"Everything About Me Seemed To Be A Source Of Ridicule To Other Kids": 27 Multicultural Celebrities Who've Opened Up About Their Identity
1.KJ Apa
The actor is of Samoan and European descent. In 2020, he told Mr Porter's The Journal, "I’m half Samoan, but nobody knows it because I’m white and I have [dyed] red hair. My dad is a chief in Samoa. I almost identify more as a Samoan than I do as a New Zealander, just because I grew up with so much Samoan family, and the Samoan culture is really close to me. I feel ashamed of myself for not pursuing it more."
In 2022, KJ received the matai (chief) title Savae. After the ceremony, he shared pictures on Instagram, writing, "My goal is to serve my family and my village (Moata’a)."
The singer is of Filipino and European descent. In a 2018 interview with the Center for Asian American Media, she said, "My great-grandfather immigrated here from the Philippines when he was just a teenager. He’s my grandma’s dad, and my grandpa is also Filipino as well. My dad grew up in a house where they were always making Filipino food, his grandpa always spoke Tagalog. All of those traditions have trickled down to our generation. Every Thanksgiving we have lumpia, and things like that."
In a 2021 interview for V Magazine, she said, "I sometimes get DMs from little girls being like, 'I've never seen someone who looked like me in your position.' And I'm literally going to cry. Like just thinking about it. I feel like I grew up never seeing that. Also, it was always like, 'Popstar,' that's a white girl."
The tennis star is of Haitian and Japanese descent. In 2020, she told WSJ magazine, "I'm just trying to put a platform out for all the Japanese people that look like me and live in Japan, and when they go to a restaurant, they get handed an English menu, even though it’s just a little microaggression."
She also recalled a time she played against a Japanese opponent as a young girl. "She was talking with another Japanese girl, and they didn’t know that I was listening [or that] I spoke Japanese. Her friend asked her who she was playing, so she said Osaka. And her friend says, 'Oh, that Black girl. Is she supposed to be Japanese?' And then the girl that I was playing was like, 'I don’t think so.' I remember that specifically because, yeah, I sometimes feel like a lot of people think that way about me."
The actor is of Māori and European descent. Last year, she told Glamour about her struggle to land roles early in her career. "I never was right for any character because I wasn't white, but I wasn't Black. And the character, if she was brown-skinned, was Hispanic, and I'm not Hispanic, so I never got the roles. There have been many times everyone's like, 'Well, you're having your moment now.'
I was always here. Just the roles weren't written for people of brown skin, and the roles don't come along often, and if they do, they're specific. It's usually to tick a diversity box in a cast where ultimately, the male and the female are white, and then it trickles down to the friends or friends of. So roles like [Adult Lottie in Yellowjackets] don't come along often, but I see a shift."
5.Charles Melton
The actor is of Korean and English descent. In a 2019 interview with Mixed Asian Media, he said, "To be on both sides, being Caucasian and Asian, how inclusive or exclusive do you want to be when it comes to race, with being Asian? It’s weird when some people try to measure your Asian-ness, when it’s like, 'I’m Asian.' It’s so extreme. 'Oh, you’re half, but you’re not Asian.' I am Asian. I’m probably more 'Asian' than you. I grew up in Korea. I grew up speaking Korean and being spanked by my mom with the rice spoon.
Then you have people in America that are second or third generation, but they’re full Asian. Do they see themselves as more 'Asian' than you when you’re just half or a quarter? When you grew up in Asia? How do you measure that? If you’re Asian, you’re Asian. If it runs through your blood, it runs through your blood."
6.Vanessa Hudgens
The actor is of Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, French, Irish, and Native American descent. In a 2021 interview with Glamour, she said, "My mom is from the Philippines, and growing up, there weren’t really that many women who looked like me and my mom and my family on screen. It’s so important to share all the different stories because America is a massive melting pot, [just like the] world. There are so many different stories that need to be told so that we are exposed to them and can have more empathy towards different people."
At a press conference in Manila last year, Vanessa spoke about the struggle to land roles. "I remember, I was auditioning for a movie that I was very passionate about, a character that I always wanted to play, and I was told I couldn’t because I wasn’t Black or Latina. I’m like, 'I’m ethnic! If that’s what you’re looking for.' But you know, it’s hard. It really is. And I think I’m still out there, trying to find where I fit in Hollywood."
