"I knew I had to get there myself" — Maya Rudolph believes having a famous mother did not benefit her comedy career

On Monday, American comedian and actress Maya Rudolph appeared on the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard and spoke about her career. The 51-year-old spoke about her parents being part of the music industry and stated that this did not give her an advantage in terms of her acting and comedy career. She added that she was aware of the fact that she had to do things on her own and said:

"They were musicians. They weren't actors. My trajectory was, I wanted to go to New York, and I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live."

She added:

"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."

Rudolf is the daughter of Minnie Riperton and Richard Rudolph, two well-known American singers and songwriters. The former, who died of cancer at the age of 31 in 1979, was popularly known for her 1974 track Lovin’ You.

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Bridesmaids actress Maya Rudolph talks about having famous parents

American actress Maya Rudolph spoke about her career while in conversation with Dax Shepard. She revealed that having famous parents didn't do much for her acting and comedy career, since they both were in a separate industry altogether and she knew she "had to get there" herself.

Maya Rudolph also spoke about her mother Minnie Riperton's fame and said that she believed many of her friends and contemporaries did not know much about her mom's achievements. According to her, people joined the dots and made the connection a lot later. She described her mother as being "special," and said:

"Growing up, I didn't feel like she was a household name. I felt like she was special, yeah."

Adding to her statements about her mother, she said the popular network MTV hadn't aired yet during her mom's career and mentioned how Minnie Riperton passed away at quite a young age. Riperton died of cancer when Rudolph was six years old, as per People.

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Rudolph says that many people could not link her to her mother

Maya Rudolph continued talking about her late mother and revealed that since she didn't take her last name, it was even more unlikely that people drew a connection between them. On the podcast, she spoke about not bringing up her mom's identity during her childhood and said:

"So when I started doing SNL, people didn't really know she was my mom, and they figured it out later. So, look, when you're a kid and your mom dies, you don't want people to know that."

She then revealed that the people who knew that Minnie was her mother would often want to discuss her, which the American actress was not up for at the time.

Back in 2012, in an interview with NPR, Maya Rudolph spoke about Minnie Riperton and said that she always felt connected to music. She also mentioned that she possibly heard music even when she was in her mom's womb.

The actress first decided to follow in her parent's footsteps and get into the music industry. However, she was passionate about comedy and joined The Groundlings, a well-known theatre group. Speaking to Interview magazine in 2013, she stated that music was a "natural part" of her. However, she looked up to Gilda Radner and wished to pursue comedy and eventually be part of SNL. It was then in 2000 that she joined SNL and never looked back.

Maya Rudolph has appeared in several movies including 50 First Dates, Wine Country, The Willoughbys, Luca, Disenchanted, and Life of the Party. She was most recently seen in the Apple TV+ sitcom, Loot, in which she plays a character named Molly Wells, who is a divorced billionaire. Season 2 of the show released on the platform on April 3, 2024.