19 people with parents who are professional actors share their experiences.

While it's normal for kids to be embarrassed of their parents when they reach their chaotic teens years, not every kid has to cringe while they watch their parent star in a commercial for acid reflux medication...

So, when a Reddit user asked, 'Children of actors or actresses what is it like seeing your parents on TV?' people who grew up seeing their mom or dad on the stage and screen were ready to share their stories.

1.

My dad starred in a popcorn commercial in the early 2000's. It ran for like a decade. Honestly it's probably still running somewhere. It opened with just a shot of him looking into a fridge, and the narrator says 'Some people. Really. Love. Butter.'

And he takes a stick of butter out of the fridge and is about to take a bite out of it but he stops because his wife and son are staring at him from the other room. All my friends at school would tell me they saw the commercial all the time. It's been a good conversation starter at parties, because a lot of people actually remember the commercial. - [deleted]

2.

My Nana was an actress on a popular British TV soap and a few films in the 70's, and my Grandpa was a director/producer of a few very popular TV shows too. My Mum told me it was just normal for people to recognise her parents in the street, and she didn't really know any different, and I suppose growing up I didn't really know any different too.

I sometimes see old reruns of one of the films my Nana was in so I like to watch the part with her in it. Avid fans of my Grandpa's TV show (Dr Who) who would know the old episodes always like to ask me lots of questions about him, so that's nice - Tabbinator

3.

My dad hands Richard Dreyfuss a bag of bagels during the opening scene of 'The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.' I still get excited for that little scene. My dad is a part of Montreal history. - Shittysuperintendent

4.

My mom was on 'days of our lives' for 16 years, I never even told my friends - rudestmonk

5.

My Uncle is a recognizable character actor. It's always fun seeing him pop up in things. I also love hearing about some of the people he worked with. He's worked with Patrick Stewart numerous times and he's one of my Uncle's favorite 'big' actors to work with. Super nice and genuine. He also got along very well with Denzel Washington. - [deleted]

6.

I went to school with a girl who's dad did TV. Mission: Impossible. Columbo. The Love Boat. Greatest American Hero. The A-Team. He was a one or two episode sterotypical Italian in most of 'em. I only learned about it when she stood up in science class and asked for the video to be rewound. The video we'd been watching included a scene from Star Trek that her Dad had been in. She was proud of him, even if he didn't have any lines. - technos

7.

My mom has been on multiple (4 or 5?) episodes of some of those HGTV house hunting shows. As the Realtor. My dad has done one as well. So clearly I am a child of fame and fortune. My mom has occasionally been recognized at the grocery store, and whenever one of her episodes has a rerun there's a spike in our web traffic. And once a friend of mine called from Canada to report that he had just seen my mom on TV. - [deleted]

8.

My dad never tells me what he has been in, so in college my friend was watching 'say anything' and I happened to walk by during the dinner scene and wham. My dad was their neighbor. So, it's always surprising to say the least. - C4pt

9.

My dad acted for a while when I was younger. By the time I was old enough to know what was going on, he was mostly in commercials. It was pretty fun when parents were a topic of conversation, because I could be 'hey, you know the guy in the breakfast burrito commercial? That's him.' Other kids often thought my family was rich because of that. The highlight was getting to see my dad swear a bunch before Charles Bronson killed him in Death Wish V. - ElCaz

10.

Do musicians count? He's on TV a bunch. Normally I cringe, because although he's a witty and intelligent person IRL, it often doesn't translate well on camera. On camera, he's far more eloquent with his music than his words (although he doesn't seem to realize that).

There's like one interview with him on Youtube where they really get what his sense of humour is and it shines through, but it mostly left me wondering why he isn't always that funny on TV. He is at the dinner table.

When all he's doing is playing music, though, it's great - he's generally on most 'top 20 of all time' lists on his instrument, and it's really nice to see how people still admire him for his craft even several decades after his time in the charts.

So far the weirdest thing about having a famous dad is that randos keep trying to add my wife on Instagram (randos whose entire profiles are just pictures of my dad, where all the captions are sex acts the rando wants to do to him). It started happening shortly after my wedding, because he tagged a wedding photo on his own Instagram. - Porrick

11.

