# Actor reference from child actor component **URL:** \ **Category:** Blueprint\ **Tags:** actor, casting, child-actor-componen, unreal-engine, Blueprint, question\ **Created:** [July 22, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098 "2015-07-22T03:35:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MugenCity](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@MugenCity](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/MugenCity)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/1 "2015-07-22T03:35:10Z")
Hey folks, Is it possible to get an actor(object) reference from a child actor component? i.e can I get an instance of a child actor to allow for me to call functions on it? I can’t seem to find a way to get the instance of the child actor from the child actor component variable. Cheers ---
**Author:** ![MugenCity](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@MugenCity](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/MugenCity)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/2 "2015-07-22T03:57:56Z")
Problem solved. With the parent blueprint, get the child variable, get the child actor from the child variable, then cast to the desired class. ---
**Author:** ![RAVaught](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@RAVaught](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/RAVaught)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 4:10am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/3 "2015-07-22T04:10:27Z")
Yeah. It is a bit of a contortionist act, currently. Hopefully they will correct that soon. If you are only picking through a very select few, you can also use tags to specify which of the child actors of a given type you want. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_e660f14a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_e660f14a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_e660f14a)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/4 "2015-11-23T13:36:06Z")
To me this is worded a bit strangely, so for anyone else who didn’t get it at first read: Drop a reference to the Child Actor Component into your graph, then drag off from that and “get child actor”. That gives you an actor reference that you can use as-is or cast to something more specific. It’s as easy as it possibly can be. ![67761-screenshot_get+actor+from+child+actor+component.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/c/2/2/c22ac569bce21bf35aa57881904a79b56aa59e3d.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_1111614c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_1111614c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_1111614c)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 1:31am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/5 "2016-02-02T01:31:26Z")
this is my usage. ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_1111614c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_1111614c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_1111614c)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 12:33pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/6 "2016-02-16T12:33:38Z")
yes it looks weird. looks like onion lol. but problem solved! thx a lot!!! ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_dd2d19541](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_dd2d19541](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_dd2d19541)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/7 "2016-11-06T16:51:06Z")
Thanks for this I have been banging my head against a wall and making loads of round about ways to get the actor references, this makes my life lots easier 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zodiac20](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Zodiac20](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Zodiac20)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 7:30pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/8 "2018-12-31T19:30:32Z")
Hi is there a way to do this the other way around? So from child actor I want to access variables from parent actor. ---
**Author:** ![Alecheck](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Alecheck](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Alecheck)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2021, 8:31am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/9 "2021-10-01T08:31:09Z")
![349704-how-to-ref-child.png](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/c/9/2c94441b7604570b2a807f17e1684659898a0c63.png) This works for me even I have two of the same child. No need to get reference from the children in your parent BP. ---
**Author:** ![BaseReality](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/basereality/32/893179_2.png) [@BaseReality](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/BaseReality)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 10:15pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/10 "2022-02-06T22:15:23Z")
Thanks, Just ran in to this. And you were correct about the wording. This is the solution ---
**Author:** ![utopia.Game2](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/utopia.game2/32/763789_2.png) [@utopia.Game2](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/utopia.Game2)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 4:18pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/11 "2023-12-04T16:18:03Z")
yea boy you saved me after 2 hours war with blueprint :DDDDD ---
**Author:** ![P1rw](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/p1rw/32/471604_2.png) [@P1rw](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/P1rw)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/actor-reference-from-child-actor-component/326098/12 "2024-06-01T17:51:44Z")
That helped me! Thank you!