All About Jack Antonoff's Parents, Rick and Shira Antonoff

Jack Antonoff's dad and mom, Rick and Shira Antonoff, are involved in his career

Throughout his life, Jack Antonoff has always been able to count on the support of his parents, Rick and Shira Antonoff.

Born in northern New Jersey to the couple on March 31, 1984, the Bleachers frontman and his sister, fashion designer Rachel Antonoff were raised in a creative household by their parents.

“They're really, really fun, strange people. Really creative people. They're complete weirdos, which I feel like makes for the most creativity," Rachel once told PEOPLE.

She also suggested that their parents are where her younger brother may have inherited some of his musical talents from. "My dad, he is a musician, but he never pursued it professionally. And my mom played the flute. It’s just wacky and fun, and it was definitely an imaginative house to grow up in," she said.

From their careers to supporting his music career, here’s everything to know about Jack Antonoff’s parents, Rick and Shira Antonoff.

They welcomed three children together

Rick and Shira both attended Boston University and raised their family in New Jersey.

The couple welcomed daughter Rachel on June 15, 1981, and Jack arrived three years later on March 31, 1984. Jack was primarily raised in New Milford, and the family later moved to Woodcliff Lake when he was a preteen.

Their youngest child, daughter Rachel, was born on June 12, 1989. At the age of 13 on Aug. 8, 2002, Rachel died after living with brain cancer.

Jack has spoken about how making music has been an outlet for him to work through the grief of losing his sister as a teenager. On his band Bleachers’ sophomore album Gone Now, released in 2017, Antonoff addresses a number of life experiences, including Sarah’s passing.

“Songwriting can be this tool to connect with people and talk about what you are going through,” he shared with PEOPLE. “There’s two parts of: the part that moves forward and the part that’s frozen. It’s very much a then versus now. For me, it’s 18 and younger, when my sister was alive.”

He added, “I used to write from a very lonely place, like, ‘Here’s my story, this is it.’ Now I’m writing from a place, like: ‘Well, everybody has that! Everybody’s got a then and now, and everybody’s trying to figure out how you not let go of the then but also not compromise the now.’ That’s the whole push and pull of this album.”

Rick is his daughter’s business partner

Rick worked as a business investor while raising his family, and he later became Rachel’s business partner in her fashion line. He opened up to Bonobos.com in 2019 about the adjustment period after coming on board to help manage the brand.

“The hardest thing was going from a parent where your kid depends on you, to where they transition into an adult,” Rick shared. “We’ve gotten out of the parent-child and have turned into true business partners.”

“We used to have one issue during meetings I find funny now,” Rachel agreed. “You know when you can feel someone’s eyes boring into you? I would feel that during business meetings early on, and I would look around and it was him, looking at me as someone he was extremely proud of, which was so sweet….”

However, Rick jumped in, noting, “But also patronizing. That was hard to get past. But if that slips in again, Rachel tells me I’m doing it again, and we just get back to work.”

As for Shira’s career, she worked as a nurse at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, before staying home to raise her kids.

They have modeled for Rachel’s clothing brand

In addition to working as Rachel’s business partner, Rick is also a frequent model for her fashion brand — as is Shira.

“I have yet to find something they won’t wear,” Rachel told PEOPLE. “My parents have been modeling for me since the beginning, and I keep thinking I'm pushing up against a line that they're not going to want to cross, and I'm not. They will literally do anything, it's crazy.”

Rick plays guitar with Jack

Around age 12, Jack began expressing interest in playing guitar. Rick, who studied under blues musician Reverend Gary Davis and is a trained ragtime player, says things took off quickly for his son.

“Then one day, literally overnight, [Jack] just got unbelievably great,” Rick told NJ.com. “He was getting sounds out of his guitar that I couldn't believe.”

Rick has since joined his son on guitar for multiple musical performances, including Saturday Night Live in 2022 and the Boston Calling Music Festival in 2023.

They have been in a Bleachers music video

Along with frequent collaborator Lana Del Rey and Jack’s wife Margaret Qualley, Rick and Shira made a cameo in Bleachers’ 2023 “Alma Mater” music video.

In the project, the Grammy winner takes a late-night drive through his native New Jersey in the video, and passes various people along his route, including his parents who can be seen engaging in a passionate kiss.

Rachel also makes an appearance in the video, wearing a construction hat as she holds up a stop sign and hugs a traffic cone.

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