Actor Pedro Pascal moved to San Antonio when he was nine. (Fred Duval/Shutterstock)
George Strait, Pedro Pascal, and other celebrities have lived in San Antonio. Below are seven notable examples.
There’s something special about San Antonio, isn’t there? It’s full of Texas history, has a beautiful walkability along the San Antonio River Walk, and has some of the best Tex-Mex you’ve ever tasted. Many celebrities were born here or lived here at one point—and still have fond memories.
George Strait, Pedro Pascal, and Carol Burnett are just some of the proud San Antonians who have made big names for themselves. Some of these celebrities were just born here—others have returned as adults because the pull to their hometown is just too strong. (C’mon, if your roots were in San Antonio, then you’d do the same!)
Keep reading to discover seven celebrities with ties to the Alamo City.
1. George Strait
George Strait is as Texan as they come. He basically invented the Texas country music genre and has sold over 100 million records worldwide. And San Antonio is where he decided to hang up his hat!
The “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” singer was born in Poteet and grew up in Pearsall, southwest of San Antonio. He lived in San Antonio for a while, flying a private jet to travel to concerts and more, which he called his “personal honky-tonk time machine.”
In 2021, he sold his nearly 8,000-square-foot San Antonio home, according to the San Antonio Current, after cutting the price from $10 million to $6.9 million.
2. Jared Padalecki
The “Gilmore Girls” alum was born in San Antonio. He told Garden & Gun in 2021 that his parents still live in the house he grew up in.
“I loved my childhood. I’d bike, skateboard, play basketball, skin my knees, and jump fences. I was outside all the time,” he told the outlet about growing up in San Antonio. “You’d play for an hour and then go drink some water out of the nearest spigot on the side of the house and go back to playing. We lived by a train track, so we’d go out there and try to set up a penny and let it get smushed or throw rocks at passing cars, which probably wasn’t intelligent, but there wasn’t a whole lot to do.”
“My mother and father came from pretty simple upbringings, and they built a life and had some kids and now my brother is a surgeon, my sister is an architect, and I wear makeup for a living,” he added.
Now the “Supernatural” star lives in nearby Austin.
3. Carol Burnett
Famous comedian Carol Burnett was born in San Antonio in 1933. In a 2018 interview with the Houston Chronicle, Burnett reflected on her childhood in the Lone Star State.
“I remember we lived in an old house that had seen better days,” she told the Chronicle, per San Antonio Current. “I used to roller skate in front of the house, and the sidewalk was all cracked and buckled. I would fall down and skin my knee, and my grandmother would chase after me with the iodine. I’d run screaming.”
So, she started roller skating inside, of course! When she returned to her childhood home as an adult, which now houses a nonprofit that helps kids after school, Burnett revealed that the skate marks are still there. Such a cool piece of history!
4. Pedro Pascal
When Pedro Pascal was just 9 years old, his family fled General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile and relocated to San Antonio.
The “Materialists” star told Vanity Fair in July 2025 how his mother got her PhD at Trinity University in San Antonio. Whenever she didn’t have a babysitter lined up, she would drive to the local movie theater and drop him off, the outlet reported on Pascal’s childhood. He was seven years old and would watch two and a half showings of “Poltergeist” before his mom picked him up.
In middle school, Pascal’s family relocated to Orange County, California, but he still has fond memories of his time in Texas, even admitting at South by Southwest in 2023 that he prefers San Antonio’s tacos, per My San Antonio.
5. Megan Thee Stallion
Although the rapper Megan Thee Stallion was technically born in San Antonio, she grew up in Houston. In 2020, the “WAP” rapper answered Tweets about herself online, including someone asking if she was actually from San Antonio.
“I am 100% from Houston, Texas, but my mother was pregnant with me in Houston,” she revealed, per San Antonio Current. “My grandmother is from San Antonio, and she was like, ‘You need to come have this baby in San Antonio.’ So my momma drove me to San Antonio, had me in the hospital, and took me right back to the H.”
6. Eva Longoria
Originally from Corpus Christi, Eva Longoria has very fond feelings toward San Antonio. She was previously married to San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker, where they lived in a 53-acre home near Boerne, northwest of San Antonio, according to the Austin-American Statesman.
In 2023, the “Desperate Housewives” star told Kelly Clarkson that she was ready to move back to San Antonio. “I’m moving home — I’m moving back to San Antonio,” she said on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” adding that “the best Tex-Mex is in San Antonio.”
As of now, Longoria lives in Spain with her husband, Jose Baston, and their 7-year-old son.
7. Shaquille O’Neal
Before playing basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers (or any of his other NBA teams), Shaquille O’Neal shot hoops at Cole High School in San Antonio, leading his team to win the state championship his senior year. In a 2024 interview on the “Creativo” podcast, per My SA, he credits growing up in San Antonio with teaching him a lot.
“I’m very familiar with the Hispanic culture,” O’Neal said. “Grew up playing basketball in San Antonio. My best friends, the Ramos family, taught me a lot. Taught me about fajitas, taught me about tacos, taught me about Guantanamera, Fiesta [the 10-day festival celebrating San Antonio culture]. So I’m very familiar with the culture.”
You gotta love a star who honors his roots!
