Hero Fiennes Tiffin Talks Pressure of Growing Up with Famous Actor Uncles Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes (Exclusive)

Julia MooreSat, March 7, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC

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Hero Fiennes Tiffin (left); Ralph and Joseph Fiennes in 2005 (right)Credit: John Nacion/FilmMagic; Dave Benett/Getty -

Hero Fiennes Tiffin is nephew to his famous uncles Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes

The Young Sherlock star opens up to PEOPLE about what it was like growing up with Ralph and Joseph and how he "fell into" the family business

In Young Sherlock, Hero stars alongside his uncle Joseph for the first time, and he says he's keen to work with Ralph next

It's fair to say that the pressure was on when Hero Fiennes Tiffin began to pursue an acting career.

The 28-year-old was raised by cinematographer George Tiffin and director Martha Fiennes. He is also the nephew of Martha's two famous brothers, Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes.

"My mom's one of seven, so I didn't really see Joe and Ralph too, too much," Hero tells PEOPLE. "To me, they were always Uncle Joe and Uncle Ralph. They weren't, like, Uncle Joe and Uncle Ralph, the famous actors."

"When I would tell friends a story about one of my other uncles, I'd have to be like, 'So my uncle — not one of the famous ones,'" he says.

He was, of course, aware that there were "big shoes to fill" given the successful careers of both Ralph and Joseph, but his entrance into the industry was as natural as can be.

"I'm lucky that my family's in the industry, and I very much fell into it. My mom was just like, 'Do this audition, you'll get a day off school,' and I was sold by the day off school way more than the prospect of being an actor," he recalls. The audition was to play young Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the younger version of his uncle Ralph's character, Voldemort.

Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Joseph Fiennes attend the "Young Sherlock" World Premiere at Queen Elizabeth Hall on February 24, 2026 in LondonCredit: Simon Ackerman/Getty

"If your parents do something, at least for me, I was like, I don't want to [do that]. Especially when you're young, you're like, I don't know if that's very cool, to just do what my parents do," he says.

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"Then you get older, and you realize how lucky you are to have opportunities, and you give it a go, and you start to enjoy it."

"I love them both," he says of Ralph, 63, and Joseph, 55. "I've always loved the idea of working with both of them. In Harry Potter, I played the younger version of Ralph, but I didn't actually work with him."

For his newest role, in Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock series, Hero worked with Joseph, who played his onscreen dad, Silas Holmes. Now, he has his eye on working with Ralph next. "We've ticked Joe off the list, and we've got to get Ralph at some point."

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Joseph Fiennes, Zine Tseng, Dónal Finn, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Natascha McElhone, Max Irons in "Young Sherlock"Credit: Daniel Smith/Prime

Hero admits having his uncle on set upped the ante. "At the start of any show, I've got a bit of imposter syndrome. I'm like, 'Why are they trusting me to do this? It's a massive role.' The word daunting is definitely one I'd use. And then you get those nerves out the way, and you really start to enjoy it," he says. "And then Joe comes in, and you're like, 'Oh, I'm back to the bottom. I've got to prove to him that I can do it.' And I'm like, 'S---, I really hope he thinks I'm good.'"

Joseph was "super supportive" on set, Hero says, and it was "nice for me to find my feet as the character before" Joseph started filming. "I love doing all the scenes I did with him."

Young Sherlock is now streaming on Prime Video.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”