7.Avan Jogia
The actor is of Indian and European descent. In 2019, he published Mixed Feelings, a book of poetry and interviews that explores mixed identities. In a 2019 interview with 34th Street, he said, "I realized the collective mixed experience is so similar. It doesn’t matter what the racial background of those mixed-nesses are. We are all unified in the similarities of the experience."
He told Brown Girl Magazine, "As a mixed person, I am unclassified in all the different groups. I am definitely a person of color because I am brown, and I walk around as a brown person, but as a mixed person, you inhabit different spaces. Negative or positive, there is no such a thing, but you kinda just are an 'other.'"
8.Dinah Jane
The singer is of Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, and Danish descent. Last year, she told Teen Vogue, "It hurt me that [executives] couldn't really tap in and understand that there is a market for Polynesian people. So I feel like I've always been in this race trying to figure it out by myself as a Polynesian woman in the mainstream world...
I'm not shying away from who I am anymore. And I want it to be known that I'm coming out strong. This is who I am. I'm a Polynesian girl, and I'm not afraid to hide it, and I'm not afraid to speak my voice."
9.H.E.R.
The singer is of Black and Filipino descent. While visiting family in the Philippines, she told the Philippine Star, "It’s a big part of who I am, and I come from the Bay Area, where there’s tons of Filipinos. And I notice that when I leave the Bay Area, a lot of people don’t know about Filipinos. They don’t know who we are. They ask me questions, 'Do you eat with chopsticks?' etc."
During a 2018 interview with WWD, she shared that she identifies strongly with both sides. "My dad would throw down with the soul food when we had our Black side over. Black culture, to me, is so important, and I identify with young Black women. I represent young Black women, and I’m proud of that."
10.Henry Golding
The actor is of English and Malaysian descent. In 2018, he told Bustle, "Just because by blood I'm not full Asian doesn't mean I can't own my Asianness. And I relate so much more with my Asian side. I sound ridiculously British, but I was born in Sarawak [Malaysia]... Like, I'm from the tribe in the middle of the jungle — you cannot get any more Asian than that. I’ve grown more than half my entire life in Asia, exposed to more cultures than you can shake a stick at just through what I've done in the past. If anyone can relate to being Asian in the Asian culture, it was me."
11.Jhené Aiko
The singer is of Japanese, Spanish, Black, Native American, Dominican, and German descent. In a 2019 interview with Revolt TV, she said, "When I started going on auditions, they would put me for roles [as] the Spanish girl, or the Japanese girl or the Black girl. When I was 12 [or] 13, someone told my mom, 'You should really play up one or the other. You should straighten her hair so she could look more Asian, or you should keep her hair natural and curly and put a little bronzer on her so she [will] look more Black."
12.Dwayne Johnson
The actor is of Black and Samoan descent. When a Twitter user accused him of not identifying as Black, The Rock wrote, "Glad I came across this and I’ll give you guys some context & truth. I identify as exactly what I am - both. Equally proud. Black/Samoan."
13.Shay Mitchell
The actor is of Filipino, Irish, and Scottish descent. In a 2021 interview with Women's Health, she recalled the struggles her mom faced. "When she and my dad were dating in the 1980s in Toronto, their relationship was looked down upon. On the bus with my dad, she would get the worst looks. They would tell me about going into a restaurant and people not serving them. I also saw it in real life. My mom would get derogatory remarks like, 'Are you the cleaning lady? Are you the nanny?' And she was like, 'No, but what is your issue if I was?' In school, I was bullied — I’d get questions like, 'Are you going to go clean the bathrooms?'"
Now, Shay has these talks with her own daughters. "We’re learning how to have those appropriate conversations. It starts with her dolls, with the toys she plays with, and the books we read to her, that have all different colors and ethnicities."
14.Darren Barnet
The actor is of Japanese, Cherokee, German, and Swedish descent. In a 2021 Teen Vogue interview, he said, "I felt like I couldn’t fit in anywhere. Even coming into acting, I never really thought about leaning into my Japanese heritage because there’s this feeling I have that I’m not Asian enough to do it. And I felt like if I was cast as a distinctly Asian character, there’d be controversy around that."