My mother was a actress and I remember sitting in school one day watching one of those movies they made you watch in class. Anyway I was sitting there, half asleep and I heard my mother's voice. Must have jumped 10 feet in the air, completely freaked me out. I looked around, thinking she was in the classroom, and then I looked up at the screen and there she was.

I remember trying to tell the teacher that, that was my mother and I got the 'there, there dear, of course it is. We all want our parents to be movie stars.' I'm like, no really it's my mother...no one believed me and when the credit rolled, she of course had used her stage name. - ohenry0923

12.

My child hood babysitter left our small town and headed to Hollywood. She never really hit it big, but did some rolls on big TV shows, did a few commercials, and a few B movies with actors past their prime.

It was always pretty cool following her career and going out of our way to watch bad movies she made it on. Plus she had some great stories of which actors were nice and which were d*ckholes.

Weirdest story was she was a murder victim on Criminal minds. In the episode the killer made her call her family and leave a message before he killed them, so her mom watched the episode and the voice recording messed with her pretty bad. Hearing your daughter say goodbye and beg for help is pretty messed up. - Steid55

13.

Clancy Brown is my uncle, it’s nice to remember me as a ten year old taunting him to do the Mr. Krabs voice, I would always tell kids at school that ‘Mr. Krabs is my uncle’ and they would never believe me.

He would always hate the attention but I knew inside he really liked it, he also disliked me talking to the other kids at school about him being Mr. Krabs, but over the years I’ve learned to get used to it, Yes, A very successful actor is my uncle but Yes, he also has a family. And if you are wondering, the SpongeBob move is in progress and the series won’t be ending soon. - [deleted]

14.

My great uncle was Mickey Rooney. His active career was a lifetime ago but it is still pretty interesting seeing him in movies. He was an amazingly kind and wonderful person. - TinktheChi

15.

My mom's in some really random stuff, and has been for a while. She has her own page on a star trek wiki, she's been in backgrounds of movies like Hangover, and other times she's just a prop for 'mean old Asian lady.' The weirdest was seeing her on TV at the MTV Awards as Will Ferrell's Asian wife (????). It's almost always really weird. - may_den

16.

My cousin is Greg Lee, the host of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? It was really funny having someone hang out with me and my family after having an SNL skit done about him. Kinda surreal. - shwiggyshwag

17.

My mom did a lot of voice acting, had some radio jobs, and was a model for some companies (Kroger is a big one). I never found it weird or odd. I watched my older siblings act on stage a lot growing up and i always saw tv as just a stage lots of people see.

The only thing my mom ever did that made me uncomfortable was i was 13-14 maybe when she worked for a radio company and she was basically the covergirl for it. Everyone would tell me that my mom was hot especially after she did a faux nude shoot with the station. The picture had her bare arms and legs showing behind a towel to make her look naked. - TheMoistEnchilada

18.

Sometimes it is mildly amusing watching a random show and seeing a relative pop up unexpectedly. Was once watching a rerun of the Munsters when I was a kid, and saw my Dad guest staring. Had no idea my Dad had been on the Munsters. I would say the feeling was surprise.

Recently watching Netflix “The Haunting of Hill House” and saw my uncle in a bit part. I had no idea he was in it. I smiled recognizing the homage he was being paid for his part in a classic movie called, “The Haunting”. It was a pleasant surprise, but not as surprising as seeing my Dad on TV, because my uncle is a well known actor and has starred in many films and TV shows.

My cousin ( who is also an actress) just released a book, and was recently on the daytime and evening talk shows promoting it. I think about how much has changed since she was 13 years old and on Letterman. She is now in her 30s. I’m happy for her and her accomplishments and it is great to see her promoting her own work rather than the work of others. - Shon_t

19.

Both my parents are actors. I've been used to seeing and hearing them perform (theatre and radio) for my whole life. My dad has done voice work for some computer games. I was playing one once and he walked in the room and said 'that chimpanzee is me' then walked out again. - DanabluMonkey