All About Billie Eilish's Parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O'Connell

Billie Eilish’s parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell, have been a fixture at all of her milestone moments

Billie Eilish has a lot of fans, but her biggest supporters are her parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O'Connell.

Baird and O'Connell met in 1984 while rehearsing for a play in Alaska and got married 11 years later, as they told Rolling Stone in 2019. They welcomed their son, Finneas O'Connell, in 1997 and Eilish in 2001, and from the moment they became parents, their acting careers took a backseat.

"As a parent, everything your kid does from the beginning is kind of amazing," Baird told The Guardian after Eilish became the youngest-ever solo headliner at Glastonbury in 2022. "I was blown away when she was playing the little club in our tiny area of Highland Park [in Los Angeles]. It just stays mind-blowing."

Baird and O'Connell have been extremely supportive of their children's musical endeavors, and have witnessed many major milestones in Eilish and Finneas' careers. In 2024, they joined their son and daughter at the Oscars, where Eilish and Finneas won Best Original Song for the tune "What Was I Made For?" from Barbie.

Here is everything to know about Billie Eilish's parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O'Connell.

Baird and O'Connell are both actors

Baird and O'Connell both spent time acting on stage and on screen. Baird appeared on Friends and Curb Your Enthusiasm and performed improv comedy with the Groundlings alongside Will Ferrell. She even taught improv to Melissa McCarthy, as the Bridesmaids actress shared on Watch What Happens Live.

O'Connell had small guest roles in episodes of The West Wing and NYPD Blue and spent some time on Broadway. Despite their credentials, they had difficulty finding success in L.A. after they started a family — something that bothered Eilish.

"Acting is super weird," she told Rolling Stone. "You can work for years and years and be the best in the world and never get a role, and you can be mediocre, do one audition, and become a huge star. For years, I saw my parents beat up over the fact that they didn't have it better."

She continued: "And that drove me insane — because they were really good! My dad is the best actor I've ever seen. And my mom can do all these voices and characters — she's incredible. So I wish they'd had more recognition. I actually want to make a movie and put them in it — I've never told anyone that."

Since Eilish's career took off, the whole family has worked as part of Team Eilish. They all tour together, with Baird helping manage Eilish's daily schedule while O'Connell uses his carpentry and tech skills to ensure everything runs smoothly. He and Eilish also share a podcast, me & dad radio.

Baird and O'Connell homeschooled Eilish and Finneas

Eilish has credited her unique personality and musical success to her homeschooling, and that's exactly what her parents were aiming for.

"Our whole stance was, general knowledge is all," O'Connell told Rolling Stone. "You need to know why the sky is blue, but you don't need to memorize a bunch of esoterica you'll never use." They seem to have succeeded — Eilish successfully passed her high school equivalency exam and graduated at only 15 years old."

"I learned how to do math by cooking with my mom … I learned, like, how to build s— from my dad," Eilish told Pitchfork's Over/Under in 2019. "What I'm saying is I learned s— in life … I feel like when you're sat down and somebody's like shoving things in your throat, you're not gonna want to eat them."

Baird echoed those sentiments in an interview with Your Teen magazine in 2015. "In L.A., there's a large homeschool community. Everybody's always out doing things, traveling, going places, meeting for classes and organizing field trips," she told the outlet. "It's like going to college. You take what you want, where you want it, and you find what you need … Home-schooling allows us to let them do the things that they really love to do and not have a giant academic schedule on top of it."

Eilish recorded her first album in her parents' home

Eilish has lived in the same house her entire life — a two-bedroom home in L.A.'s Highland Park neighborhood. In a video from the record label Awal, Finneas shared that his parents slept in the living room to allow their kids to have their own rooms — one of which eventually became the recording studio for Eilish's debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?.

While Finneas has since purchased two homes — one in Los Feliz and one in Malibu, California — and moved out of the family home, Eilish and her parents still live in the Highland Park house.

That made it particularly scary when their home was burglarized in January 2023. A suspect wearing all-black clothing and a mask was arrested after a call was made to the police around 9:15 p.m. The suspect was reportedly seen hopping over a fence and into the home's yard, though it's not clear if anything was stolen from the home.

Eilish brought her parents to Saturday Night Live

In December 2021, Eilish was both the host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Traditionally, the host introduces the musical guest, but since Eilish was doing both, her parents took the stage to introduce Eilish's first musical number of the evening.

For the special appearance, Baird wore a black sweatshirt with Eilish's face and "Billie's Mom" written on the front. Eilish sang her hit "Happier Than Ever." Later in the night, her brother Finneas also joined her on stage for a performance of "Male Fantasy."

