As the only child of A-list former couple Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, Jack Quaid has been exposed to the entertainment industry from his earliest days, but in recent years, he’s become a celebrity in his own right, and is now busier than ever, with back-to-back starring roles in the twisty thriller Companion and the action-packed comedy Novocaine.
Here’s a look at how Quaid made a name for himself, and what he’s had to say about his unique Hollywood upbringing.
Which child of famous actor parents do you want to read about next?
From a middle school Shakespeare performance to The Hunger Games
While Jack Quaid spent much of his childhood on movie sets, his parents had a rule that he couldn’t audition for professional projects until he became an adult. He was naturally drawn to the family business, and expressed himself creatively by making on-the-fly camcorder movies and appearing in school plays.
It was during a middle school Shakespeare performance that Ryan and Quaid realized that as much as they wanted their son to live life out of the spotlight, that wasn’t exactly in the cards. As Ryan recalled in an interview with Glamour, “I remember seeing him in a middle school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He was playing Bottom. I was newly divorced from his dad, and he was seated at the other side of the gym. I had my head in my hands and was like, ‘Oh, no. He’s good. He’s really good.’ I leaned forward, and I see Dennis, and he’s also leaning forward with his head in his hands. I just knew.”
Quaid went on to attend NYU, where he pursued experimental theater and sketch comedy, and in 2012, at age 20, he made his screen debut in The Hunger Games. He reprised his role in the 2013 sequel, and in 2015 he starred opposite his mom in her directorial debut, Ithaca. He was then in the short-lived ’70s-set 2016 series Vinyl and the films Aberrant (2016), Tragedy Girls (2017), Logan Lucky (2017), Rampage (2018) and Plus One (2019).
How Jack Quaid became a leading man
Quaid had his breakout role when he was cast as a core member of the titular vigilante team in the superhero show The Boys. The series debuted in 2019, earning acclaim for its satirical tone and strong performances, and will be airing its fifth and final season next year. The Boys has proved pivotal not just in Quaid’s professional life, but in his personal life as well, as he’s in a relationship with his costar Claudia Doumit, who plays his onscreen nemesis.
Quaid received further attention when he appeared in the fifth installment in the Scream franchise in 2022, playing one of the villains opposite future Oscar winner Mikey Madison. In 2023, he played a theoretical physicist in Oppenheimer. He also voiced Superman in a 2023 animated series and was in the voice cast of the series Star Trek: Lower Decks from 2020 to 2024. Most recently, he starred in Companion and Novocaine.
What Jack Quaid says about being a ‘nepo baby’
In a New York Times interview, Quaid admitted that he’s always acknowledged his “nepo baby” privilege, but having famous parents has also made him want to work harder, saying, “There’s definitely a need to prove myself. There is a little bit of something with identity and thinking, do I have any value outside of them? Not to say I’m complaining.”
Additionally, Quaid told The Hollywood Reporter that while the support he’s received from his parents has been valuable, they didn’t initially want him to follow in their footsteps, since they knew how tough the industry can be, and ultimately, he shared that, “I don’t know how I would have survived mentally in the entertainment industry if I didn’t truly love what I did. If I did this just to be a famous person or to have any kind of clout, I would have been done with this a long time ago. I had to find the love of this before I did it.”
When it comes to their now-famous son’s considerable achievements, Ryan has said, “Jack is really talented. He’s more of a natural than I’ll ever be,” while the elder Quaid said he thinks Jack “is really going on to . . . eclipse both of us.”
Jack Quaid just might surpass his parents’ fame one day, and he has grand plans for the future. As he said in a 2022 interview prior to Scream’s release, “My dream right now, which I’m taking steps to make more of a reality, is to be in something that I’ve written. Directing gets more appealing to me as time goes on, but I want to slowly acclimate. I want to start writing, producing, and then get to a point where that could be possible.”
