Elvis Presley's granddaughter Riley Keough has quietly been making a name for herself in Hollywood over the past decade. The daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and musician Danny Keough, she had an incredibly colorful upbringing, which we'd expect from anyone related to The King himself. Riley never got to meet her famous grandfather as he had been dead for 12 years by the time she was born. But it's been a fact she's been aware of her entire life and she really doesn't care if people know her as "Elvis's granddaughter."
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"Why should I? It's a fact," the actress told the Guardian. "And I'm not ashamed of that in any way." Despite not knowing him, she knew he was "very, very famous. I knew the situation. I just didn't really think about it that much."
Riley Keough's Family Life
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After Lisa Marie and her former guitarist Danny Keough broke up when Riley was just six, she spent the majority of her childhood traveling between family. She spent time with grandmother Priscilla Presley on the Graceland Estate, in Hawaii and Los Angeles with her father, and even on Michael Jackson's Neverland during his two-year marriage to Lisa Marie. But despite living a lavish life with her mother, Riley was able to turn out somewhat grounded from the time she spent living with her father.
"I grew up very privileged with my mother," she says. "But my dad didn't live like that. And I think experiencing both sides has been helpful. My father had mattresses on the floor of his apartments. He lived in cabins and trailer parks. He just didn't have much money."
Unlike many stars who grew up with famous families, Riley leads a fairly private and low-key personal life. The actress has been married to stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen since 2015 and they don't post much of their lives together on social media for the world to see.
Riley did open up on her Instagram about the loss of her late brother Benjamin, who passed away in 2020 from suicide. She went on to complete her training in becoming a death doula so she could help others work through their grief.
Inside Riley Keough's Career
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Initially, Riley got her first glimpse of Hollywood by working as a model for major brands like Dolce & Gabbana and appearing on the cover of Vogue. These days, the rising star has already appeared in numerous hit films and TV shows. She starred in the Steven Soderbergh Starz series The Girlfriend Experience, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination, Mad Max: Fury Road, It Comes at Night, Jack & Diane, Dixieland, Logan Lucky, The Good Doctor, Magic Mike, American Honey, The Lodge, Hold the Dark, Earthquake Bird, The House That Jack Built and much more. Her IMDB is loaded with credits.
She even starred as Marie Currie in The Runaways opposite Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. She also appeared in a Justin Timberlake music video and starred in the HBO film Paterno with Al Pacino. Recently, she starred in Zola, based on the real Twitter rant about a stripper down in Florida. Needless to say, Keough has been busy working on her career.
Everything we know about her upcoming series Daisy Jones & The Six
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We're particularly excited about the news that Riley will be starring in the new Amazon Prime series, Daisy Jones & The Six, based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The musical show will be produced by Reese Witherspoon, following a fictional rock band in the '70s as they reach the height of fame. Riley will play lead singer Daisy Jones, a talented singer who grew up in California with wealthy and neglectful parents...apparently loosely based on Stevie Nicks. We can't wait to see Riley follow in her grandfather's footsteps and take the stage singing music from a time when Elvis was still performing for fans all over the world.
The rest of the cast includes British actor Sam Claflin as her bandmate Billy Dunne, Suki Waterhouse as keyboardist Karen Sirko, Will Harrison as guitarist Graham Dunne, and Sebastian Chacon as drummer Warren Rhodes. Nabiyah Be will be Daisy's best friend Simone Jackson and Camila Morrone will play Billy's wife, Camila. Josh Whitehouse will play Eddie Roundtree, apparently based on the book character Eddie Loving, one of The Six's guitarists. Timothy Olyphant will play the band's manager, Rod.
The book was partly inspired by real-life drama in Fleetwood Mac so we're excited to see this fictional 70s rock band come to life. Also interesting, Blake Mills, a singer-songwriter who has worked with The Chicks in the past, will be writing the music for the new series.
READ MORE: Netflix's 'The Devil All the Time' Has an Incredible Country Music Soundtrack
This post was originally published on Dec. 22, 2020.
