The son of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall was never going to be a shrinking violet, and 21year-old James has already channelled his inherited exhibitionism into a promising acting career. His performances at the London fringe venue The King's Head even had the hard-toplease reviewer Nicholas de Jongh declaring him a "natural-born, versatile actor".

But his parts in Lone Star and Private Wars are relatively small, and his humility during interviews has dispelled much of the speculation that he was yet another brat to benefit from celebrity nepotism.

James is not the only Jagger offspring to pursue a high-profile career: Lizzy is a model, while their half-sister Jade is a designer.

Stella McCartney

Graduating from Central St Martin's 12 years ago, Stella McCartney has gone from being just another famous person's daughter dabbling in the celebrity social scene to a world-renowned fashion pioneer in her own right. With friends Yasmin Le Bon, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell dropping by to model for her final graduate show, her career was always set to be fast-tracked.

And after producing only two collections at the fashion house Chloe she was appointed creative director at the age of just 25. Karl Lagerfield, her predecessor at the label, was said to have remarked: "Chloe should have taken a big name. They did, but in music not fashion. Let's hope she's as gifted as her father."

Scarlet Page

When the opening notes of your father's 'Stairway to Heaven' are so famous they are banned from being imitated in guitar shops across the world, escaping from his shadow will never be easy. But Scarlet Page, daughter of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy, has used her family's rock connections to further her own career and has become one of the most celebrated celebrity photographers in Britain, shooting everyone from the White Stripes to Robbie Williams and contributing to a host of music magazines, including Kerrang! and Q.

Her exhibition, 'Your Child', which opened at the Royal Albert Hall yesterday, explores a subject she knows intimately: the private lives of celebrities and their children. Her portraits of personalities such as Sadie Frost, Keith Allen and Shaun Ryder make up the first music-related photo exhibition to be staged at the venue.

Her big break came soon after completing a BA in photography, film and video, when she worked as an assistant for the rock photography master Ross Halfin, whose reputation was built largely on photographing Led Zeppelin. However, Page insists that "I fell into the music industry, but I never used my dad's name to get where I am".

Liv Tyler

Liv Tyler's rock heritage is so strong that there was a time when it was unclear just which rock star had parented her. When she was born, her father, Aerosmith's Steve Tyler, was reportedly so heavily into drugs that her mother claimed she was the child of a fellow rocker, Todd Rundgren. Tyler's acting roles have been squeakily clean-cut. Her first major part, as Grace Stamper in Armageddon, was a traditional romantic heroine. Her whiter-than-white screen image reached celestial heights in the film adaptations of The Lord of The Rings, when she played the elf queen Arwen Undomiel. In her personal life she returned to her roots, marrying the British rocker Royston Langdon in 2003.

Otis Ferry

Like his father, the Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry, the young Ferry has been a tearaway of sorts, but his brushes with the law have been more public school high jinks than rock 'n' roll misdemeanours. The pro-hunt campaigner is best known for breaking into the House of Commons to protest against anti-hunting legislation in 2004. Despite being charged under the Public Order Act, he was only fined �350 ( 515) and given an 18-month conditional discharge.

The 24-year-old master of the South Shropshire hunt is a fully-fledged countryphile, and once claimed to "hate" Londoners. This has not stopped him taking work in the city as a part-time model for Burberry, or from being linked to various nightclub brawls at chic city venues.

Anna Gabriel

Her upbringing in the countryside was far from outrageous and her parents even made her promise not to smoke until her 18th birthday . . . but much of the inspiration for Anna Gabriel's work has come from her father's profession.

One of the 32-year-old film-maker and photographer's greatest breaks in the film industry was a documentary which followed her father Peter on his 2002 Growing Up tour. Successive films she has directed have again used Gabriel senior as the subject and much of her stills photography has focused on musicians. She has also worked on music videos, including 'Gainesville Rock City' by Less Than Jake and 'Let's Embrace' by Joseph Arthur.

Moon Unit

Zappa With a name like Moon Unit, the daughter of the musician, composer and film director Frank Zappa had little choice but to turn her hand to comedy. Hastily dropping her middle name, the eccentric performer has worked as a stand-up comic as well as an actress and an author. She won the Aspen Comedy Award for "best alternative comic" and has had a series of television walk-on parts, including a notable appearance as a burqa-clad Muslim in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Her semi-autobiographical novel, America The Beautiful, about the complexities of growing up as hippie royalty, was a limited success. This might have had something to do with its rather unfortunate release date, 11 September 2001.

Shaun Fenton

The glam rocker Alvin Stardust was known for his one-piece leather suits, outrageous flares and spangly jewellery, but his son is likely to be found in considerably more demure attire. Shaun Fenton committed the ultimate act of rebellion from his rock roots . . . by deciding to become a teacher. The Oxford graduate is headteacher of Pate's Grammar School in Cheltenham. He says his outlook is not so different from that of his father, whom he claims is an unlikely advocate of school uniforms. According to Fenton, the 'My Coo Ca Choo' singer is quite a traditionalist: "He has very clear standards himself about the importance of learning, of good manners and of uniform in school".

Zowie Bowie

Known variously as Duncan Jones, Joey Bowie and Zowie Bowie, son of the Ziggy Stardust creator David, has received acclaim for his early forays into advertising. Last year, his racy advert for French Connection attracted much media attention.

Part of the risque FCUK branding, the advert featured two women fighting and then kissing, sparking outrage in the rightwing press.

After graduating from the London Film School, Bowie junior, whose birth inspired the song 'Kooks', struggled to make it as a film director. After years of aspiring to work in movies, he turned to advertising as a way to keep working. Now, the 34-year-old has reportedly broken into the film industry, and is said to be working on a sci-fi film.