Jack Quaid on Growing Up in Hollywood: 'You Don't Realize Things Are Slightly Abnormal Until Later' (Exclusive)

Jack Quaid was almost guaranteed to have a pretty special childhood.

Growing up with Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid as parents, the actor spent a lot of time on film sets when he wasn’t watching movies and cartoons at home. 

“I grew up with friends who also had parents in the industry, so it didn't really feel different,” The Boys star tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “But then you grow up, and you realize that's a pretty unique thing, that not one but two of your parents are actors. You don't realize that things are slightly abnormal until later.”

Jack, 31, later went to Crossroads School in Santa Monica — a high school with alumni including Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zooey Deschanel and Jack Black — where he was president of the Bad Movie Club. He attended NYU Tisch School of the Arts before dropping out after three years. 

The actor’s onscreen debut came in 2012’s The Hunger Games, where he played Marvel, a competitive tribute from wealthy District 1.

In the years since, Jack has made a name for himself, starring in Prime Video’s The Boys, as affable boyfriend-turned-renegade supe Hughie Campbell, Paramount+’s Star Trek: Lower Decks as ambitious Ensign Brad Boimler, and more recently, as Clark Kent in the animated show My Adventures with Superman, which premiered on Adult Swim and Max this week.

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Through it all, Jack's actor parents — who were married from 1991 until 2001 — have taken a hands-off approach when it comes to his career. 

“They don’t really give me advice. I’ve never asked them, ‘How should I perform this scene?'" Jack told PEOPLE in January 2022, adding that the way Hollywood works now is “so much different that it worked back then for them.” 

Still, Jack remains grateful to them for a childhood that allowed him to explore his passions as a “gigantic superhero nerd” and embrace Star Trek and Superman.

“I will thank them for that until the day I die,” he says in this week’s issue of parents Dennis, 69, and Meg, 61. “Now I get to actually live in these worlds, and that’s just been such a joy.” 

For more on Jack Quaid, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here. 

My Adventures with Superman airs on Thursdays on Adult Swim and Fridays on Max.