's something inconsistent about her work in that movie."

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—u/sneakysnek20r

"She's pretty and all, but if her last name weren't Depp, she wouldn't be a model for Chanel. She's like 5'3", walking the catwalk with all those 6'+ models."

—[deleted]

"I tried to watch that thing she was in (The Idol), and I regretted the thirty minutes I lost in which I could have done pretty much anything else and had a better time. I'd rather have repeated both my colonoscopies than continue."

—u/Littleleicesterfoxy

"The first time I saw her, it was in The King,and her one scene was kind of the major thesis/finale of the movie, and it was just so deeply uncompelling and stiff — like, please, why didn't they get someone else? And then I looked her up, lol. ... I am genuinely not looking forward to having her just showing up in otherwise good/pretty good movies by good directors/writers and making it all worse."

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—u/crystal_beachhouse

4.Dakota Johnson (Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson's daughter)

Gabriel Kuchta / Getty Images

"Dakota Johnson. Bomb after bomb. Please stop trying to make her happen."

—u/eatpant96

"I was just thinking about the Ellen thing; that was the best thing she has done. And of course, she is beautiful. She just is so blah on film."

—u/eatpant96

"Dakota is low-key, kinda one-dimensional. Madame Web sort of proves it. It doesn't look like she's playing a character other than Dakota pretending to be an EMT who SEEES things."

—u/skateboardlee

"She should try to find a comic role that matches her strengths. She's been surprisingly capable when hosting SNL."

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—u/MaddAddamOneZ

5.Kate Hudson (actor Goldie Hawn and musician/actor Bill Hudson's daughter — also actor Kurt Russell's stepdaughter)

River Callaway/Variety via Getty Images

"Little-kid-me was confused why she was getting so many roles. My mom explained that her mom was a very famous/renowned actress (Goldie Hawn)."

—u/False_Ad3429

"I couldn't agree more. Even in her latest role in Glass Onion, she just felt flat and wrong. She's been told her whole life she's just like her mom, but she doesn't have an ounce of the charisma or spark that Goldie has."

—u/MsLippy

6.Zoë Kravitz (musician Lenny Kravitz and actor Lisa Bonet's daughter)

Marc Piasecki / WireImage via Getty Images

"Whenever I saw Zoey Kravitz chewing gum in The Batman, I thought to myself, 'Is this her idea for how to appear feisty and nobody wants to tell her no?' Stunningly beautiful, but her acting seems like she's never hard to try."

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—u/FoodFarmer

"She wasn't even bad at acting, but she stood out as almost too stereotypical for the [Catwoman] role. She acted like everything was a blueprint, and the part didn't seem unique. Rob Pattinson had a stunning performance, but hers was just the big standard 'show up and play the part.' If it were someone like Anya Taylor-Joy or Zendaya, then the part would have felt more unique/would have more depth. Zoe stood out because she played it too safe."

—[deleted]

"I absolutely hated her in theFantastic Beastsmovies. Her character is useless to the story (not her fault), but her acting makes everything that could have been good about the character suck even more."

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—u/SimonSpooner

7.O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube's son)

John Nacion / Getty Images for Fanatics

"He sounded so vanilla playing his own fucking dad."

—u/Mecos_Bill

"I just watched Den of Thieves 2: Pantera…I cannot get over Jackson's gimmicky little affect. He did it in the first movie, too. Sort of soft, observant, and mushy. And when he does an accent…Christ on a cracker, it's bad."

—u/dukecityzombie

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8.Colin Hanks (actor Tom Hanks' brother)

Tommaso Boddi / Getty Images

"Colin Hanks on Roswell. That show already had a lot of…drift due to bad acting (Liz was ostensibly the lead, but she was gradually sidelined once it became clear that Shiri Appleby really couldn't act) and somehow, Colin still stood out for being notably bad."

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—u/doesaxlhaveajack

"Colin has improved quite a lot over the ensuing decades, thankfully. He was quite good in Fargo. He's also substantially more talented than his younger brother Chet, so he can be thankful for that, too."

—u/Perfect_Razzmatazz

9.Tori Spelling (producer Aaron Spelling's daughter)

Paul Archuleta / Getty Images

"No talent, ... but got roles in her father's shows."

—u/ResidentAssignment80

"I feel kinda bad for her. She doesn't seem like a mooch…she's always working; she just can't make the coin her dad did."

—u/ShesGotaChicken2Ride

"I agree. She tries her heart out; the problem is she just never had the chops to back it up. Even when she was on The Masked Singer, they had to (very obviously) auto-tune her."

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—u/BuckeyeFoodie

10.Cara Delevingne (The Evening Standard and The Daily Express director Sir Jocelyn Stevens' granddaughter, among her other connections)

Araya Doheny / Getty Images

"I didn't know anything about her beyond her modelling career when I watched Valerian, and I was like, there is no way she got a lead role in a Luc Besson movie for her talent. She was bad. So I googled her and yeah, she comes from very wealthy family, pure British aristocracy from both paternal and maternal side, her godmother is Joan Collins, her godfather was director of Condé Nast (the media company that owns Vogue, Vanity Fair etc.) and chairperson of London Fashion Week or something, which explains Cara's modelling career as well."

—u/verca_

11.Margaret Qualley (actor Andie MacDowell's daughter)

JB Lacroix / FilmMagic via Getty Images

"Probably an unpopular opinion, but I didn't like Margaret Qualley, who was in Maid. ... I've seen her in other projects, and I feel like she is okay as a side character, but I don't think she is lead material, at least not yet."

—u/bloodrose22

"I think she did well in that role, but was meh about her in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood."

—u/purple_sphinx

"I'm glad someone else had this opinion. Saw her in O.U.A.T.I.H and her character was really distracting — like she was shoe-horned into the scene — and also had strange chemistry with Brad Pitt. ... Only later did I realise she's Andie MacDowell's daughter."

—u/Kazimierz777

"I feel like most of Margaret's way of emoting is just staring and being unblinking."

—u/mothertuna

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12.Hero Fiennes (actor Ralph Fiennes' son)

Voltage Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

"That guy from the After movies, Hero Fiennes. I knew as soon as I suffered through the first movie that he had to be a nepo baby."

—u/walkingtalkingdread

13.Gwyneth Paltrow (actor Blythe Danner and director Bruce Paltrow's daughter)

Robert Hepler / Courtesy Everett Collection

"I remember when Gwyneth won her Oscar for Shakespeare in Love. It left me scratching my head. It was a full-on publicity win. There were much better performances that year."

—u/Lvanwinkle18

14.Bryce Dallas Howard (director Ron Howard's daughter)

Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images via Getty Images

Suggested byu/KavemanB

"I think she's a decent director, but she's never been a believable actress to me."

—u/TheTyGoss

"I don't dislike Bryce's acting, but I won't rave that it's award-worthy. Her directing has been solid so far; I would be interested to see her do something more than just episodes of streaming shows, though."

—u/SomeGuyPostingThings

15.Scott Eastwood (Clint Eastwood's son)

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images

"Pacific Rim: Uprising was already a terrible sequel, but the actor playing Nate Lambert stood out in the worst way possible. I'd never seen such wooden acting in such a large budget movie, so I figured he might be the director's kid or something. Nope. Scott Eastwood, son of Clint Eastwood."

—[deleted]

16.Maude Apatow (director Judd Apatow and actor Leslie Mann's daughter)

Karwai Tang / Getty Images for Ralph Lauren

Suggested byu/HermanRoy

"I wonder if there's something else she'd love to do, but she'll never get the chance to find out (like archeology or something interesting like that), because it's an easy life coasting along being mid-talent with that last name."

—u/thanksgivingseason

"I was just watching This is 40. I get the charm of Leslie Mann, but the rest of his family was so miscast. There were MUCH better child actors at the time."

—u/NegaGreg

"Anytime she was onscreen, she just didn't fit. I watched a few episodes of Euphoria before I googled her to figure out who she was related to."

—u/Eastofyonge

17.Maya Hawke (actors Ethan Hawk and Uma Therman's daughter)

Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images

"Maya Hawke. She was alright in Stranger Things,but just dreadful in Do Revenge. Not like that was great material to begin with, but I feel like she had a big social media push for a little bit, while those other kids aren't in much else. When I found out she was Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman's kid, it made sense."

—[deleted]

"The concept and trailer seemed SO interesting to me, but there were several moments watching the movie where I was like, 'Go girl... give us nothing.'"

—u/eliminatefossilfuels

"Her most recent performance of her music (and I say that lightly) on Jimmy Kimmel also supports this. Lots of fans defending it, saying, 'It sounds different on a track' or 'you all just don't get it' and meanwhile, I'm just thinking it's mediocre white girl mumblecore that had she not been a nepo baby, wouldn't have made it that far."

—u/FickleBeans

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18.Emma Roberts (Eric Roberts' daughter and Julia Roberts' niece)

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

"This is gonna be unpopular, but Emma Roberts. IMO, she cannot act. From Aquamarine to American Horror Story —she sounds like she's reading cue cards."

—u/ComprehensiveHorse30

"She can play one character.... the rich mean popular girl. So...herself. Other than that, she seems soooo flat."

—u/Cookie_Brookie

"I get less and less enthused to see her name in a project. Scream Queens felt like a cultural reset with how fucking funny and campy her performance was…then I realized there isn't much else she can do."

—[deleted]

19.Billie Lourd

Steve Granitz / FilmMagic via Getty Images

Suggested byu/LivingandDyinginLA

"She was lovely to watch in Scream Queens and Booksmart…then I realized that that’s kind of how she acts in everything. I haven’t seen a varied performance from her yet."

—[deleted]

20.Max Landis (director John Landis' son)

Amanda Edwards / WireImage via Getty Images

"A nice piece of shit that fell directly from the slimy tree of his ... father, John."

—u/ILikeAGoodFistin

21.Kelly and Jack Osbourne (children of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne)

Emma McIntyre / Getty Images for dcp

"I feel like Kelly and Jack Osbourne didn't have much success with anything not directly tied to their famous father, especially after The Osbournes ended."

—u/Anand999

"They held on a lot longer than they should have, given their lack of talent."

—u/Rdw72777

22.Michael Douglas (Kirk Douglas' son)