Far from attempting to distance herself from her famous lineage, Kaia Gerber is leaning into it while she carves out her own niche as a model and comedic actress with a literary side hustle.
At the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of her campy horror movie, Shell, co-starring Kate Hudson and Elisabeth Moss, the 24-year-old pulled focus in a white Hervé Léger bodycon gown with a sweetheart neckline – a custom recreation of the dress her mother, supermodel Cindy Crawford, wore to accompany her then husband, Richard Gere, to the Academy Awards in 1993.
“Kaia had sent me a mood board for TIFF and this was one of her references,” her stylist Molly Dickson told Vogue. “I thought it would be amazing to pay tribute to Cindy’s iconic moment.”
Three decades after her mum divorced Gere in 1995 after four years of marriage, Kaia was on set working with his son, Homer Gere. The moment came on October 29 in Los Angeles, where the pair were filming Ryan Murphy’s upcoming show The Shards, based on American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis’ 2023 novel of the same name, which follows a group of high-school friends in 1981.
Kaia, who Cindy shares with her husband, Casamigos Tequila co-founder Rande Gerber, and Homer, whose mother is Richard Gere’s ex-wife Carey Lowell, were the spitting image of their famous parents. Just three days later, on November 1, Kaia lit up the red carpet at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Art+Film Gala, proudly posing beside her mum in coordinating sparkly Gucci looks.
Kaia has long acknowledged the advantages of her famous heritage, especially in the modelling industry. “I won’t deny the privilege that I have,” she told Elle in January 2023, saying Cindy has been “a really great source of information and someone to give me great advice, that alone I feel very fortunate for”. Still, she added, “My mum always joked, ‘If I could call and book a Chanel campaign, it would be for me and not you.’”
Kaia Gerber made her modelling debut at age 10 in a Versace campaign and hit the runway at 16, quickly becoming one of fashion’s most in-demand faces. Acting, however, was always the end game.
“I was the first kid at the auditions for the community theatre,” she told W magazine in September 2023. “I had this other amazing job that took me around the world and exposed me to so many things. But still, I felt this longing.”
Following her debut in 2016 TV movie Sister Cities, Kaia caught her break with a role in Ryan Murphy anthology series American Horror Stories in 2021, which she followed with her feature film debut in sapphic teen comedy Bottoms (2023).
“I’m such a comedy nerd. I go to comedy clubs all the time. It’s my favourite thing to do,” Kaia, who became such good friends with co-star Ayo Edebiri that the pair got matching tattoos, told Elle. “When you see me looking angry on a runway, you wouldn’t assume there’s much of a sense of humour in there.”
Kaia continued in the comedy lane with a role as a campus queen bee in comedian Benito Skinner’s coming-of-age comedy series, Overcompensating, playing a version of herself in Hacks and with a larger role in Apple TV’s Palm Royale, now in its second season.
“I get to go to work and be with everyone who I grew up admiring, all of them in one place,” she gushed to USA Today in November. “Walking onto a set and you have Carol Burnett and Allison Janney and Kristen Wiig and Laura Dern and Ricky Martin and Patti LuPone and Vicki Lawrence… I feel so lucky.”
In the series, about Palm Beach high society in 1969, Kaia plays manicurist and aspiring model Mitzi, who dreams of a better life. “A really key theme for Mitzi this season is, like, ‘Who am I without these men?’” she continued to USA Today. “And that’s something that I was really excited to explore with her because it’s not dissimilar to my experience as a young woman and finding my voice and my identity on my own.”
In addition to nepo-baby talk, Kaia’s high-profile relationships have often overshadowed her personal and professional journey. At 18, she was briefly involved with Pete Davidson.
“We were dating for a few months,” the comedian, now 32, said in a 2020 interview with Charlamagne Tha God, shortly after his and Kaia’s split in December 2019. “She’s very young, and I’m f–king going through a lot … She should be enjoying her work. It just wasn’t the right place or the right time at all … Her parents were really helpful and stuff, so they’re cool.”
Kaia later dated Australian actor Jacob Elordi from September 2020 to November 2021, followed swiftly by a three-year relationship with Elvis star Austin Butler, which ended in late 2024.
Soon after, she was romantically linked to Top Gun: Maverick actor Lewis Pullman when they cosied up at his birthday party in January. The couple made their relationship red carpet official at the Venice Film Festival for the premiere of The Testament of Ann Lee on September 1. Kaia addressed their romance publicly for the first time exactly a month later.
“A lot is being healed in this relationship,” she said on the Therapuss with Jake Shane podcast. “I really feel like if you have the opportunity to date a friend, do it, because it just is so much better … I respect my friends. It just is a whole other thing.”
Off camera, Kaia devotes much of her time to reading. During the 2020 pandemic, she started an informal Instagram book club that quickly took off. In March 2024, she and writer/editor Alyssa Reeder launched Library Science, a platform dedicated to spotlighting “books that aren’t on the typical bestseller lists” so that diverse voices from around the world can be heard.
As her acting career expands, she says she may one day look for roles in some of the books she champions.
“[Five years ago], if you had asked me what my dreams were, I would have said something totally different,” she told The Wall Street Journal in February 2024. “Lately, the thing that I’ve been telling myself is, ‘Maybe your life isn’t going to be what you thought it was going to be – maybe it’s going to be so much better.’”
Next, Kaia is set to star in Outcome, a black comedy directed and co-produced by Jonah Hill, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ezra Woods. The film features Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, David Spade, Laverne Cox and, much to Kaia’s delight, Keanu Reeves.
“I’ve been the biggest fan of Keanu Reeves for my whole life in an unhealthy way at times – my family has had conversations with me about it,” she told Collider in September 2024. “First crush, I’ve seen all of his films … I had a life-size cardboard cutout … I didn’t want to scare him because I felt like my personality would freak him out … But working with him and just being in the same room as him, he’s so kind and exactly what you would hope for.”
