10 Mother–Daughter Duos Who Have Shared the Screen

Hollywood has a long tradition of talent passed down through generations, and few pairings spotlight that legacy better than mothers and daughters who share the screen. From one-off cameos to long-running collaborations, these family teams have appeared together across genres and decades.

Laura Dern and Diane Ladd may hold the record, having appeared in nine films together until Ladd’s death in 2025. Uma Thurman and Maya Hawke, despite parallel careers, didn’t act together until the 2023 dark comedy The Kill Room.

Hawke said in an October 2021 interview that her parents—Thurman and actor Ethan Hawke—wanted her to chart her own path in the industry and not settle for “bit-parts in their movies.” Susan Sarandon and her daughter, Eva Amurri, have shared the screen at least four times.

They memorably played mother and daughter in 2002’s The Banger Sisters, and Amurri portrayed a younger version of Sarandon’s character in Dead Man Walking. Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow have appeared together in two films, Cruel Summer and Sylvia.

Danner said in 2016 that she hoped for more screen time with her daughter, whom she called “a phenomenal talent.” Dakota Johnson’s first on-screen role came at age 10 in her mother Melanie Griffith’s 1999 film Crazy in Alabama. More than 20 years later, Griffith returned the favor with a minor role in Johnson’s 2020 comedy-drama The High Note.

Before her death in 2016, Carrie Fisher worked with her daughter, Billie Lourd, in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Fisher died before the release of two of the films—Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker—prompting changes to the overall storyline. Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer have collaborated on three films.

Gummer’s first appearance came in 1986’s Heartburn when she was 20 months old, with Streep altering her daughter’s credited name to protect her identity. They reunited in 2007’s Evening and 2015’s Ricki and the Flash. Streep’s younger daughter, Grace Gummer, also appeared alongside her as a baby in the 1993 film House of Spirits, under a different name in the credits.

Dern and Ladd began working together when Dern was 7, appearing as an extra in 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Here Anymore. They went on to share the screen in 1990’s Wild at Heart and 1991’s Rambling Rose—becoming the first mother and daughter to receive acting Oscar nominations in the same year—among other projects.

Ladd also played Dern’s mother in HBO’s Enlightened from 2011 to 2013, saying in February 2014 that she was proud of her daughter’s “incredible talent.” Leslie Mann has teamed up with both of her daughters, Maude and Iris Apatow, often as her characters’ children, in Knocked Up, This Is 40 and Funny People—all directed by their father, Judd Apatow.

Angelina Jolie and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt have shared the screen once, in 2014’s Maleficent. Jolie said at the time that she cast her daughter because other children were frightened of her character. Andie MacDowell and Margaret Qualley haven’t yet shared a film set, but they played mother and daughter in the 2021 Netflix limited series Maid.

After the show’s debut, MacDowell wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post that working with her daughter was an extraordinary honor. These collaborations offer a rare, behind-the-scenes intimacy onscreen—and, in some cases, a body of work that spans a lifetime.

As new generations step in front of the camera, Hollywood’s family ties continue to shape what audiences see.