Martin Scorsese's 3 Daughters: All About Cathy, Domenica and Francesca

Mar. 15, 2025

Martin Scorsese with daughters Francesca Scorsese, Cathy Scorsese and Domenica Cameron-Scorsese at the National Board of Review Awards in 2020.Photo:Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Martin Scorsesefinds inspiration in his children.

The Oscar-winning director, whose career has spanned five decades and more than 20 film, has three daughters: Cathy, Domenica andFrancesca. His girls were exposed to the movie industry from a young age and his youngest daughter even inspired him to produce the Academy Award-winning filmHugo, which was based on one of her favorite childhood books:The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

“Being a father at a later age is different from when I had my other two daughters when I was in my 20s and 30s. If you’re in your 60s and you’re with the kid every day, you’re dealing with the mind of a child, so it opens up that childishness in you again,” he toldParademagazine. “You start playing and getting into the fantasy of the kid, so you make up even crazier stories and suddenly we’re making this movie! She’s a lifesaver!”

Cathy Scorsese, Francesca Scorsese, and Domenica Cameron-Scorsese attends the “Killers Of The Flower Moon” red carpet during the 76th annual Cannes film festival in 2023.Gisela Schober/Getty

Gisela Schober/Getty

Scorsese — who welcomed each daughter with a different wife — serves as a guiding light for his children, who all hold careers in the film and television industry. Despite a 33-year age gap between his eldest and youngest daughter, the siblings are on good terms and have be seen together on red carpets supporting their father.

“I like being around them. I’ve learned a lot from that,” Scorsese toldGQ.

So, who are Martin Scorsese’s daughters? Read on to learn more about Cathy, Domenica and Francesca.

Cathy Scorsese, 59

Cathy Scorsese and Martin Scorsese at the “The Irishman” premiere on October 17, 2019 in Paris, France.Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis/Getty

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis/Getty

Cathy was exposed to the movie industry from a young age, as Scorsese brought her to the New York Film Festival’s opening night screening of his film,Mean Streets, when she was 8 years old. After the showing, when her father asked her what she thought about the film, she asked him how they made the blood in the film look so real. Her curiosity in the details turned into a decades-long career working in props.

In her mid-20s, she studied under prop master Jim Mazzola and furthered her education on the use of theatrical firearms to become a member of New York’s IATSE Local 52, the motion-picture studio-mechanics union. Her career includes working on sets such asThe Sopranos,Casino,The DepartedandBoardwalk Empire.

She also tried her hand at acting, making a cameo as Dolores inThe King of Comedy(1982) and playing Piscano’s daughter inCasino(1995).

Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, 48

Martin Scorsese, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, and Francesca Scorsese at the 2020 Netflix Oscar After Party.Rachel Murray/Getty

Rachel Murray/Getty

After Scorsese and Brennan divorced, theKillers of the Flower Moonproducer went on to marry journalist Julia Cameron. Within a year of tying the knot, they welcomed their daughter Domenica on Sept. 6, 1976.

Their daughter was raised in a creative environment, something Cameron praised in her 2013 book,The Artist’s Way for Parents: Raising Creative Children.

Domenica’s artistic upbringing paved the way for a career in show business. She studied filmmaking at Wesleyan University and Trinity College in Dublin, where she wrote and directed her first play. She produced her first short film,A Little God, in 2001, which won the Torchlight Short Film Award. After hitting a stumbling block in 2007 with one of her passion projects, she became the director for the 2016 feature film,Almost Paris.

“If there’s one piece of advice I have for aspiring filmmakers it’s this: Make something. The act of making something is more important than all of the reasons combined not to make something. It’s a lesson I learned the hard way,” she toldIndieWire.

She also has credits for her work in front of the camera including appearances in films such asCape Fear(1991),The Age of Innocence(1993) andThe Lurker(2019), and landed the lead role of off-Broadway bride Tina in the interactive comedy,Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding(2000).

As for her personal life, Domenica married husband Tony Frenzel in a Chicago ceremony in November 2011.

Francesca Scorsese, 25

Martin Scorsese and Francesca Scorsese attend “Fish Out of Water” during Shorts: Misdirection at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.Rob Kim/Getty

Rob Kim/Getty

Scorsese and his fifth and current wife, Helen Morris, welcomed their daughter, Francesca, on Nov. 16, 1999, approximately four months after saying, “I do.”

As a child, Francesca was immersed in filmmaking, which served as inspiration for her career.

“I mean, I practically grew up on film sets. It was literally my life. And I thought that life was really like playing pretend all the time,” she toldThe Hollywood Reporter. “I have so many memories — I mean, my dad put me on the prop plane fromThe Aviator, and I thought I was on a real plane, and then the turbulence started, and now I’m terrified of airplanes — I cannot fly! That was me when I was 3 years old. As I got older, I was like, ‘I want to do this.’ "

She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, which is also her father’s alma mater, and premiered her directorial debutFish Out of Waterin June 2023. The 25-minute drama, which follows a struggling young mom who has an opportunity to reconnect with her estranged family after her now-sober father shares news of her mother’s failing health, was Francesca’s thesis for NYU.

She is also comfortable in front of the lens, having played Britney Orton in HBO’sWe Are Who We Areand appeared in several of her dad’s projects, includingThe Departed,The AviatorandBoardwalk Empire.

“He is the best teacher, guide, just overall mentor — and also, he’s literally my best friend. I tell him everything,” she said of her father.

When the father-daughter duo aren’t working, they can be seen hanging out together and making viralTikTok videos. Scorsese first appeared on her TikTok in April 2021 and has made several cameos since, including when Francescaquizzed him on modern slangin October 2023.

The father-daughter duo’s latest collaboration was on a2024 Super Bowl commercialfor Squarespace. Francesca served as the behind-the-scenes creative director and captured Scorsese’s directorial process from start to finish.

source: people.com