Inside Gracie Abrams' Relationship With Her Very Famous Dad

Gracie Abrams' music and persona could fool anyone into thinking she is an indie darling. In reality, however, the singer is the daughter of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" director JJ Abrams and former political aide Katie McGrath. Naturally, Gracie's famous roots led people to question her sudden high-profile position in the industry and even to label her a nepo baby. In fact, a Vulture article showed that she came from a long line of nepo babies since JJ was born to producers Gerald W. Abrams and Carol Ann Abrams. Nonetheless, the "I Love You, I'm Sorry" songstress defended herself against the harsh label during a 2023 chat with Rolling Stone. 

Gracie asserted that just like every other human being in the world, she didn't get to choose her parents while also acknowledging, "There are a million visible and even more invisible advantages to having family members who are in any entertainment industry." The singer added, "I know how hard I work, and I know how separate I've kept [my parents] from every conversation about anything career-wise, but of course you can understand what it looks like from the outside." 

Likewise, in a 2022 interview with The Independent, Gracie confessed that she tried to publicly distance herself from her famous parents to protect her career, and they were empathetic of that decision. However, upon further reflection, she realized that her mother and father could have offered some valuable advice from their experiences. Although Gracie may have tried to beat the nepo baby allegations publicly, she remains close to her dad behind the scenes.

In Gracie Abrams' 2022 chat with iHeartRadio Canada, she confirmed that her famous father partly inspired her to become a songwriter. The "Risk" hitmaker considers herself very fortunate to have such a fantastic storyteller in her family, explaining, "I think that having that in my childhood solidified my love and appreciation for storytelling [...] and influenced the fact that I did it all the time." We saw a great example of the father-daughter duo putting their creative minds together in 2019 when Katie McGrath shared a clip on Instagram of them playing the piano together. 

Both of Gracie's parents were notably there to support her when she opened for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in 2023. Later, a TikTok user posted a clip of JJ Abrams proudly filming his daughter as she performed for a screaming crowd of tens of thousands of fans. Ever since Gracie had a stunning transformation into a singer, she has refrained from posting about her dad on social media. However, that wasn't the case back in 2015, when the pop star posted a throwback pic of herself with the iconic director, writing, "Happy belated birthday to the best dad in the world. I love [you] so much." 

Although they have similarly hectic schedules nowadays, Gracie and JJ still manage to carve out some quality time for each other. Suffice it to say, Gracie is faring better than some other people with famous parents — like Zooey Deschanel, who denied she was a nepo baby, and Lily Rose-Depp, who called out a big double standard in the nepo baby debate.