Every Time Judd Apatow’s Daughters, Maude & Iris, Starred In His Movies & TV Shows

Maude and Iris are the daughters of comedy filmmaker Judd Apatow and have appeared in several of their dad’s movies and television series. Having shown up in work directed and executive produced by Judd since they were children, Maude and Iris have showcased a real comedic talent and have since taken up acclaimed roles outside of Judd’s projects. While Maude and Iris got their start in Knocked Up, Maude became best known as Lexi Howard on Euphoria, and Iris has expanded her range with voice work in Sausage Party and a guest role on the workplace comedy Unstable.

In their earliest appearances in Judd Apatow projects, Maude and Iris were always seen on screen together, playing sisters, with their real-life mother, Leslie Mann, often cast as their mom. However, over the years, the two have started to work separately, with Maude having played the recurring role of Cleo on HBO’s Girls and Iris being the secondary character Arya Hopkins in the Netflix series Love. While these actresses may have gotten their start in their father’s projects, Maude and Iris have displayed strong comedic and dramatic talent in recent years.

7

Knocked Up (2007)

Maude Apatow as Sadie & Iris Apatow as Charlotte

The first time Judd Apatow’s daughters, Maude and Iris, appeared in one of their father’s movies came with the release of the raunchy romantic comedy Knocked Up. While Maude was just 10 years old when she played Sadie, the daughter of Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann), she showcased great comedic skill and delivered one of the funniest monologues in Knocked Up as she described her unique understanding of how babies were made. With a story that involved a stork, blood, and butts falling off, Sadie still had a lot to learn about the birds and the bees.

Iris was only five years old when Knocked Up was released, and she played Sadie’s younger sister, Charlotte. While Iris did not have as many lines as her sibling, she still showcased great comedic potential with her hilarious reactions to Sadie’s wild speculation about how babies were made at the breakfast table with Ben (Seth Rogen) and Allison (Katherine Heigle), who were in the midst of an unplanned pregnancy. While Maude and Iris’s appearance in Knocked Up was brief, the characters would appear again in the spin-off movie This is 40.

6

Funny People (2009)

Maude Apatow as Mable & Iris Apatow as Ingrid

Following their hilarious appearance in Knocked Up, Mable and Iris Apatow showed up once again in Judd Apatow’s next movie, Funny People, just two years later. Once again, the two young actresses played the daughters of their real-life mother, Leslie Mann, who portrayed the ex-fiancé of Adam Sandler’s character, George Simmons, a retired stand-up comedian and movie star diagnosed with leukemia. With Maude as Mable and Iris as Ingrid, Maude once again took the lead and had some laugh-out-loud moments while her sister simply went along with all her funny antics.

When George reconnected with his ex-fiance Laura, Mable and Ingrid acted as a reminder of the life that George could have had and the purpose and meaning he would have found through family if he were not so focused on fortune and fame. Maude showcased some real dramatic acting skills as she struggled with understanding George’s illness and even highlighted her talent as a singer through a power retention of “Memory” from the Broadway musical Cats. Funny People was one of Sandler’s most underrated movies, and Maude and Iris’s performances helped contribute to its unique humor.

5

This Is 40 (2012)

Maude Apatow as Sadie & Iris Apatow as Charlotte

Five years after Knocked Up, Maude and Iris Apatow reprised their roles as Sadie and Charlotte for a spin-off focused on their parents’ marriage that acted as Judd Apatow’s most personal movie to date. As Apatow’s movies became more reflective with each release, and as a major influence on This Is 40 was his own life and marriage, it made sense that his daughters returned, as they were playing characters that were essentially based on themselves. Ideas around family, fatherhood, and aging were central to This Is 40, with Maude playing a now 13-year-old Sadie and Iris’s Charlotte being eight.

Maude’s character had grown up a lot since the previous film, had lost her clueless demeanor, and had transformed into a moody teenager with an obsession for the television series Lost. Iris had her largest role to date in This Is 40, as she now had plenty of lines as the energic younger sister who was always trying to get her older sibling to laugh and play with her. This Is 40 was a great representation of family life, as Maude and Iris gave believable performances that hinted they were ready to take on larger roles outside their father’s movies.

