Pete Holmes Children: Who Is His Daughter Lila Jane and How Has Fatherhood Inspired His Comedy and New Book?
Pete Holmes has spent years turning marriage, spirituality, awkward experiences and everyday life into comedy, but becoming a father gave him an entirely new source of stories. The comedian and actor has one child, daughter Lila Jane Holmes, whom he shares with his wife, Valerie Chaney.
Lila was born on September 25, 2018, less than a year after Pete and Valerie married. As of September 2026, she is seven years old and will celebrate her eighth birthday later this month. Holmes has generally avoided turning his daughter into a public personality, but fatherhood regularly finds its way into his stand-up, podcast conversations and creative work.
Most recently, Lila became part of the story behind her father’s first children’s picture book, Spells to Cast on Your Parents. Released in September 2026, the interactive book was developed with young readers in mind, and Holmes has said his daughter was one of the people who tested the idea before publication.
How Many Children Does Pete Holmes Have?
Pete Holmes has one child.
He and Valerie Chaney are parents to daughter Lila Jane Holmes, born in September 2018. Despite Holmes being a comedian who frequently talks about his personal life, the couple has been fairly careful about how much of their daughter’s private life becomes public.
That does not mean Lila is absent from his work. Quite the opposite. Holmes often talks about the experience of parenting, but usually makes himself and his reactions the center of the joke rather than exposing personal details about his daughter.
In a 2026 interview about the entertainment he enjoys with Lila, Holmes openly described himself as a father who is very interested in his daughter’s world. He discussed the movies, television, books, games and music they enjoy together while also acknowledging that he tries not to overload his comedy with stories about his child.
That balance has allowed audiences to hear plenty about Pete Holmes as a father without Lila herself becoming a celebrity child.
When Was Lila Jane Holmes Born?
Lila Jane Holmes was born on September 25, 2018.
Valerie announced her arrival shortly after the birth with a message welcoming their baby into a world filled with laughter, music, dogs and love.
Her birth came about 11 months after Holmes and Chaney married in October 2017.
Holmes had already experienced a complicated journey through marriage and divorce earlier in his adult life. His relationship with Valerie marked a more settled chapter, and becoming a father added another major change.
By 2026, family life has become a regular part of the comedian’s public conversations. Holmes is 47, meaning much of his recent comedy comes from the perspective of someone balancing middle age, marriage, work and raising a young daughter.
Who Is Lila Jane Holmes’ Mother?
Lila’s mother is Valerie Chaney, Pete Holmes’ wife and frequent podcast partner.
Valerie and Pete married in 2017 after dating for several years. Holmes famously proposed during a hot-air balloon ride, an experience that did not go quite as smoothly as he planned but eventually became another funny relationship story.
Valerie has worked in areas connected with mindfulness, movement and emotional well-being. She also regularly joins Pete on the recurring We Made It Weird episodes of his long-running podcast You Made It Weird.
The couple’s podcast conversations often move between jokes and more personal subjects, including relationships, therapy, spirituality and parenting.
That collaboration is still active in 2026. Holmes’ official podcast archive shows that Pete and Val continue releasing We Made It Weird episodes regularly, including new episodes in September 2026.
For listeners, these conversations have provided one of the clearest windows into how the couple approaches family life.
Pete Holmes Often Talks About Parenting
Fatherhood has changed some of the material Holmes explores as a comedian.
His humor has always been personal. Crashing drew heavily from his experiences as a young comedian whose marriage fell apart, while his stand-up has covered religion, relationships, therapy and the strange parts of everyday life.
Now parenting has joined that list.
Holmes’ 2024 stand-up special Silly Silly Fun Boy, which is currently available through his official site and YouTube, includes material influenced by family life and his experiences as a parent.
Some of his funniest parenting observations come from noticing how differently he and Valerie approach raising Lila compared with the way many adults of their generation remember being raised.
Instead of simply dismissing a child’s feelings, Holmes has joked about modern parents carefully acknowledging emotions and trying to understand what is happening underneath a difficult moment.
The humor works because he is making fun of himself as much as parenting culture.
Lila Inspired Pete Holmes’ First Children’s Book
Pete Holmes took his experience entertaining his daughter into an entirely new area in 2026.
On September 1, he released his debut children’s picture book, Spells to Cast on Your Parents, through Doubleday Books for Young Readers.
The book turns reading into an interactive game.
