9 Parent & Child Actors Who Played The Same Character On-Screen

Kurt Russell & Wyatt Russell

When it comes to the Monsterverse, Titans don’t just belong in our present day. They’ve been around for decades upon decades. And you see that being explored in Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which chronicles the establishment of the scientific organization dedicated to Titans in the 1950s and its present day. 

A character stuck smack dab in the middle of this Titans mess is Colonel Lee Shaw. He helped shape Monarch as an organization. And when the show needed the loyal Shaw to be portrayed in the 50s and the early 2000s, they called up legendary actor Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt Russell to play an older and younger on-screen version of the same character.

What’s unique about their versions of Shaw is that time is a funny thing in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. At one point… these two connect. Literally. Also, this isn’t the first time they’ve played the same character. In Soldier (1998), Wyatt played a younger version of Kurt’s main character, Todd, in flashbacks.

Mark Harmon & Sean Harmon

Like Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the NCIS franchise also likes to explore the past. But with no monsters or weird science hijinks, their exploration of the past is strictly through flashbacks or through the spin-off show NCIS: Origins (2024), which explores the start of Leroy Jethro Gibbs' career as part of the Naval Investigative Service. 

In the flagship show, Gibbs is played by Mark Harmon. And this highly skilled and stoic OG character has been woven into the very fabric of this franchise, following the lives of those in the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). And when the show needed someone to play a younger version of Gibbs, they brought in Mark’s own son Sean Harmon. 

Sean played Gibbs across seven episodes in NCIS. As if that wasn’t enough, Sean is guest-starring in NCIS: Origins as a completely different character. And he’s also an executive producer on the spin-off alongside his dad. So if there’s anyone who knows Gibbs, you best believe it’s this parent-and-child actor duo.

Jada Pinkett Smith & Willow Smith

Even animated films have gotten in on the trend of hiring the children of an actor to play a younger version of the character they’re playing. In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, the Madagascar animals fly back to New York City but crash-land on an African nature reserve in Kenya. 

Jada Pinkett Smith played one of these Madagascar animals, in particular, she voiced hippopotamus Gloria. And when the film needed someone to voice a younger version for a flashback that would open the movie, they brought on her daughter Willow Smith to voice the character.

This isn’t the first time someone from the Smith family has starred alongside their family member in a movie. Before Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Willow played Will Smith’s on-screen daughter in I Am Legend (2007). And Will and Jaden Smith played father and son in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and After Earth (2013). Now I need the family to mix it up. Willow and Jaden next? Jada and Jaden?

Kate Beckinsale & Lily Mo Sheen

For fans of action horror, there have also been parent and child actors who played the same character on-screen. Case in point: Kate Beckinsale in Underworld: Evolution. A part of the beloved Underworld (2003) franchise, Evolution sees vampire Selene fighting to protect the Corvinus bloodline alongside Michael, the first hybrid.

At one point in the movie, they needed an actor to play young Selene for some flashbacks. And they brought in Beckinsale’s daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, to play her. Then, like with the Russells at the beginning of this list, they did it again. In the 2009 movie Everybody’s Fine, Sheen played a younger version of Beckinsale’s character, Amy.

Tina Fey & Alice Richmond

Yes, even comedy shows like 30 Rock have had a child of a main actor come on to play the younger version of them. The character in question just so happens to be the workaholic Liz Lemon, played by Tina Fey for over seven seasons of this comedy. 

There does come a point in the series where Liz ends up getting married. (Not going to spoil it here just in case you haven’t watched because you should.) Liz has a flashback where she recalls her first wedding experience as a flower girl. 30 Rock then brought on Fey's daughter Alice Richmond to play young Liz. Just for the wig and tragic glasses alone, this is the one selection on this list that you should go into without looking it up. Just trust me.

Robert Downey Jr. & Indio Falconer Downey

Before Robert Downey Jr. became known for playing Tony Stark in the MCU, and soon Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday (2026), he starred in the crime comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. In the movie, he plays Harry, a thief who gets confused for an actor and is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a movie role. 

Like Underworld: Evolution and 30 Rock, they ended up doing flashbacks of their lead character. That’s when Indio Falconer Downey, Downey's son, was brought on to play a younger version in a prologue sequence. And while he hasn’t worked with his children on other projects, he has acted alongside his father in movies like Johnny Be Good (1988) and Hail Caesar (1994).

With Avengers: Doomsday finally here, maybe we’ll get some other flashbacks to show us how Doom got to this point. And maybe his other two children will play a younger version of him.

Fernanda Montenegro & Fernanda Torres

This is the point in this list where we get to the Oscar-winning movie. I’m Still Here tells the story of Eunice, played by Fernanda Torres, a woman married to a former politician during the military dictatorship in Brazil. And she’s forced to reinvent herself and look after her family after her husband is arrested and disappears. 

At the end of the film, I’m Still Here featured an older Eunice. To play her, the film enlisted Brazilian acting legend Fernanda Montenegro to play a future version of her daughter’s character. And it’s a bit of a twist on a list that consistently has the children playing younger versions of their mother’s main character. 

I’m Still Here also isn’t the first time these two have acted together. In The House of Sand (2005), they play mother and daughter. But in other films like Treason (1998) and Four Days in September (1997), they play supporting roles. When you’re Brazilian film royalty like these two, people want to see them on screen together. 

Laurie Metcalf & Zoe Perry

Even I didn’t know about this one before writing up this list of parent and child actors who played the same character on-screen. Ok so let’s backtrack a little. The enigmatic Sheldon Cooper remains to this day the best part of The Big Bang Theory. And when you have such a beloved character, you need someone who can match Jim Parsons' energy as the character. That’s where Laurie Metcalf comes in as Sheldon’s mom, Mary Cooper. 

And again, because Sheldon is such a beloved character, a spin-off made sense. What came as a surprise to fans like myself is what happened when they did the casting for Young Sheldon (2017). Because once again a studio looked through the gene pool and found gold in Metcalf’s daughter, Zoe Perry. She stepped up and played the same character as her mom. And she did it for even longer than Metcalf’s initial run. So the magic was there all along!

Meryl Streep & Grace Gummer

When you need to follow generations of women for a movie, why not see if your lead has a strikingly similar-looking daughter? That’s the case in the 1993 drama The House of the Spirits based on Isabel Allende’s best-selling novel. Meryl Streep played Clara del Valle Trueba, a young woman from a well-off family in Chile. And when they needed a younger version of Clara, they brought in her daughter Grace Gummer. 

But this wasn’t the first time that Streep had worked with one of her daughters. When her other daughter, Mamie Gummer, was just a toddler, they worked on the 1986 movie Heartburn. And then later on in 2015, they played mother and daughter in Ricki and the Flash.