Celebrity Ancestry: ‘Emilia Perez’ Actress Zoe Saldana’s Heritage: 100,000 Google Her Ethnicity, Nationality, Parents Race, Family Background 

IS SHE BLACK, INDIAN, LATINA? Zoe Saldana's ethnicity and heritage seem hard to place for many fans who regularly Google details about her ancestry and her parents racial background and origins. By Ben Arogundade. Mar. 03, 2025.

MYSTERIOUS ETHNICITY: 'Avatar' and ‘Emilia Perez’ actress Zoe Saldana's ethnicity and heritage intrigues fans around the world. 100,000 of them, curious about her race, nationality and her parents ethnic background, turn to Google for answers.

SHE IS PERHAPS HOLLYWOOD'S MOST ETHNICALLY mysterious movie star, able to morph between Mediterranean-style beauty to a full-blown alien, as she appeared in the movie, Avatar. So, is Oscar-winning actress Zoe Yadira Saldana black, Indian, Latina or Other? 100,000 fans are not sure. That is the approximate global number who Google a range of questions about the 46 year old actress's ethnicity, nationality, parents race background and family heritage, each year.

SALDANA'S ETHNICITY & PARENTS HERITAGE

So, what ethnicity and nationality is Zoe Saldana? In fact, the New Jersey-born celebrity's parents are from diverse racial backgrounds. Her mother Asalia Nazario's nationality is Puerto Rican, while her late father, Aridio Saldana, was from the Dominican Republic. He died in a car accident when Zoe was nine years old, after which the family relocated to the Dominican Republic.

MYSTERIOUS BEAUTY

Like fellow film celebrity Rosario Dawson, Saldana’s ethnicity intrigues in its ambiguity. She could pass for black, biracial, Brazilian, Indian, Pakistani, Persian or Latina. Her ethnicity has a rich history. The Dominican Republic, her father’s birthplace, is an island located in the Caribbean Sea, off the northern coast of Venezuela. Today the majority of its population are of African ancestry, but also present are “Caribs“ — the traditional race of native Indians after whom the Caribbean was named, plus a large multi-ethnic population, as well as a minority of European nationalities descended from British, French and Irish colonists.

SALDANA’S BACKGROUND & NATIONALITY

Saldana’s mother’s birthplace, Puerto Rico, is an archipelago in the north east of the Caribbean. Most of the population, who commonly refer to themselves as “boricuas”, are descendants of Taíno Indians, Africans, Europeans, or a combination of these groups. Saldana also shares this side of her ethnic ancestry with one of Rosario Dawson's parents — her mother Isabel is part-Puerto Rican. It is this multi-ethnicity which accounts for both actresses light skin-tone and naturally straight hair.

HOLLYWOOD AND RACE

Saldana, who won the 2025 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the film Emilia Perez, with her multi-ethnic background and heritage, was deemed just right when she was cast in the ethnically otherworldly role of Neytiri in James Cameron's epic movie, Avatar. But although Saldana's mixed heritage allows her to cross over into roles devised for both black and white actresses, she admits that she still comes up against narrow racial conventions when casting in Hollywood. “When they say, ‘We want to go white,’ they have a very smooth way of saying it, and the recent one is the word ‘traditional’,” she told Nylon magazine. “‘Oh, you know, you’re just not what we were looking for, your skin is a little darker.’”

BIOGRAPHY OF BLACK LATIN

But despite the ambiguities about Saldana's ethnicity and heritage, she self-identifies an Afro-Latina, in homage to both sides of her background ancestry. In this regard she joins other fellow black Latino actors Colman Domingo, Oscar-nominated in 2025 for Sing, Sing, and Ariana DeBose, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for West Side Story in 2022.

Saldana’s ethnicity was questioned back in 2016 when she was cast in the role of Nina Simone in the biopic about the iconic 60s songstress, by those, including members of Simone's estate, who thought that an actress of a different ethnicity should have been cast. “Zoe is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent — Nina is of African American descent,” said Jennifer Peros, senior news editor at Entertainment Tonight. The anger intensified when it was discovered that Saldana’s skin-tone was darkened with make-up in order to play the role, and she was also fitted with a prothetic nose, so that she bore a closer resemblance to the singer.

ZOE SALDANA ETHNICITY & NATIONALITY CONTROVERSY

The controversy illustrates the double standards that exist in Hollywood between its black and white stars. Why does a black actor need to come from the same country as the person she is portraying in a film? Isn’t the quality of the performance what counts? Further, why does that actor need to physically resemble that person? These are rules that do not seem to apply to white actors in Hollywood biopics. A recent example is the actor Michael Fassbender, who plays Apple founder Steve Jobs in the Academy-Award nominated biopic. Not only is Fassbender Irish-German, rather than American, he also bears no physical resemblance to Jobs — and yet he drew no criticism for these facts, while Saldana draws anger, mainly from within her own community, for doing exactly the same thing. The question here is, why are blacks harder on themselves than they are on other ethnicities within Hollywood?

Regardless of the controversy, Saldana remains defiant. “It doesn't matter how much backlash I will get it,” she responded. “I will honour and respect my black community because that's who I am.”

FROM CHILD TO STAR: Top: Zoe Saldana as a child. Her mixed-race heritage gives her hair its naturally fine texture. Zoe Saldana and her mother, Asalia - Zoe's parents are of mixed ethnicity and nationality. Her mother is Puerto Rican, while her late father, Aridio was from the Dominican Republic. Saldana herself identifies as Afro-Latina: Zoe Saldana's multi-ethnic beauty graces the covers of the November 2014 edition of 'Elle', and the July/August 2011 edition of 'Harper's Bazaar' Russia.

*ACTRESS ZOE SALDANA’S ETHNICITY, NATIONALITY, PARENTS RACE - ACCORDING TO GOOGLE SEARCH

1,500

The number of people worldwide who Google the phrase, “Zoe Saldana’s parents, mother, father”, each month.

3,000

The number of people worldwide who Google the phrase, “Zoe Saldana’s ethnicity, nationality, race background & heritage”, each month.

*All figures for “Actress Zoe Saldana’s Ethnicity, Nationality, Parents Race - According to Google Search”, supplied by Google. Stats include global totals for laptop and desktop computers and mobile devices.

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