While playing Paxton Hall-Yoshida on Never Have I Ever, he was inspired to dive deeper into his family history like his character did. "My bachan used to smoke, and I have a memory as a kid of seeing her out on our balcony, crouching while smoking. I’d learn later that she did this because during the war, everyone had to turn off their lights and crouch if they were outside so they weren’t detected by planes. There are so many things I wish I could ask her about her life now."
15.Kimora Lee Simmons
The fashion designer is of Korean, Japanese, and Black descent. In 2009, she told Working Mother, "I was a mixed-race girl with a Korean-Japanese mother and an African-American father, and none of the other kids at my school were like me. I was nearly six feet tall by the time I was 11 years old. Everything about me seemed to be a source of ridicule to other kids: my face, my height, the texture of my hair, my body shape...
As my mom did for me, I’m helping my own girls learn about tolerance — to respect differences in culture, religion, and even the way we look. I also try to set boundaries, let them know what’s expected and give them room to develop and grow."
16.Auli'i Cravalho
The actor is of Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Chinese, and Irish descent. In a 2024 interview with StyleCaster, she spoke about the difficulty of landing roles after Moana. "People didn't know my face, and when casting did see my face, they'd say, 'You're racially ambiguous.' I'm like, 'That's a new term. I've never heard that one before,' which left me even more internally confused because my identity has always been Hawaiian.
Suddenly, all of these phrases were thrust at me: 'Well, you're white-passing, but you're also racially ambiguous, so you can play Latinx, you can play Asian, you can play all of these different things.' I was like, 'I just want to play smart women. The bar is there.'"
17.Jordan Fisher
The actor is of Tahitian, Cambodian, Nigerian, English, Italian, Greek, and Scandinavian descent. In 2022, he told Mixed Asian Media, "Being mixed affects my day-to-day life, so it’s affected every role I've had. It's hard because naturally, we want to label everything. It's just what we do. There's no shame in that. It's comforting for us to be able to look at something and say, 'Let me classify that and put it somewhere in my brain,' right? I don't take offense to that, but I'm painfully aware of the fact that I was like the only person of color in my school growing up and the only mixed kid in my town and the only dark kid in my family, until my little brother and sister were born."
18.Saweetie
The rapper is of Filipino and Black descent. In 2018, she told HelloGiggles, "I definitely felt out of place at times because the cultures that I was raised around were completely night and day. But I feel like those types of internal struggles help me understand people better, and I now know that not one set of people is the same. Like, my mom is of Filipino descent and my dad is of Black descent, so it allows me to be sensitive to other people’s cultures. Because sometimes people might not communicate or understand the things that I do. I might not understand what someone else is doing, but I’m always able to know that people come from different places and have different understandings."
19.Jemaine Clement
The actor is of Māori and European descent. In 2015, he told Stuff, "I'm part white, but I'm not just white. And I don't think of myself as white, because I wasn't brought up that way. When they say 'white guys' when they're talking about me and Taika [Waititi], they're imagining a completely different life, completely different things. They're imagining this privilege that we didn't have."
On an episode of Te Ao with Moana, he broke down in tears while remembering the trauma his grandmother endured. "My grandma didn't speak Māori. She was of the generation that would be punished at school if she [spoke it]. That was her first language, but, you know, they’d get hit if they spoke [te reo]."
20.Joy Crookes
The singer is Bangladeshi and Irish. In a 2018 Facebook post, she wrote, "I’m a Bangladeshi- Irish, South London born musician. As many of my fellow south asians will know - there aren’t many of us in the entertainment industry - it isn’t seen as a ‘real’ job amongst many in our culture, especially for women... f**ck that. Do your thing. I pay homage to MY culture in the Don’t Let Me Down music video - regardless of these restraints - and hope that other lil Desi girls will pick up their guitars, paintbrushes, voices and go and do what they feel they have to do too."
In 2021, Joy told BBC that exploring her culture didn't just begin when she became a musician. "It started much earlier. When I felt a void that needed to be explored and understood, as I was growing into this brown woman. Being half Bangladeshi and half Irish, both cultures are incredible at telling stories. The Bengali language lends itself so beautifully to telling stories, to creating a scene or an exaggeration of the story sometimes. Particularly how aunties tell stories."
