If the Starks from the North are the unluckiest family that ever walked a fictional earth, the Benioffs are their polar opposite.
Marc Benioff is a successful San Francisco tech tycoon, cofounder and CEO of the city's largest tech company, Salesforce, and worth an estimated $3.6 billion.
Marc's dad, Russell Benioff, was also a successful San Francisco tycoon. Russel was a third-generation San Franciscan who built a chain of apparel stores, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
David Benioff is a successful novelist and script writer who, before Game of Thrones, was best known for his novel "The 25th Hour" (which he turned into a screenplay for Spike Lee) and for "City of Thieves." He also worked on the movies "The Kite Runner," and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Brothers," according to his bio.
David's dad is Stephen Friedman, the former head of Goldman Sachs. That means that David is, obviously, related to Marc through his mom Barbara Benioff. David took her maiden name an adult to end the chronic confusion with a bunch of other artists named David Friedman. Both Stephen Friedman and Barbara Benioff had a cameo walk on role in last year's Season 4 premier.
Marc and David are distant cousins who had the same great grandfather, Isaac. But they had never met until the 2015 Game of Thrones premier Gala held in San Francisco.
—Marc Benioff (@Benioff) March 23, 2015
—Marc Benioff (@Benioff) April 6, 2015
