Hollywood Rediscovered Mahjong. Here's the American Version Beginners Actually Need.
Julia Roberts, Blake Lively and Meghan Markle have all been spotted at the tile table. The game they mean is American mahjong, and it plays by its own rules. If you came in from the celebrity buzz, start here.
Published 2026-09-06 · Independent guide, not affiliated with the National Mah Jongg League.
The 2026 mahjong moment is real
Mahjong has been a fixture of American social life since the 1920s, but something shifted in 2025 and 2026: a cluster of well-known names turned it into a headline. The reports are easy to verify, and they point in one direction.
- Julia Roberts has talked for years about her weekly mahjong nights. On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2018 she described the game as "creating order out of chaos," and the clip has pulled a new generation of players in.
- Blake Lively made news in February 2026 when her mahjong set was reportedly delivered to a Manhattan courthouse so she could play between sessions. The image stuck: a star who will not leave home without her tiles.
- Meghan Markle centered an episode of her 2025 Netflix series With Love, Meghan on a game night with her "mahj squad," framing mahjong as a friendship ritual rather than a contest.
- Larry David leaned into the trend in a March 2026 YES Network spot, ribbing viewers with "What, are you too cool for mahjong?"
- Kelly Ripa has described on Live with Kelly and Mark how the game became her social and mindful routine, learned through a local teacher.
The throughline is not competition. It is the same thing every mahjong player already knows: the tiles give you a reason to sit in the same room, talk, and laugh for two hours. The celebrities are just saying out loud what the rest of us figured out quietly.
Two games share one name
This is the part that trips up newcomers. When an American celebrity says "mahjong," she almost always means American mahjong, the version standardized by the National Mah Jongg League in 1937. When you read about NBA stars like Stephen Curry, Dwight Howard or Shaquille O'Neal playing during China trips, they are playing Chinese mahjong, a different game with different tiles, different scoring, and no annual card.
Both are real mahjong. They are not the same game. If you picked up the bug from a Hollywood story, the version you want is American mahjong, and that is what this site teaches.
Quick tell: American mahjong uses 152 tiles including 8 jokers, follows a yearly card of approved hands, and opens every game with a three-pass tile exchange called the Charleston. Chinese mahjong has no jokers, no card, and builds sequences (chows). If you remember one thing, remember that the two games look alike and play nothing alike.
What American mahjong actually is
Strip away the celebrity gloss and the game is a matching puzzle with a social wrapper. The bones:
- 152 tiles. Four suits of dots, bamboo and characters, plus winds, dragons, flowers and 8 jokers. Start with the tile guide.
- One card a year. The NMJL publishes a new card every spring with the exact hands that count that season. It is the rulebook. See the card library.
- The Charleston. Before play, all four players pass sets of tiles left, right and across. It is mandatory, and it is where most games are quietly won or lost. Walk through it step by step.
- Jokers are wild, with strings attached. A joker stands in for any tile, but you can only redeem one on your own turn after you draw, and never for a single tile you need to complete a pair. The full rules are here.
- No straight lines. Unlike Chinese mahjong or poker, you do not build 1-2-3 runs. American hands are built from the card's patterns: like numbers, quint groups, or themed sections like "2026" or "13579."
Three things beginners get wrong
Most first-timers who arrive from the buzz make the same mistakes. Avoid these and you will look calm at the table on day one.
- Skipping the Charleston. New players treat the pass as a formality. It is the most important three minutes of the game. Pass with a plan, not whatever is in your hand.
- Calling a joker at the wrong time. You may only redeem a joker on your turn, after you have drawn. Grab early and your hand is dead. The rule is strict for a reason.
- Looking for poker-style sequences. There are no straights in American mahjong. Match the card's section, not a mental model from another game.
From buzz to your first real hand
You do not need a celebrity group or a pricey custom tile set to start. You need the card, a table of four, and a plain explanation of what each hand wants. That is the whole point of this site.
If you already have tiles in front of you and want to know which direction your hand is pointing, the Hand finder reads your 14 tiles against the 2026 card's nine sections in about thirty seconds. It tells you which families your hand fits and which joker rules apply, so you stop guessing and start building.
Pick 14 tiles and the Hand finder shows the 2026 sections your hand fits. Free, no download, no account.
Open the Hand Finder →Sources
The celebrity references above are drawn from publicly reported coverage. We link the primary reporting we found; where a detail is widely repeated we note it as reported. This page explains the American (NMJL) game and is not affiliated with the National Mah Jongg League.
- Pogo, "Celebrities Who Play Mahjong" (Julia Roberts, Sarah Jessica Parker, Blake Lively, Meghan Markle, Kelly Ripa)
- Keywordscope blog, "Hollywood's Mahjong Craze: From Pickleball to Tiles" (Blake Lively courthouse, Larry David YES Network spot, May 2026)
- DearAsia London, "A List of Celebrities That Love Playing Mahjong" (Julia Roberts, Michelle Yeoh, Meghan Markle)
- The Cover (China), report on NBA stars Stephen Curry, Dwight Howard and Shaquille O'Neal playing Chinese mahjong on China trips
- National Mah Jongg League, official card and Mah Jongg Made Easy (rules and hands)