11 Celebrities Who Were Raised Mormon

Amy Adams, Derek and Julianne Hough, Katherine Heigl, Ryan Gosling, and other Hollywood celebrities had a Mormon upbringing that had a big impact on their life. This is a list of celebrities who were raised Mormon.

Amy Adams

She was born in Italy and raised Mormon in Colorado.

“It provides a support system if you embrace it, despite all the controlling and guilting aspects of religion that I grew to resent,” Amy said in 2013 about Mormonism.

Paul Walker

He grew up a member of the LDS in Glendale, California.

“The people I don’t understand are atheists,” Paul Walker once said. “I go surfing and snowboarding, and I’m always around nature. I look at everything and think, ‘Who couldn’t believe there’s a God? Is all this a mistake?’ It just blows me away.”

Benson Boone

He grew up Mormon with a devout religious family. Benson Boone even studied private Mormon university Brigham Young University-Idaho for a semester.

Chelsea Handler

Her mom, Rita, was a Mormon born in Germany, while her dad, Seymour, was an American Ashkenazi Jew.

“I grew up as a Jew and a Mormon,” Handler said. “My mom was Jewish, and my dad was Mormon. I chose Jewish, obviously. Mormonism is so ridiculous. But I related to that conflict of religion for both parents.”

Christina Aguilera

She was raised Mormon by her parents, who were serving the Church of Latter-day Saints. Aguilera is now a Roman Catholic.

Katherine Heigl

Katherine Heigl was raised in the LDS while growing up in Connecticut. Even if the actress no longer practices Mormonism, Heigl still lives in Utah to be closer to family.

Brandon Flowers

Brandon Flowers, the frontman singer of the Killers, grew up in Las Vegas as a member of the LDS.

In 2011, he joined the “I’m a Mormon” national media campaign.

“I was raised in it,” Flowers revealed.“There’s still a fire burning in there. I’m a father, and I’m a husband, and I’m a Mormon.”

“There are a lot of funny stereotypical things about us Mormons, like that we love eating Jell-O,” he said in another interview for The Guardian. “Such a lot of Jell-O. We also have funeral potatoes, which are served at our funerals and are so good, they’re to die for.”

Jewel

She grew up in a Mormon household in Alaska.

“I grew up in a very traditional Mormon family,” Jewel said. “But everything changed when my mom left.”

Julianne and Derek Hough

Julianne and Derek Hough were raised as Mormons outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. However, they no longer identify as active members of the LDS.

She said for the New York Post in October 2013:

“I’m not practicing, but I’m so glad I was raised Mormon.”

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling was raised in Cornwall, Ontario, by his parents, Donna and Thomas Gosling. The Goslings were devoted followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ‘I grew up Mormon. I wasn’t really Mormon, my parents were. “My mom was really cool. She said, ‘This is an option, but this isn’t the only option,”‘ he said.

“My parents were more Mormon than I was, but it did help me understand,” Gosling told The Village Voice in 2002. “I see how happy it makes my mother and sister, and I think it’s beautiful.”

Ryan’s religious background influenced him to land the main role in The Believer, a 2001 film that follows a young Jewish student.

Eliza Dushku

Eliza was raised a Mormon, the faith of her mother.

Dushku confessed in an interview that “There will always be that part of me that’s Mormon.”

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