Maya Rudolph Explains Why Having Famous Parents Didn't Boost Her Comedy Career

Maya Rudolph is latest star to weigh in on the nepo baby debate.

If you didn’t know, the 51-year-old Emmy-winning actress’ famous parents are musician and songwriter Richard Rudolph and the late singer-songwriter Minnie Riperton, who was best known for her 1974 song “Lovin’ You.”

In a new interview, Maya explained why having famous parents didn’t help boost her comedy career.

Keep reading to find out more…“They were musicians. They weren’t actors,” Maya shared on the Armchair Podcast.

“My trajectory was, I wanted to go to New York, and I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live,” Maya explained. “I understand that drive to be somewhere else — forage in a new city and create my own path. But that’s a huge undertaking. I wasn’t like, ‘Oh my dad writes songs, that’s gonna make me a comedian.’ There was no direct line. I knew I had to get there myself.”

Also in her interview, Maya reflected on her mother’s fame, although she isn’t sure many of her peers knew who she was.

“It’s interesting because my mom was a singer that not all my friends were that aware of at the time,” Maya said, adding that many didn’t realize that Minnie was her mom until years later since they didn’t share the same last name.

“Everybody that knows who I am now knows that’s my mom. But growing up, I didn’t feel like she was a household name,” Maya said. “I felt like she was special, yeah.”

Minnie died of breast cancer in 1979 at the age of 31. Maya was only six-years-old at the time.

In another recent interview, Maya shared her thoughts on a possible Bridesmaids sequel.