Honestly, off the top of my head, I can only think of Zendaya. Her parents were high school teachers.
Then, on the other side of the pond, where classicism is supposedly even more pervasive in acting circles to the point where even Dame Judi Dench has famously spoken out about it, I can only think of James McAvoy and Olivia Cooke as actors that come from a working-class background.
It’s an interesting conversation to have. It seems like there’s so much PR out there designed to make young Hollywood look like a rag to riches story by hiding their connections and/or background.
In inspiration of the recent post asking the opposite, which currently popular actor/actress, in your opinion IS THE PRODUCT of being well-connected and/or rich?
With the recent discussions regarding Hollywood nepotism and young actors ^([)^(1)^(][)^(2)^(]), I was curious to see if the industry had the same issue behind the camera, too, as directing is also a notoriously difficult profession to get into.
Here is a spreadsheet that I've complied consisting of 40 British and American directors under the age of 40 and their industry connections, education, and possible family earnings.
I will preface this by saying that this sample size (40) is small and that is due to how difficult it is to find reliable and detailed information about up-and-coming directors online. This list consists exclusively of directors that have made one or more films that have been produced or distributed by a major production/distribution company (Warner Bros., A24, Disney, etc.). This seemed the fairest way to determine success. Some well-known directors such as Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead haven't been included as I couldn't find enough data about their personal lives.
My definition of "industry connections" is as follows: a director(s) that has an immediate family connection (Mother, Father, Cousin, Grandfather, etc.) to the entertainment industry and that connection must be successful - for example, Lena Dunham's mother is Laurie Simmons who has been a working photographer and filmmaker since the 1970s or Damien Chazelle's mother, Celia, a successful author, has family links to Paramount Pictures. Now, this, of course, doesn't take anything away from the artists themselves and it's impossible to say if they've been given a 'leg up' without knowing them personally.
Secondly, based on the median US family income for 2021 and that 40% of households earn less than $50K per year, I thought it would be interesting to see if there was a correlation between success in the film industry and an average family income of over $100K p/a. Of course, it's difficult to ascertain how accurate this information is as it
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