29 Celebrities You Didn't Know Were Related

By Jane Asher
Updated Jan 05, 2017 @ 3:45 pm
Al Pereira/WireImage

So, you have your cousins, then you have your second cousins, and third cousins ... and then fourth cousins once-removed?

As your family tree grows, it becomes increasingly complicated. But if you think your ancestry is hard to track, wait until you get a load of the crazy familial connections in Hollywood. Thanks to the use of stage names, there are plenty of famous faces you didn't realize were actually related. 

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From cousins like Melissa and Jenny McCarthy and Snoop Dogg and Brandy, to step-relatives like Christian Bale and Gloria Steinem (we're not kidding), scroll down below to take a look at the most surprising celebrity family ties.

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1 of 14

Lily Allen and Alfie Allen

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The British singer is the Game of Thrones star's older sister. 

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2 of 14

Al Roker and Lenny Kravitz

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Roker and Kravitz's grandfathers were cousins, which means the weatherman and the rocker share the same great-great grandfather. 

3 of 14

Melissa McCarthy and Jenny McCarthy

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Back in the 90s, Jenny starred in a short-lived sitcom, and helped her older cousin Melissa get her first TV role as a guest actress on the show. Clearly, both of their careers took off from there. 

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4 of 14

Liev Schreiber and Pablo Schreiber

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38-year-old Pablo, who you'll recognize as "Pornstache" from Netflix's Orange Is the New Black, and 49-year-old Liev are half-brothers, sharing the same father. 

5 of 14

Edie Sedgwick and Kyra Sedgwick

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Andy Warhol's muse and The Closer star share the same familial middle name "Minturn," and are related through Edie's first cousin Henry Dwight Sedgwick V, Kyra's father. 

6 of 14

Brandy, Ray J, and Snoop Dogg

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Most people out there know that Brandy and Ray J are brother and sister, but what could come as a surprise is that they're also first cousins with the legendary Snoop Dogg. We wonder what those family reunions are like. 

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7 of 14

Steven Spielberg and Jessica Capshaw

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Capshaw, who plays Dr. Arizona Robbins on Grey's Anatomy, became the legendary director's step-daughter when her mother Kate Capshaw married Spielberg back in 1991.

8 of 14

Rip Torn and Sissy Spacek

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The actors are cousins, and Torn helped Spacek launch her own career by getting her into the Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio and the Lee Strasberg Institute.

9 of 14

David Spade and Kate Spade

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Kate's husband, Andy, is David Spade's brother. 

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10 of 14

Alexander and Stellan Skarsgard

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The father-son duo both take their acting jobs very seriously, starring in a number of dramas like Good Will Hunting (Stellan)and HBO's True Blood (Alexander). 

11 of 14

Christian Bale and Gloria Steinem

Jason Merritt/Getty; David Crotty/Patrick McMullan/Getty

Batman and one of the world's leading feminists are, in fact, related, or at least they used to be. Steinem married David Bale in 2000 and was Christian's stepmother for three years until the pair got divorced in 2003.

12 of 14

Elle King and Rob Schneider

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The blues-rock singer is daughter to none other than comedian Rob Schneider. Crazy, we know. 

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13 of 14

Jason Sudeikis and George Wendt

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The Cheers star and the SNL actor are related through Sudeikis's mother, making him Sudeikis's uncle. 

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Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty

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These two are as close as it gets, as full brother and sister.

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