Baird and Eilish started a vegan charity together

Baird and Eilish are both vegan, and when Eilish's tour was put on pause during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, they were inspired to support local restaurants and help people in need get food. They channeled that into the nonprofit Support + Feed, which launched in March 2020. The organization works toward "creating an equitable, plant-based food system and combating food insecurity and the climate crisis," according to its website.

"Plant-based food can feed more people, because that's how the food chain works," Baird told PEOPLE for the March 2022 Women Changing the World issue. "And we're helping the local economy and the planet; the impact of animal agriculture is devastating. There are also so many benefits to eating plant-based."

By 2022, Support + Feed had expanded beyond L.A. to the rest of the country, with programs set up in cities like New York, D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago and more. The mission has even gone global thanks to Eilish's eco-friendly Happier Than Ever tour. Eilish's team partnered with the nonprofit Reverb to make the tour "as green as possible" and to raise money for Support + Feed.

Thanks to funds raised from the tour, Support + Feed is now able to provide plant-based meals and education abroad as well in the U.S. In December 2022, the nonprofit officially launched in London, working with a local partner to deliver 1,800 meals.

"[We] partner with community organizations in the cities to uplift what they're already doing," Baird explained. "These organizations don't always have plant-based food provided for them, which they all are looking for, so it's a great combination."

Eilish added: "I have loved having Support + Feed out on tour. It really makes me feel there's a change in the air. It feels like there really has been change in the crowds and lots of people taking the pledge and being open-minded to the idea of eating plant-based."

In October 2023, Support+Feed held its first annual fundraiser in Los Angeles. Both Eilish and Finneas spoke at the event — taking the opportunity to praise their mother.

“I’ve been looking at my mom and I’m like, ‘Damn, she did that! And you guys supported that!” the “What Was I Made For” singer said during her speech. “I’m so in awe of my mother. I aspire to be more like you. This is such an incredible thing that you have done. I’m so impressed by you.”

Finneas added: "We paid off our mom’s mortgage, and she turned around and started a nonprofit immediately. Our mom, in many ways, is our North Star and moral compass across the board in our lives. And this is no exception."

Eilish says her mom is her "biggest inspiration"

Eilish loves how motivated her mom is to try to improve the world around her. "We, as people, hope for change, but often we just think it and say it. My mom is one of those people who really does it, and that's so amazing to me," she told PEOPLE during their March 2022 interview.

"She works so unbelievably hard," Eilish added. "She is so selfless, and she cares so much about people and the world in a way that I don't think you could even believe is possible."

And it's not just Baird's philanthropy that she finds inspirational — Eilish is also blown away by what a kind and loving person her mother is. "Her love shocks me, too," she said. "I can't believe she loves people the way she does. It's really beautiful."

O'Connell is super supportive of Eilish

Eilish has said she is most similar to her father, and she's often discussed how invaluable his support has been. In July 2020, she revealed on an episode of her podcast, me & dad radio, that he has supported her religious choices as well.

"When I was a little kid, I was super religious for no damn reason," she said. "My family never was religious, [but] for some reason, as a little girl, I just was incredibly religious. And then at one point … It just completely went away."

Her dad lightheartedly echoed that they were never a religious family, didn't talk about it and didn't go to church, but he did think it was "pretty marvelous" that she developed a belief system on her own.

"You had all these kind of organized thoughts about the whole thing," he recalled. "I didn't object to it. I didn't say you can't believe that."

Baird and O'Connell met President Biden at the White House

In February 2022, Eilish's parents accompanied her and her brother to one of the most prestigious appointments they've had so far: meeting the president at the White House.

"When I heard my friends @billieeilish and @finneas were in town for a show, I knew I had to invite them over to the White House," shared President Biden on Instagram. "Great to see you and your family — and I'm glad you got to meet [my dog] Commander."

A White House official told PEOPLE, "Billie and Finneas were supporters during Biden's campaign and the Biden family have been longtime fans of their music."

Baird later shared on Instagram that the day was "a peak life experience" and that she was "profoundly moved" by the conversation they shared. She added, "I will cherish the memory of this day!"

They watched their children become two-time Oscar winners

In March 2024, Eilish and Finneas won their second Oscar for the song "What Was I Made For?" from Barbie. The siblings previously won Best Original Song at the 2022 Academy Awards for the James Bond song "No Time to Die."

Baird and O'Connell were both in the audience at the 2024 Oscars. Earlier in the evening, the proud parents watched as their children received a standing ovation after a moving performance of their soon-to-be Oscar-winning song.

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