Children are encouraged to perform ridiculous imaginary spells on the adult reading with them. Those spells can make the grown-up behave strangely, fall asleep, speak in nonsense or make animal noises.
A sarcastic dragon named Jesse adds another layer to the story by doubting whether the child really possesses magical powers.
The entire idea fits Holmes’ style of comedy. It is silly on the surface but built around interaction and shared laughter rather than simply delivering a traditional story.
The publisher describes the book as being designed for children between roughly three and seven years old. It runs 40 pages and is available in hardcover, digital and audiobook formats.
Lila Helped Test Her Dad’s Book
Holmes had a particularly useful critic available at home while developing the children’s book.
His daughter helped test the concept.
Ahead of the book’s release, Holmes said that seven-year-old Lila had effectively given the project her approval. That made her more than simply an inspiration for the book. She helped give her father an idea of whether its interactive humor actually worked for the age group he wanted to reach.
That connection gives Spells to Cast on Your Parents a personal element that would not necessarily be obvious from the title.
Holmes was not simply a comedian deciding to enter children’s publishing. By the time he wrote the book, he had spent years reading, playing and watching stories with his own child.
The book quickly gained attention after publication. Random House Children’s Books currently describes it as a New York Times bestseller.
What Pete Holmes and His Daughter Enjoy Together
Holmes has offered a few glimpses into the ordinary things he and Lila enjoy together.
In early 2026, he described an ideal Sunday in Los Angeles as including time with Valerie and Lila. He noted that he and his daughter are both morning people, which often gives them time together before Valerie is fully awake. Their mornings can involve coloring, making breakfast or going out for drinks, with Lila choosing steamed milk so she can feel grown-up.
Entertainment is another big part of their relationship.
Holmes has discussed watching movies including The Nightmare Before Christmas and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with his daughter. They also play games together, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Uno and other family games.
Lila also enjoys books, giving her father an obvious audience for his move into children’s publishing.
These details paint a fairly ordinary picture of their relationship despite Holmes’ celebrity career. Much of their shared time seems centered around the same activities many parents and children enjoy at home.
Pete and Valerie Discuss Parenting on Their Podcast
The Holmes household also occasionally becomes a subject on We Made It Weird.
Unlike the main You Made It Weird interviews, which feature comedians, actors and other guests, We Made It Weird places Pete and Valerie together for more personal conversations.
Parenting regularly surfaces because it is such a large part of their everyday lives.
In earlier interviews, the couple discussed their interest in approaches such as Hand in Hand parenting, handling difficult behavior and trying to answer large childhood questions about subjects such as religion.
Those conversations suit Holmes’ broader interests.
He has spent much of his career exploring questions about belief, consciousness, emotional growth and what makes people behave the way they do. Becoming a father appears to have given those questions a practical new setting.
Instead of discussing those subjects only with philosophers, comedians or podcast guests, he now encounters them through raising a child.
Pete Holmes Keeps Lila’s Life Relatively Private
For all the stories Holmes tells about parenting, there is still a clear limit to what the public knows about Lila.
She does not maintain a celebrity profile of her own, and detailed information about her schooling or other private parts of her life is not something Holmes regularly publicizes.
That seems intentional.
His public stories tend to focus on the experience of being her father rather than trying to make his daughter part of his entertainment career.
It also helps explain why people searching for Pete Holmes children sometimes find relatively little biographical information beyond Lila’s name and birth date.
She appears in the occasional family story because she is naturally an important part of Pete’s life, but she is still being allowed to grow up primarily as a child rather than as a public figure.
Pete Holmes and His Daughter Today
Pete Holmes has only one child, daughter Lila Jane Holmes, but fatherhood has become increasingly visible in his creative life.
Lila is seven in September 2026 and approaching her eighth birthday. She lives with Pete and Valerie in Los Angeles, where family routines exist alongside Holmes’ stand-up touring, writing and podcast work.
His relationship with his daughter has influenced comedy, podcast conversations and now children’s publishing.
Spells to Cast on Your Parents may be the clearest example yet. Holmes took the silliness he shares at home and transformed it into a book designed to let other parents and children laugh together.
For anyone searching for Pete Holmes children, the answer is simple: he is the father of one daughter, Lila Jane. What is more interesting is how parenthood has gradually become part of the work of a comedian who has always built his career from whatever is happening in his real life.
