Lenny Kravitz’s mother, Roxie Roker, was an actress most famous for ‘The Jeffersons,’ while his father, Sy Kravitz, was a producer for NBC
Lenny Kravitz is the son of two Hollywood powerhouses.
The “Fly Away” rocker is the son of Roxie Roker, an actress best known for portraying Helen Willis on Norman Lear’s classic sitcom The Jeffersons, and NBC producer Sy Kravitz. Growing up in New York before moving to Los Angeles for his mother’s work on The Jeffersons, his parents fostered Lenny’s love of music, taking him to concerts from the Jackson 5 to Duke Ellington.
Plus, self-proclaimed “mama’s boy” Lenny said he knows his mother Roxie would be “very proud” of his daughter Zoë Kravitz, whom he shares with ex-wife Lisa Bonet and has become an actress in her own right, starring in films like The Batman and Divergent and series like Big Little Lies and High Fidelity.
“She’s her own person with her own identity, and it’s a wonderful thing to see,” he told PEOPLE in 2020. “I know that my mother is very proud of her — not just her accomplishments, but her behavior, her attitudes, the way she has done what she’s done and the kind of human being that she is.”
Lenny’s mother Roxie died of breast cancer in 1995, while his father Sy died in 2005.
So, who are Lenny Kravitz’s parents? Here’s everything to know about Sy Kravitz and Roxie Roker.
Roxie was a groundbreaking actress best known for portraying Helen Willis on The Jeffersons
Lenny’s mother Roxie was an actress best known for playing Helen Willis on the long-running Norman Lear CBS sitcom The Jeffersons. While Roker was in an interracial marriage in her personal life, she was also part of one on-screen: Roker and her costar Franklin Clover, who played her fictional husband Tom Willis, were among the first interracial couples shown on primetime television.
Roker also had roles in series like Roots, Punky Brewster, Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Additionally, Roker was a distinguished theater actress, winning an Obie Award and being nominated for a Tony for her role of Mattie Williams in The River Niger.
In his 2020 memoir Let Love Rule, Lenny wrote that Roxie was raised in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, by her father Albert Roker, a Bahamian immigrant, and her mother, who was born in Georgia and worked as a domestic. Roxie graduated from Howard University as a drama major with honors before studying at the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-Upon-Avon and joining a theater company in Copenhagen.
Lenny was very close with his mother, writing that “Mom was and is my heart.” When he was little, he explained that Roxie “introduced a game where she became a character named Ruff Ruff, a magical dog.”
“Ruff Ruff wanted to hear whatever was on my mind, all the bad things that might have happened during the day, all my fears … Ruff Ruff always understood me,” he wrote. “Roxie Roker was a gifted actress, mother and empath who understood how to combine all three roles.”
Sy was a television news producer for NBC
After starting as a page, Sy worked his way up to become a journalist-producer for NBC when he met Lenny’s mom Roxie, Lenny wrote in his memoir. Before his career in news, Sy was an Army Green Beret who served in the Korean War and remained in the Army Reserve after he returned to the United States. His parents, Joe and Jean Kravitz, resided in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, in a Russian-Jewish community.
Lenny wrote that his father shared the family’s love of the arts, but this creativity was usually tamped down by his army training.
“He loves music, especially jazz and theater,” Lenny wrote. “He has his artistic side, but it’s overpowered by order and discipline.”
Sy and Roxie married in 1962 and welcomed Lenny in 1964
Sy and Roxie met at 30 Rock, where Roxie supported herself being an assistant to a high-ranking NBC boss while performing in Off-Broadway productions on the side. In his memoir, Lenny wrote that Roxie was initially suspicious of the relationship because Sy had been married before to a woman named Erika and wasn’t close with his two daughters, Laurie and Tedi; to win her affections, Roxie encouraged Sy to form a relationship with them.
The couple married in 1962, with Lenny adding that “Dad’s parents, heartbroken that their son is marrying a Black woman (and a gentile to boot), refuse[d] to attend.” Ultimately, he said, it took “my birth to bring them around.”
They welcomed Lenny on May 26, 1964. He was named for Sy’s younger brother Leonard Kravitz, who died in the Korean War at 20 years old while sacrificing his life protecting his platoon. For his service, he was ultimately awarded a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor.
