Taylor Swift is unrivaled in the music industry, as arguably the 21st century’s most prolific and successful pop star. However, the singer comes from a family with a long history in showbusiness.
Swift’s maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (1928-2003) was a successful opera singer in Latin America. Born in Memphis, Finlay toured throughout Puerto Rico and Mexico, singing in Spanish as well as English. Finlay even hosted a TV series in Puerto Rico, El Show Pan-Americano. Swift cites her grandmother as an inspiration for her love of music, using the late singer’s vocals on “Marjorie,” a song dedicated to Finlay.
Fans of Swift’s music who are less cognizant of her albeit highly-publicized personal life, may be unaware that Swift has a younger brother who, like Taylor, has a shared love for the arts. Austin Swift, born in 1992, is three years younger than Taylor, and has worked as an actor since 2016.
Austin Swift’s movie debut was alongside Pierce Brosnan in the thriller movie I.T. (2016), later working with Ben Affleck and Zoe Saldaña in Live by Night (2015). Later, Swift had a guest role in Billy Ray Cyrus’ sitcom Still The King in 2017, before starring alongside Alexandra Daddario and Johnny Knoxville in the horror movie We Summon the Darkness (2019).
Although they have pretty separate careers, Austin Swift has appeared in some of Taylor Swift’s music videos. A younger version of Austin appears in home videos used in the songs “The Best Day” and “Christmas Tree,” with the latter depicting the siblings’ early life being raised on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania.
Taylor also references her brother directly in the lyrics of “The Best Day,” a song dedicated to her family and their support in the ups and downs of her adolescent life. In the country track, Taylor sings, “God smiles on my little brother/Inside and out he’s better than I am.”
Austin Swift has also dabbled as a producer, with credits on Taylor’s music video “I Bet You Think About Me,” directed by fellow actor Blake Lively, as well as his sister’s Disney Plus music special Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.
Austin Swift also got a nod for providing Taylor’s music for the animated kids’ film DC League of Super-Pets. Austin connected the film’s lead actor and producer, Dwayne Johnson, to his famous sister in order to get permission to use the re-recorded tracks “Bad Blood” and “Message in a Bottle”, ahead of the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), due for release October 2023.