All About Sigourney Weaver's Child, Shar Simpson

'Alien' actress Sigourney Weaver and her husband welcomed their child in 1990

No matter how many sci-fi franchises she stars in or how many accolades she collects, Sigourney Weaver has always made it clear that her greatest role is being a mother to her only child, Shar Simpson.

"My [child] [Shar] is absolutely the most important thing to me," the Golden Globe-winning actress told The Guardian in 2010. "My family comes first, and I'm so grateful to them that they let me go off and make films. But, you know, I find it very difficult to leave them. I hate it. I have had therapy and found it helpful in dealing with the guilt I've felt about leaving them. Going to New Zealand to make Avatar when my [child] was applying to colleges almost killed me."

Weaver met her husband, theater director Jim Simpson, while she was at a bar with friend and fellow actor Christopher Walken in 1983. According to a 2023 interview with The Sunday Times, the Alien actress later invited him to a party and, after he stayed late to help her clean up, asked him out to dinner. The couple got married on Oct. 1, 1984, just three months later, and welcomed their first and only child, Shar, on April 13, 1990, in New York City. Weaver told The Sunday Times in 2023 that her child is nonbinary.

Though their mother has been in the spotlight for decades, Shar keeps a much lower profile working as a professor, interactive writer and creative producer.

Here's everything to know about Sigourney Weaver's child, Shar Simpson.

They were born in N.Y.C.

Like their mother, Shar was also born in N.Y.C. Their father, Jim, co-founded The Flea Theater in lower Manhattan in 1996 and stepped away from the role in 2015.

"I’m a New Yorker, so we stayed in New York City," Weaver told Edge Magazine when asked about where her family quarantined during the COVID-19 pandemic. "New Yorkers really do watch out for each other — even though it may not look like it."

According to their Instagram bio, Shar still resides in the city and refers to themselves as a "nyc based shrimp."

They're an only child

Shar is an only child. Weaver told The Guardian that she didn't get married until she was 34 and didn't want to have kids right away, and in 2007, the actress wrote in Esquire that it took her and her husband "a while" to become parents.

"By the time [Shar] arrived 11 years ago, [they were] so welcome," Weaver wrote. "[They've] been a huge source of joy for us. If I have any regrets, it's that I would have liked to have had more children. But you can't have everything. I'm thrilled beyond belief to have [them]."

They're a professor

Shar is currently an adjunct assistant professor at the Digital Storytelling Lab at Columbia University School of the Arts. Weaver told The Sunday Times that her child teaches "digital storytelling, bots, misinformation" and is "someone who is excited about AI and not frightened about it."

According to a 2019 interview the actress gave to Parade, Shar also got a dual master’s degree at the California Institute of the Arts in writing and interactive media.

"[They're] not in the industry, bless [their] heart,” Weaver said. “It’s a nightmare for parents in the business when their child says, ‘I want to be in show business,’ because we really know what it entails.”

According to their university bio, Shar has also written two Choose Your Own Adventure books — Eighth Grade Witch and Brooklyn Mermaid — under the name C.E. Simpson.

They told VoyageLA in 2021 that they’ve also designed extreme haunted houses and collaborated on immersive experiences that deal with artificial intelligence.

“I feel like my work is about those in-betweens, the undefined, messy and frazzled parts of existence,” Shar said. “There is so much complexity and depth to the unknown — the fragility and tenderness of ambiguity. I denied myself that space for a long time both in terms of my work and my personal identity.”

They've acted in Weaver's movies

Shar may not have followed in their parent's footsteps to Hollywood, but they did play a part in at least one of their movies. Playbill reported in 2003 that Weaver and Simpson featured their child in The Guys, a film adaptation of an Anne Nelson play that tells the story of an editor who helps a fire captain write eulogies for his firefighters who died in the 9/11 attacks.

Shar played Weaver's onscreen child in the movie, and Simpson played her husband.

"It was a very short shoot, and we don’t usually work together, so we can take turns with our [child]," Simpson, who also directed the drama, told IndieWire in 2003. "We also like to complain about whom we’re working with when we get home, and you can’t do that when you’re working together because you’re looking at ’em."

They're not intimidated by Weaver's success

Living with a mom who is as successful as Weaver could be daunting, but the actress insists that Shar is not fazed by it.

"Years after the success of Alien, I remember a friend saying to my [child]: 'Don't you know that your mom is a huge feminist icon for all women?' " Weaver told The Guardian.  "And [they] said: 'That goes in the little box of things I don't need to know.' In our family that's as it should be. Acting is a thing I do on the side."

Weaver has been open about having working mom guilt

The Ghostbusters actress maintains a fairly busy filming schedule, and in 2008, she told ABC News that the guilt of juggling work and motherhood was "enormous."

"To actually be able to work and not feel that tug all the time, would be great," Weaver said. "It's worse for me than for her. She's fine without me."

Weaver and Shar did get to spend some quality time together during the COVID-19 pandemic. The actress told The Sunday Times that her child became her hair stylist during lockdown.

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