16 Celebs You Might Not Know are Latinx
Who do you think of when you imagine a Latinx celebrity? Is it Jennifer Lopez? Maybe Eva Mendes? Although many of us think we have an idea of what Latin Americans look like, this cultural group is as diverse as can be. Here are 16 celebs you may not have known are Latinx.
Frankie Muniz: You may not know it, but the titular star of the classic Fox show Malcolm In The Middle is Latino. Born in New Jersey, 32-year-old Francisco Muniz IV has an Italian-American mom and Puerto Rican dad, with whom the actor shares his name. Muniz took a few years out of the spotlight after suffering a series of mini strokes, which have affected the star’s short- and long-term memory, before joining the season 25 cast of Dancing With the Stars. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Mariah Carey: Although many people know that singing legend Mariah Carey’s mother was an opera singing teacher, you may not know that her father, Alfred Carey, was of African American and Afro-Latino descent. Alfred’s father, Roberto Núñez, immigrated from Venezuela and adopted the name Robert Carey in an attempt to Anglicize his name. (Photo by Matthew Simmons/Getty Images)
Zoe Saldana: Actress Zoe Saldana has always been outspoken about her Afro-Latina roots. Her father was Dominican and her mother is Puerto Rican. Zaldana lived in the Dominican Republic from the age of nine until high school and has spoken passionately about her heritage, telling Glamour in 2013 that people questioning her heritage isn’t something she will tolerate. “I am proud to be Latina,” she said. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Fred Armisen: Funnyman and SNL alum Fred Armisen is a bit of a chameleon on his hit Portlandia, and we probably have his parents to thank for that. His father, Fereydun Herbert "Fred" Armisen is of Korean and German descent while his mother, Hildegardt Mirabal is Venezuelan. In fact, we can thank his mom for even getting him on SNL in the first place: During the show’s 40th anniversary special, Armisen said his mom loved the show so much when he was growing up, he wanted to do something to make her proud. “This is all about impressing my mom,” he told Peoplemagazine. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Tatyana Ali: Actor and singer Tatyana Ali may be most well known for her role as Ashley Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but you may not know that she’s part-Trinidadian and part Panamanian. Her mother, Sonia was a nurse in Panama before immigrating to the US, and the family supported the Families Belong Together marches held across the US earlier this year. In a snap shared on her Instagram with her mom, son and husband, the actress wrote, “Families don’t belong in detention centers! Babies belong with their parents, their families. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for AHA)
Stacey Dash:Clueless star Stacey Dash may be better known these days for her support of President Donald Trump and her now-withdrawn run for a California congressional seat, but less widely known is that the actress is Afro-Latina. Her father, Dennis is Bajan-American, and her mother was Mexican-American. Dash has skirted questions on the Trump administration’s treatment of Mexicans and other Latinx immigrants, telling MSNBC in 2018, “I think that we have to respect law enforcement, we have to respect laws.” (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)
Victoria Justice: Singer and actress Victoria Justice got her start in Hollywood on Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101, but before that, she was just a regular kid growing up in Florida. She attributes her success to her Puerto Rican mom, Serene Reed, who, Justice told Latin Heat Magazine, “believed in me when I said I wanted to pursue a career in acting.” (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)
Cardi B: Outspoken rapper Cardi B was born Belcalis Almanzar in the Bronx to a Trinidadian mother and Dominican father. Raised in New York City, the star split her time between her dad’s home in Highbridge, a Latin-majority neighborhood in the Bronx, and her grandmother’s apartment in the heavily Dominican Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Cardi is also fluent in Spanish, thanks to her parents raising her and her sister, Hennessy to speak the language before they learned English. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Imgaes)
Bruno Mars: Although his parents met and raised their family in Hawaii, Peter Gene Hernandez, aka Bruno Mars isn’t of Polynesian-Hawaiian decent. His mother, Bernadette San Pedro Bayot, immigrated to the US from the Philippines as a child and has some Spanish ancestry. His dad, Peter Hernandez is half-Puerto Rican and half-Ashkenazi Jewish, from New York. It was Peter Sr. who dubbed a then-five year old “Bruno” quipping that his son looked like wrestler Bruno Sammartino. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)
Christy Turlington: The '90s supermodel may have been born and raised in California, but her mother, María Elizabeth is from El Salvador. In an Instagram post in 2017, the activist and mother shared her own family’s immigration story, sharing how her grandfather had to leave her mother and brother behind in El Salvador in order to set up a safe life for his family in California. “Thank you Horacio, Maria, Elizabeth and Jaime, for doing the hard work to ensure your children would understand the sacrifices made to call this country theirs, to become American citizens, and empathize with countless others who have come to this country and others as outsiders who wish for a better life for their families,” she wrote. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)
Vanna White: Though raised by her mother and step-father Herbert White, Vanna White was born Vanna Marie Rosich. Her father was a Puerto Rican man who divorced Vanna’s mother while she was still an infant. But despite the estrangement from her Latinx branch of the family, the Wheel of Fortune icon isn't totally removed from those roots: There are rumors floating around the internet that a long-lost relative was also the mayor of the major city of Ponce, Puerto Rico! (Photo by Earl Gibson/Getty Images)
Bella Thorne: Actress Bella Thorne has had a hard time getting people to believe that she’s Cuban. In 2017, she told HuffPost Live, “You don't have to be brunette to be Latin. It's just a fact.” Although, she says, fans and friends have even questioned why she had her own quinceañera, the 20-year-old grew up speaking Spanish as a first language, and is proud to to be Latina. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Helena Christensen: Helena Christensen might be best known for appearing on over 600 magazine covers over the course of her lifetime, but the model-turned-photographer grew up in what she describes as an “unconventional” home with her Danish father and Peruvian mother — a woman she says gave her the confidence to model. In 2009, Christensen returned to her mother’s native Peru to document the country’s environmental crisis which is seeing changing weather patterns destroying traditional ways of life. (Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)
Alexis Bledel: We know, we know, Rory Gilmore’s Spanish was a little rough around the edges, but it’s just a testament to Alexis Bledel’s acting chops! Although she was raised in Texas, the actress didn’t learn to speak English until she started grade school. Her mother, Nanette, was raised in Mexico and her father, Martin is Argentinian. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Kid Cudi: Rapper Kid Cudi was born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, the youngest of four, to his parents, Elsie, a middle school teacher, and Lindberg, an Afro-Mexican WWII Air Force vet. Lindberg died of cancer when Cudi was only 11, but his father has still had a profound effect on the music that the rapper makes. In his song, “Soundtrack to my Life,” the rapper mentions the loneliness he feels since his dad passed away, telling Hip Hop DX in 2009, “it’s definitely important to me to make mention of my father because I think that does play a major part in why I am who I am, like my character and how I think and how I move in life.” (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Ryan Lochte: JEAH! Ryan Lochte is known to be both a great swimmer and a bit of a troublemaker, but he credits his Cuban mother, Ileana with giving him the drive to succeed. The third of fivekids, Lochte toldPeople in 2016, “Her support and her love that she’s given me throughout the years have been – I can’t even repay her for what she’s done. We have that unconditional love and that’s never to be taken for granted and we stick by each other.” (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)