21.Nicole Scherzinger
The singer is of Native Hawaiian, Filipino, and Ukranian descent. In 2019, she told Modern Luxury Hawai‘i, "I was born in Honolulu, but only lived there for the first few years of my life. I was really young when we moved away, but I associate those early memories with family. My tutu had 17 brothers and sisters—I always laugh when I think back to how we used to gather together for a family photo and how challenging it was to fit all of us into the frame! All of my family is still in Hawai‘i, so I go home as often as possible. Being born there and knowing that I am part Hawaiian, makes me feel connected to the ‘aina and the spirit of Hawai‘i."
During a 2017 interview with the Inquirer, she exclaimed, "Filipino pride! ... I’m just really proud to be able to represent my people in Hawaii and the Philippines. ... I feel like some of the best voices in the world are Filipino voices. I got my voice from my Hawaiian side, too — my grandmother."
22.Zayn Malik
The singer is of Pakistani and Irish descent. In a 2018 interview with Vogue, he said, "That was confusing for people, they didn’t really understand. 'Who’s the brown person? Is it your mum or is it your dad?' That was nobody’s fault, other than learning these things. It’s natural. There are more mixed-race people around now."
Zayn also responded to frequently being called "Britain's most famous Muslim," explaining that he never professed to be Muslim and doesn't identify as one. "With my mum and dad, they were always there to educate us – I did go to mosque, I did study Islam – but they gave us the option so you could choose for yourself. There’s definitely beautiful parts to every religion."
23.Darren Criss
The actor is of Filipino and European descent. In 2020, he told People, "I’ve been half-Filipino my whole life. But no one ever asked about it. It’s tough, this idea of 'white-passing.' It’s not even a term I heard of until the past two years. When people have a say in who you are — people you don’t even know — it makes you rethink what your balance is. Something you’ve had down your whole life. It’s a tricky cocktail in America. I’ve always been proud of my heritage, of being Filipino. Just because people don’t see it doesn’t make it any less real to me."
24.Naomi Scott
The actor is of Indian and English descent. In 2019, she told Teen Vogue, "There were moments growing up where you’re like, 'Oh, I don’t really feel Indian enough.' But now I’m at a place where I’m like you know what? It’s okay. It doesn’t make me any less Indian, or any less half Indian. My two favorite meals — one is my mum’s curry and one being a roast dinner. And that is me in a nutshell...
There’s a thing of someone [being] like, 'She’s not white, she’s not Black, she’s not Latina, what is she?' There were definitely a few leads that I went for where I think, ultimately, I was maybe the other choice, the 'exotic' choice, or the 'other.'"
25.Ross Butler
The actor is of Chinese Malaysian, English, and Dutch descent. In a 2021 interview with Men's Fashion Post, he said, "Growing up, I felt like I didn't really know who I was. Being mixed-race, I didn't know what my identity was. I didn't fit in with my white friends, and I didn't fit in with my Asian friends, so I was always trying to change who I was in an attempt to find out who I really am. But as an actor, you're given a character and literally what lines to say, so something about living another person's life and exploring that is really interesting to me. I love the escapism of it."
26.Taika Waititi
The filmmaker is of Māori and Russian Jewish descent. In 2019, he told CBC Radio, "We've been represented in the past as always through a white lens. We're the Native presence in films that talk to trees, and we're smudging all the time, and we're riding whales, and we're talking to the ghosts of our ancestors — which, sure, maybe for a few of us ... I don't. I'm just a normal dude." He emphasized that it's important for Indigenous people to play all kinds of roles, not just ones focused on their culture or trauma. "I like it when our experience is presented in a way that feels normal. It's more relatable to audiences."
27.Olivia Munn
The actor is of Chinese and European heritage. In a 2015 interview with Prestige Hong Kong, she said, "I’d go out for so many auditions, for everything. And then I’d be told, 'You’re too Asian' or 'You’re too white.' I remember someone telling me, 'Don’t feel bad. One day they won’t be trying to match you to fit with anyone else. You’ll just be hired for you.' So you can’t help but get frustrated. That’s part of it all."
In 2019, she told HuffPost, "My mom always taught me that I mattered. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought, I mattered. I’ve always had this strength because of my mother. But this is something that all Asians do have ― we have a very strong sense of self, and that’s not something anyone else can take away."
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