Life imitates art! This Is Us is known for its emotional dramatics as the Pearson family navigates life’s highs and lows while raising their expanding brood — which has impacted many of the stars’ own lives and parenting journeys.
“[Playing a mom has] shown me that maybe I am not as patient as I thought I was,” Mandy Moore, who portrays matriarch Rebecca Pearson, told Us Weekly in February 2019 at the Television Critics Association’s Winter Press Tour, noting that she learned how to change a diaper during the show’s first season. “But maybe it will be different when it’s your own children.”
The A Walk to Remember actress went on to welcome her first child, son August, with husband Taylor Goldsmith in February 2021.
“Once that initial wave of new-parent euphoria sort of wore off, when the chaos of those early weeks started to wane and the extra support we had in the beginning started tapering off, the reality of being Mom was suddenly front and center. It was scary,” Moore told Parents magazine that November. “Like, ‘Oh, wow. Now the onus is on me. Do I know what I’m doing?’ And I watched my husband effortlessly step into it.”
The Because I Said So star is not the only This Is Us star to embrace parenthood on screen and in real life. Sterling K. Brown, who plays Randall Pearson on the six-season series, shares sons Andrew and Amaré — born in 2014 and 2017, respectively — with wife Ryan Michelle Bathe.
“Each [This Is Us baby] has been such a blessing,” the Black Panther actor exclusively told Us in May 2021. “It’s nice to know that other people are joining the club because [when the show started] it was just Justin [Hartley] and I who were the parents. Now everybody else is starting to get in on the action too.”
The Missouri native added: “It’s been such a wonderful sort of camaraderie-building experience to be able to share my story of fatherhood and parenthood with all of them.”
Chris Sullivan, for his part, joined the This Is Us parenting club in July 2020 when he welcomed son Bear with his wife, Rachel Sullivan. The twosome announced in May 2022 that they are expecting Baby No. 2.
“We have wrapped my final scenes for #thisisus. What an incredible 6 years these have been,” the Guardians of the Galaxy actor — who plays Toby Damon on the NBC series — captioned an Instagram video at the time. “With every end, there is a new beginning…so here is a trailer of what’s to come.”
In the clip, Bear wore a “big brother” shirt and held a sonogram photo up to the camera. Chris then exclaimed, “It’s a … girl!!! Arriving Nov 1 … ish.”
Keep scrolling to meet the children of the This Is Us actors:
