Alfonso Ribeiro
Ribeiro in 2012, photo by kathclick/Bigstock.com
Birth Name: Alfonso Lincoln Ribeiro
Place of Birth: The Bronx, New York City, New York, U.S.
Date of Birth: September 21, 1971
Ethnicity: African-Trinidadian, some African-Vincentian
Alfonso Ribeiro is an American actor, television host, director, and comedian. He co-starred on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, playing Carlton Banks, and is also known for his roles on Silver Spoons, In the House, and as the host of America’s Funniest Home Videos. He has also directed episodes of In the House, All of Us, Meet the Browns, Are We There Yet?, Shake It Up, and K.C. Undercover.
His parents were from Trinidad and Tobago. Alfonso is married to writer Angela Unkrich. He has a daughter with his former wife Robin Stapler; and three children with Angela.
Alfono’s grandfather was Albert Ribeiro, a Trinidadian calypsonian, known professionally as Lord Hummingbird (the son of Reginald Ribeiro). Reginald was the son of Emmanuel Ribeiro, of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Alfonso has been described on the internet as the grandson of Roaring Lion, a calypso singer and composer. This is not accurate.
That’s a nasty thing to say. Regardless, Alfonso deserved to do better than Will. Alfonso was naturally funny, while Will has always been more over the top and obvious like a lot of Afro-American comedians tend to be. And in straight parts, Will is boring.
Agreed. He was a great actor/singer/dancer since childhood. It’s a shame that he’s not known for more than just the Fresh Prince of BelAir.
For the time, this commercial was a huge deal and Alfonso was up for the challenge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7cfEQPKTqE
Something about him distinctively Caribbean. Must be the Taino blood.
You can just tell sometimes, man!
It was the hair and central face structure for me. Same thing for the girl that played Ashely on that show.
What’s so special about his hair or face or Ashley? Until people said something, I didn’t know they had ancestry from somewhere else. What do the black people around you look like mostly
The hair is finer (straighter). As for the face, I can see it but I cannot but it into words. South Asian hair is unique; its very thick, luscious.
Yeah, I agree about Alfonso. He looks typically Caribbean, like many Cubans and Dominicans I use to see, probably due to the similar triracial genetic make-up. Same short, stocky body, head shape, facial features etc.
@Kimmel and andrew
Well I understand both of you points of view,especially since andrew says the ones around him were (big, fat , happy and brown). However seeing how Caribbean people and African Amrericans have been mixing since the 1700’s, I have to reiterate that he doesn’t stand out to me. His name , his hair or features mean nothing. a lot of the black people that I know have latin names(myself included). We have the hair, and here we have all kinds of facial features. So to me he wouldn’t have stood out
@Kimmel his sister Ashley was also Trinidadian.
@Maestro as far as I know there are NO Tainos in Trinidad but there are East Indians from India. So he would be black with some East Indian (India) thats the population of Trinidad. And not everyone is part something else.
Yeah I agree Maestro, I though he might be from the Dom Rep before I checked, maybe slightly Latin. He also has a kind of euro-caribbean charm about him that afro-americans don’t usually have.
@ses101
You seem to have alot of Afro-Americans hate going on here . You’re making comments about our level of charm, So How many of us do you actually know?
If Michael Jackson didn’t have vitiligo, didn’t do his nose and gained some weight, he would look like this.
Have you?
Um…I thought he was Afro-Carribean?
Trinidad is in the Caribbean…………….
I know that now. Then, I didn’t.