As Zendaya spends time with her boyfriend Tom Holland‘s family, MailOnline takes a look at the couples who spawned Hollywood’s most famous duo.
He might be one of Hollywood’s most famous actors but it appears that Tom’s dad was winning awards long before he was.
The Kingston born star, 26, is currently showing his American girlfriend around his home town, with the actress seen enjoying a stroll with his mum and dad.
Tom’s dad Dominic has enjoyed a long career in comedy and first began performing stand-up at The Comedy Café in London back in 1991.
But it was his BBC Four radio show in 2000, The Small World of Dominic Holland that landed him a Comic Heritage Award.
Loved-up: As Zendaya spends time with her boyfriend Tom Holland’s family, MailOnline takes a look at the couple’s who spawned Hollywood’s most famous duo
Meet the parents: The Kingston born star, 26, is currently showing his American girlfriend around his home town, with the actress seen enjoying a stroll with his mum and dad
The comedic title is a reference to Dominic’s height of 5 feet 6 inches, and it seems that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree with Tom himself often mocking his own height of 5 feet 8 inches as Zendya stands a few inches taller.
Dominic has since written a book about being overtaken by his son’s success, titled Eclipsed: Turns Out that Spider-Man Does Have A Dad Afterall.
‘How does a kid called Tom Holland, who never had a speaking part in a school play find himself playing Marvel’s Peter Parker?’ The bio quips.
Last year, the comedian revealed how his is on hand to keep his son grounded, he told The Daily Mail’s Emily Prescott: ‘I reckon 99 per cent of celebrities are completely interchangeable. I remind Tom of that a lot!’
Tom’s parents Dominic and photographer Nikki met at the University of Leeds where they both studied, they went on to marry and have four sons Tom, Paddy, 18, and twins Harry and Sam, 24.
Harry has had small cameo’s in his brother’s films Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home, but unfortunately his scene in the latter was cut.
Speaking about his siblings a gruelling day spent filming the entire sequence upside down, Tom joked about their tiff on set on The Graham Norton Show.
‘We cast Harry and he’s on set,’ Tom said. ‘I go up to the stunt coordinator and I’m like, “Please just whatever you do with the stunt, make it so he’s upside down.”
Famous face: Tom’s dad Dominic has enjoyed a long career in comedy and first began performing stand-up at The Comedy Café in London in 1991 (Father and son, above, in 2014)
Mother: Tom’s parents Dominic and photographer Nikki met at the University of Leeds where they both studied, they went on to marry and have four sons
He joked that ‘the icing on the cake’ came when he saw the finished film, and Harry’s scene was nowhere to be found.
‘I don’t think he actually knows this … they’ve cut the scene,’ he said. ‘It’s not in the film!’
Harry wrote and directed a film, Roses for Lily, in which his twin Sam and younger brother Paddy starred.
Paddy also went on to play the character of a ‘Tough Child’ in 2018’s Holmes & Watson, according to IMBD.
Siblings: Tom’s brother Harry had small cameo’s in his Spider-Man films, but unfortunately his scene in the most recent movie was cut (His siblings Sam, Harry, Tom, and Paddy L-R)
California born Zendaya come shares a close bond with her mother Claire Stoermer and dad Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, so close in fact that her dad is also her manager.
Former teacher Claire and her husband Kazembe divorced when Zendaya was a child although the star has revealed that her parent’s are ‘still homies.’
Claire now owns her own jewellery company named, Kizzmet Jewelry, which is often worn by Zendaya herself.
She is the only child of both her parent’s but has five older half-siblings, her oldest brother, Julien Coleman, AKA EZ keeps a low profile.
He shares three children with his wife Sonja, their eldest Zink, is actually only one year older than Zendaya and the pair share a close friendship.
Parents: California born Zendaya come shares a close bond with her mother Claire Stoermer and dad Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, so close in fact that her dad is also her manager
Mother: Former teacher Claire and her husband Kazembe divorced when Zendaya was a child although the star has revealed that her parent’s are ‘still homies’
Zendaya also has another brother Austin, older sister Kaylee, who has two teenage daughters, Imani and Isys, and another sister AnnaBella.
As a mixed-race actress she has made a point of openly discussing her heritage, saying that her position as a ‘light-skinned black woman’ makes her Hollywood’s ‘acceptable version of a black girl’.
In an interview with the Daily Mail in December 2021, Zendaya’s mum Claire discussed her ancestry and revealed her great-grandfather was a heroic WW1 soldier from Dundee.
‘Zendaya knows about her Scottish heritage and is proud of it,’ said her mother Claire Stoermer, speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail by telephone from her home in California.
‘She hasn’t been to Scotland yet, but I know she’d love to visit some time.’
Brood: She is the only child of both her parent’s but has five older half-siblings
Close bond: Julien Coleman, AKA EZ keeps a low profile and shares three children with his wife Sonja, their eldest Zink, is only one year older than Zendaya (Zendaya pictured with Zink)
The actress’s maternal great grandfather Douglas Whitelaw was born in 1896. Then, most of the jobs in the city were in jute manufacture – but it was women, rather than men who were employed to keep costs down.
It meant Dundee had very high male unemployment, and many men were, in effect, house husbands – known rather disparagingly as ‘kettle bilers’, or kettle boilers.
It’s against this backdrop that Zendaya’s relatives decided to emigrate to Canada, as so many other Scots did at the time – first her great-great grandfather, Harry Tulloch Whitelaw, and then his son, her great-grandfather, Douglas, who made the long and arduous journey by ship, in 1911.
‘He was about 15 when he left Dundee and went to Canada, arriving first in Halifax, and then taking a train to Vancouver where his father had already set up a business as a certified public accountant,’ says Claire.
Yet that wasn’t the last time Douglas would cross the Atlantic. The family has preserved a photograph of their beloved ancestor, a black and white photograph of Douglas, in a kilt and Glengarry hat as part of his military uniform for the Canadian Highlanders. Douglas, it seems, was a patriotic soldier who volunteered for service in WW1.
Huge family! Zendaya also has another brother Austin, older sister Kaylee, who has two teenage daughters, Imani and Isys, and another sister AnnaBella
Relatives: As a mixed-race actress she has made a point of openly discussing her heritage (Zendaya and her dad pictured)
‘He fought in the First World War for about a year,’ adds Claire. ‘He was shot in the shoulder while in the trenches and came home [to Canada] with shrapnel wounds.’
There, Douglas went on to marry Thelma Ray Kelly, a Canadian, and their baby girl – Zendaya’s future maternal grandmother – Daphne Carol, was born in Vancouver. While Douglas and his family settled permanently in Canada, his daughter Daphne – Claire’s mother – went to the US to study.
‘She met my father and that’s why the family is here,’ says Claire.
It’s this mix – Scottish and German ancestry on her mother’s side and African American on her father’s – that have contributed to Zendaya’s elfin beauty.
History: In an interview with the Daily Mail in December 2021, Zendaya’s mum Claire discussed her ancestry and revealed her great-grandfather was a heroic WW1 soldier from Dundee