4

Girls (2012 – 2017)

Maude Apatow as Cleo

Maude Apatow made her television debut as Cleo on the HBO series Girls, for which her father, Judd, was credited as an executive producer. In the fourth season of Girls, Hannah (Lena Dunham) took up the short-lived position of a high substitute English teacher, where she befriended Cleo, who was one of her students. Maude had a recurring role as Cleo and appeared in three episodes over the course of the fourth season of Girls, where she and Hannah decided to get matching frenulum piercings.

Although Maude’s father, Judd, did not co-write any of the episodes that she appeared in, he was often credited as a co-writer throughout the six seasons of Girls. Maude’s character in Girls was a 14-year-old high school student, and, although she came across as rather mature, the friendship she and Hannah struck up was highly inappropriate for a teacher-student relationship. Cleo’s ability to influence and often peer-pressure Hannah highlighted just how immature and influenceable the main character of Girls truly was.

3

Love (2016 – 2018)

Iris Apatow as Arya Hopkins

Much in the same way that Maude appeared in the Judd Apatow executive-produced HBO series Girls, her younger sister Iris showed up in her father’s romantic comedy-drama Love, which Judd co-created with Lesley Arfin and Paul Rust. While Love focused primarily on the complex romantic relationship between Gus Cruikshank (Rust) and Mickey Dobbs (Gillian Jacobs), Iris acted as an important recurring character named Arya Hopkins, the young child actress who Gus worked as an on-set tutor for.

Iris portrayal of Arya was an interesting one, as she had been a child actress since she was five years old, and having a famous father who was a big deal in show business could likely relate to the pressures that were placed on her character. As a child star within the world of Love, Arya often sought guidance from Gus, and just as often she helped give him insight into his own anxiety-filled existence. Arya was one of the funniest recurring characters on Love and, after almost ten years of appearing in her father’s projects, had become a comedy actor of real talent.

2

The King of Staten Island (2020)

Maude Apatow as Claire Carlin

By the time Maude Apatow appeared in The King of Staten Island, which was directed by Judd Apatow, she had grown out of playing teenagers and portrayed Claire Carlin, the sister of Scott (Pete Davidson). Although Claire was the younger sibling, she worried about her dropout brother’s lack of ambition, and Maude gave a strong performance that highlighted real vulnerability and empathy in her character. As Scott still struggled to make peace with the death of his firefighter father, Claire tried to guide him and let him know his idea for a tattoo restaurant was a disgusting one.

The King of Staten Island walked a fine line between comedy and drama, as the wayward life of Scott and the way that Claire and his mother (Marisa Tomei) looked out for him were almost tragic. While Maude had plenty of funny quotes in The King of Staten Island, she was also exceedingly heartfelt as she took a no-nonsense approach to calling out her brother’s faults. Claire was an important character in this semi-autobiographical film co-written by Judd and Davidson, and Maude proved once again that her acting style worked well with her father’s writing.

1

The Bubble (2022)

Iris Apatow as Krystal Kris

The star-studded ensemble COVID-19 comedy The Bubble was a disappointing satire of showbusiness practices during the pandemic that featured Iris Apatow as the fictional TikTok star Krystal Kris. The Bubble was co-written and directed by Iris’s father, Judd, and, despite the serious comedic talent of its cast, the film fell flat on its head as it attempted to parody quarantining and the challenges of making a movie during a time of restrictions. Judd Apatow won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director for The Bubble, and it stood as Iris’s most forgettable appearance.

The Bubble told the story of a cast and crew attempting to make a movie called Cliff Beasts 6: Battle for Everest – Memories of a Requiem. Iris played the social media star who was cast to attract a younger audience to the faltering franchise. Although Krystal had some funny moments that poked fun at Gen-Z’s obsession with social media and the internet, the role was an overdone parody, which, like the rest of the movie, relied on an easy gag that just did not land. The Bubble was truly a product of its time and, like the pandemic itself, was best left in the past.