Discovering a celebrity is related to another famous figure is sometimes surprising, but imagine how strange it would be if the stars were unaware of it themselves! It happens more often than you might think — just ask comedy legend Carol Burnett and “Saturday Night Live” alum Bill Hader.
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Hader had no idea about the unlikely connection until he received an email from the six-time Emmy winner. “She emailed me,” Hader revealed to Entertainment Tonight. “Yeah, she emailed me and said, ‘Hey, we’re related.’ And I went, ‘What?'” The “Barry” star explained how much fun it was to reveal the news to his kids by bringing up one of Burnett’s most recognizable roles. “I told my my, kids! I’m like, ‘We’re all related to Ms. Hannigan,” and they were like, ‘Ah!!'” he said, referencing the hit film “Annie.”
As for Burnett, she learned the news after appearing on the show “Finding Your Roots,” and spoke publicly of the discovery on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in April of 2023. “We are distantly related,” Burnett confirmed. “It’s just great.” The pair are only two in a lengthy list of celebrities to discover unknown famous relatives on the PBS show where Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard scholar, helps guests investigate their own ancestry. Hader even appeared on an episode of his own, discovering a royal relative in King Edward I of England.
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Marisa Tomei and Julianne Moore share ‘identical segments of DNA’
Actors Marisa Tomei and Julianne Moore are no strangers, but they were largely unaware of an unexpected familial closeness. The longtime friends attended Boston College during the same time period back in the ’80s and both starred in the soap opera “As the World Turns” as well as the film “Crazy, Stupid Love,” but Tomei was unprepared to discover the two women are actually cousins according to research completed by scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on her episode of “Finding Your Roots.” The “She Came to Me” actor’s excitement over the news was palpable as she exclaimed, “Julianne? Julie?” After pausing for a moment, her mouth gaping in shock, she continued, “Jules! Oh, I can’t wait to tell her!”
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It was Moore who posted the moment from Tomei’s episode to her Instagram account, captioning it, “I KNEW WE WERE ALIKE! @marisatomei is my COUSIN!! OMG I’m so excited, thank you @henrylouisgates for letting us know we have identical segments of DNA.” She finished up with a few hashtags: #FindingYourRoots and #twinning.
Tomei also posted an Instagram of her own. “What an incredible gift to find out about my family’s roots with @HenryLouisGates! Eternally grateful for this generation and generations to come…. and the big surprise — discovering my friend is my REAL cousin! Hey cuz @juliannemoore!!!!” she penned to her followers.
Becki Newton has an A-list cousin
Becki Newton, who portrays the role of Lorna Crane in Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer,” spent the better part of her life unaware of the fact that she has a famous cousin in A-list actor Sienna Miller. It’s not difficult to believe that the two blond bombshells could be sharing a gene pool, as they look more like sisters than cousins, but Newton admits she had no idea the “Anatomy of a Scandal” actor was her cousin once removed. “I didn’t find out until a few years ago that her dad is my grandmother’s brother,” the “Ugly Betty” alum told People back in 2015. “She grew up in the U.K. so she was never at any of our family functions,” she said by way of explanation.
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Gaining Miller as a relative also means that Newton is related to Miller’s two daughters. The “American Sniper” actor shares daughter Marlowe Sturridge with ex Tom Sturridge and welcomed another baby girl in January of 2024 with boyfriend Oli Green. Miller spoke highly of her eldest daughter to People in 2019: “She’s really stubborn, which is very like me. I see her as her own person but I also see genetic things. She’s heaven, my kid.” Here’s hoping Miller gets invited to some Newton family functions in the future so everyone can get to know each other.
Joe Rogan’s cousin is a famous emo singer
At first glance, you may not think that former “Fear Factor” host Joe Rogan and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way have much in common, and they may not — other than their genes, that is. While Rogan has risen to fame through UFC commentating and podcast hosting, Way helped to define an entire genre of music with hits like “Welcome to the Black Parade” and “I’m Not OK (I Promise).”
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“Yeah, we’re related,” Rogan told filmmaker Kevin Smith on an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” in October 2019. It was Smith who posed the question, claiming Way had texted him with the tidbit after he learned the “Chasing Amy” actor would be appearing on an episode of Rogan’s wildly successful podcast. Wasting no time in sharing the exchange, Smith read, “He goes, ‘I don’t have 100 percent confirmation on this, but I’m pretty sure … I think my aunt Josie was his grandmother.'”
“I don’t know him, but we’re cousins,” Rogan confirmed.
Ashley Tisdale and Austin Butler are 10th cousins once removed
Disney channel alums Ashley Tisdale and Austin Butler have more in common than where they got their starts in the industry — the two stars are actually 10th cousins once removed, as Tisdale found out after examining her lineage on Ancestry’s “2 Lies and a Leaf.” Competing against her sister, Jennifer Tisdale, in a game to see who knows more about their family tree, the “High School Musical” star was stunned to learn she’s actually related to her long-time friend and costar.
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Tisdale was presented with three choices for a possible costar familial connection: Zac Efron, Austin Butler, and twin brothers Dylan and Cole Sprouse. “Oh my God, I have kissed almost every single one of them,” she joked before correctly identifying Bulter. “Austin and I always say that we’re like fraternal twins born very far apart because he’s much younger,” she shared, before revealing him as her guess. “No wonder we have such a connection! We’ve always said we are brother and sister,” the Frenshe founder exclaimed upon learning their bond is supported by genetics. “That is insane! I literally am going to cry,” she continued, becoming emotional over the unexpected news.
Liv Tyler learned Steven Tyler is her father when she was 11 years old
Although hardly a celebrity herself at the time, Liv Tyler didn’t learn that her father was the famous rock ‘n’ roll musician Steven Tyler until she was 11 years old. Born to former Playboy model Bebe Buell, it was Buell’s current boyfriend, Utopia singer Todd Rundgren, who signed the “Armageddon” actor’s birth certificate. “Todd basically decided when I was born that I needed a father so he signed my birth certificate,” Liv shared with Wonderland magazine back in 2011. Buell had a fling with the Aerosmith frontman that resulted in the birth of their daughter but was concerned with Tyler’s substance abuse so she didn’t inform him. Oddly enough, Liv met her biological father at a concert several years before she found out the truth. The “Empire Records” star spoke of the strong connection she felt, even before learning the news.
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“Strangely enough, when I first met my dad, I didn’t know he was my dad and I fell in love with him. I put his poster on my wall,” she told Interview Magazine in 2015. “I would talk to him on the wall. And he would give me stuffed animals, and I would tuck them into bed before I would get in. I loved him so deeply,” she continued. “My mom has a diary entry or something where I wrote, ‘I think Steven is my father.'”
While Liv claims to have had the epiphany after staring at a poster of the “Cryin'” singer, Tyler learned of his daughter’s existence after reaching out to Buell to make amends as part of his substance abuse recovery. “He was just out of rehab, so part of going through those steps is making amends by reaching out to my mom after years of being a drug addict and not ever being there. He’d never met me before,” Liv explained to Wonderland.
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