Early Life & Family
Phinnaeus was born on November 28, 2004, in Los Angeles, California. Besides Hazel, he has a younger brother named Henry Daniel Roberts (born June 18, 2007).
Phinnaeus’ mother, Julia Roberts, is one of the greatest and most influential actresses of all time. She has won one Academy Award for Best Actress (2000, ‘Erin Brockovich’), one BAFTA (2000, ‘Erin Brockovich’), and three Golden Globe Awards (1989, ‘Steel Magnolias’; 1990, ‘Pretty Woman; and 2000, ‘Erin Brockovich’). Roberts hails from Smyrna, Georgia and has two siblings, brother Eric and sister Lisa, both of whom are actors themselves. Eric’s daughter, Phinnaeus’ cousin, Emma, is also an actress. As a child, Julia aspired to become a veterinarian but later moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting. In 1988, she made her acting debut in the comedy-drama ‘Satisfaction’. She earned her first Oscar nomination for portraying a young bride with diabetes in the 1989 comedy-drama ‘Steel Magnolias. Later, the 1990 romantic-comedy ‘Pretty Woman’ established her as one of the biggest stars of Hollywood at the time. In the ensuing years, she has appeared in films, such as ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ (1991), ‘Hook’ (1991), ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ (1997), ‘Stepmom’ (1998), Notting Hill’ (1999), ‘Erin Brockovich’ (2000), ‘The Mexican’ (2001), ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ (2001) ‘Confessions of a Dangerous Mind’ (2002), ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ (2003), ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ (2004)’, ‘Charlotte's Web’ (2006), ‘Charlie Wilson's War’ (2007), ‘Eat Pray Love’ (2010), ‘Larry Crowne’ (2011), and ‘Ben is Back’ (2018).
Phinnaeus’ father, Daniel Moder, is a Primetime Emmy-nominated cinematographer. He made his debut in the film industry as a production assistant on the 1995 submarine film ‘Crimson Tide’. He subsequently worked on a couple of films as a camera loader before being hired as a second assistant cameraperson on the action thriller ‘Enemy of the State’. One of his first movies as a cinematographer was the 2002 family film ‘Grand Champion’. In the following years, he has been involved with projects, such as ‘Full Frontal’ (2002), ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ (2003), ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ (2005), ‘Spider-Man 3’ (2007), ‘Point Break’ (2015), and ‘Ibiza’ (2018). He received the Emmy nomination for his work in the 2014 telefilm ‘The Normal Heart’.
Roberts and Moder met while they were filming ‘The Mexican’ in 2000 and got married on July 4, 2002, at Roberts’ ranch in Taos, New Mexico. In 2010, Roberts revealed, during an interview to ‘Elle’ magazine, that she is a practitioner of Hinduism. She is a follower of guru Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-Ji), whose photograph originally made her interested in Hinduism. In 2009, her children were renamed after various Hindu deities by Swami Daram Dev of Ashram Hari Mandir in Pataudi, Haryana, India. At the time, Roberts was in Pautadi filming ‘Eat Pray Love’. Swami Daram Dev named Phinnaeus, Ganesh; Hazel, Laxmi; and Henry, Krishna Balram.
Exposure to the Spotlight
By the time Phinnaeus was born, Roberts had begun living a much quieter life. While she was still one of the most bankable stars of Hollywood, her name had pretty much vanished from the gossip columns. This enabled her to offer her children a relatively normal childhood. Phinnaeus and his siblings are still often photographed by the paparazzi but they do not experience the press hysteria that many other celebrity children do.
In 2006, he was featured in one episode of ‘VH1: All Access’. Phinnaeus, under the stage name of Finn Moder, made his acting debut in ‘Mother’s Day’ in 2016, portraying a character credited as Ring Bearer Dominic. This was Hazel and Henry’s first film as well. Besides the siblings and Roberts, the film also stars Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, and Jason Sudeikis.
