Andy Samberg’s 2 Kids: Everything He’s Said About Being a Father (Including How “SNL” Prepared Him for the Birth of His Daughter!)
Andy Samberg and his wife, Joanna Newsom, welcomed a daughter in 2017 and a second child a few years later
Andy Samberg and his wife, Joanna Newsom, welcomed a daughter in 2017 and a second child a few years later
Andy Samberg shares two kids with his wife, musician Joanna Newsom.
The couple dated for five years before getting married in September 2013. Fast forward, Samberg's rep confirmed to PEOPLE that the pair had quietly welcomed a baby girl in August 2017. Their family grew again with the addition of a second child. Samberg's fellow Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone revealed the news on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in February 2023.
Samberg and Newsom keep their family life private and have not shared their children's names. Still, as a personality who wears multiple hats — comedian, actor, musician, writer and producer — Samberg has had to learn how to balance his career with fatherhood behind the scenes.
Related: Who Is Andy Samberg's Wife? All About Musician Joanna Newsom
In February 2021, he revealed during E!'s Golden Globes pre-show that while he worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was grateful for the extra family time.
"A lot of these days are with the family, with my wife and daughter. Like sitting out in the sun or something, dancing in the kitchen," the Saturday Night Live alum said. "But I would say I feel [moments of bliss] a lot these days. That's the one true silver lining of being homebound — so much wonderful family time."
From how he prepared for fatherhood to how his children share his sense of humor, here's everything Andy Samberg has said about his two kids.
Samberg's daughter was born in 2017
While Samberg's daughter's name and date of birth are unknown, PEOPLE confirmed the actor welcomed his first child in August 2017.
After spending late nights working on the SNL set, Samberg was used to not always getting the best sleep. In July 2018, he told The New York Times his time on the show served as "good training for parenthood."
"The sleep deprivation part of it has been like, 'Oh, right — this feeling,' " he said. "But there's so much less stress because the baby's not going live at 11:30."
Even with all the sleepless nights, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine star said he loved his first year of fatherhood.
"It's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. Just like a beautiful, incredible dream," he told the outlet. "It has surpassed every expectation I ever had. It's definitely been very blissful."
Samberg's daughter has his sense of humor
Samberg's daughter seems to be taking after her father when it comes to her sense of humor. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in September 2017, the actor revealed what amused the infant.
"She's still really young, but she has started just sitting there and making fart noises with her mouth and then laughing really hard," he said. "So I was like, 'Oh, well, I've taught her everything I know.' "
A few years later, in March 2021, Samberg shared an anecdote on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert about how his daughter had moved on to "doing bits" which was a "dream" for him.
"I'll walk in her room, and she's clearly up to something, and I'll go, 'What's going on kiddo,' and she'll be like, 'Oh Daddy, everything here is totally normal. Nothing to see here, Daddy,' " he recalled. "And I'm just like, 'What are you watching old comedies?' She's got all the lingo down."
Despite her humorous tendencies, Samberg also told host Stephen Colbert that his daughter didn't always think he was funny.
"There was a long time where she would talk a lot about how Mommy was funny, and Daddy is not funny," he said. "But now she's keying into my thing. She realizes like I'll just keep doing something until she laughs."
She spends some mornings with Samberg
The SNL alum may be a busy actor and producer, but he tries to prioritize time with his daughter in the morning. In doing so, Samberg has gotten reminders about staying active to keep up with her.
"Every week I'm injuring my neck and back picking up my kid," he told PEOPLE in 2020. "I definitely have reached the age where I should be stretching first thing in the morning, every day, if I'm going to be picking up a child."
He continued, "And sometimes I remember to do that and on those days, I feel like a good dad. [But] on the days that I don't do it ... there's a lot of, 'No, I can't pick you up right now, sweetie.' "
Samberg also revealed that he and Newsom split parenting duties in the morning and often trade off getting up with their little girl.
"Some mornings you do it all together as a family, but it's been very nice in terms of, like, tonight I can stay up a little later and know that I don't have to get up super early," he said.
Samberg enjoyed singing to his daughter when she was a baby
While Newsom is a professional musician, Samberg also tried his hand at singing their daughter a lullaby when she was an infant.
In a segment for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he shared that he would often "sing this old standard called 'Moonshiner.' "
"The version that I know the best is by Bob Dylan, which lyrically is not really super appropriate for a child," he added. "But it's a really beautiful melody, and for some reason, I could do it in a way that was soothing to her and didn't sound terrible."
She likes to play music and cook
During an appearance on Conan in August 2020, Samberg revealed that his daughter was gifted a small harp as a baby and eventually started to imitate Newsom, who plays the harp professionally.
"There's a company, Lyon & Healy, that makes harps and ... when it got out that we had had a kid, they very nicely sent a very tiny Lyon & Healy child harp to us as a gift," he said. "My daughter does sometimes get on there and sort of start strumming it and emulating her mom. It's pretty cute."
A glimpse of the toddler-sized harp can be seen in Samberg's July 2020 GQ feature, in which the actor is photographed with the light pink instrument and mentions that his then-3-year-old daughter's harp skills were "not bad."
Around the same time, Samberg told The New York Times that cooking is another one of his daughter's favorite activities.
He shared that he and his wife were sent a copy of Fanny at Chez Panisse: A Child's Restaurant Adventures with 46 Recipes by Alice Waters when their daughter was an infant and have made a few items together.
"We've done corn muffins, carrot and parsley salad, and ... we're helping her more than she realizes, but we're not about to tell her that that's the case," he said. "We just want her to feel inspired and emboldened to do it at all, and feel like she can make things. It's pretty damn cute."
Samberg's daughter loves The Nutcracker
In January 2022, Samberg revealed to PEOPLE that his daughter is a huge fan of The Nutcracker.
"It's going on three years now, she's obsessed with The Nutcracker," the comedian said. "I keep expecting it to tail off, but instead, it's only growing. I know that music now so well and I have to say it's so good, so much of movie scoring."
He continued, "I see the influence of The Nutcracker and Tchaikovsky, it's been a really cool thing to see through her eyes, but also just to learn about as an adult getting more into it."
His daughter's love of the famous ballet started with a gift. Samberg told Men's Journal in March 2020 that she was given a book about The Nutcracker where "you push the buttons, and it plays snippets of the music," and it became "all she wants to hear."
Samberg waited to watch animated movies with his daughter
Samberg has starred in multiple animated movies, including Hotel Transylvania and Storks, but as of 2022, his daughter had yet to watch them or any others.
"She's still a little too young, but I'm feeling really confident knowing I have four in the hopper," Samberg told USA Today in January 2022. "I actually made a choice to stop watching all the animated stuff over the last four years so that I would have it saved up to watch for the first time when she does start, so we can do it together."
Some of the films he's skipped are Encanto and Moana, which the comedian said he "can't wait" to see.
"It's going to be exciting," he told the outlet. "I was talking to my wife the other day about how I can't wait to watch E.T. with her. Stuff like that where we're both like, 'Oh, we're going to cry!' "
Samberg and Newsom welcomed a second child a few years after their daughter
Though the couple didn't announce the birth of their second child, Samberg's fellow Lonely Island member Taccone shared that they had welcomed another baby.
The comedian revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that he was originally supposed to star in 2022's Weird: The Al Yankovic Story with his fellow bandmates, including Samberg, but it didn't come to fruition.
"We were supposed to do a cameo, like as The Lonely Island, and it coincided with Andy having his second child," he said.