Jada Pinkett Smith
Pinkett Smith in 2003, photo by DFree/Bigstock
Birth Name: Jada Koren Pinkett
Place of Birth: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Date of Birth: September 18, 1971
Ethnicity:
*father – African-American
*mother – African-/Creole-Barbadian, African-/Creole-Jamaican, one eighth Sephardi Jewish
Jada Pinkett Smith, also credited as Jada Pinkett, is an American actress, dancer, singer, songwriter, and businessperson. She has starred in Woo, Scream 2, The Nutty Professor, and The Matrix films.
Jada is the daughter of Adrienne Banfield-Jones and Robsol Grant Pinkett. Her father was of African-American descent. Jada’s maternal grandfather was an emigrant from Barbados, of African-Barbadian descent, while Jada’s maternal grandmother was the daughter of emigrants from Jamaica, who were of African- or Creole-Caribbean descent. Her brother is actor/writer Caleeb Pinkett.
Jada is married to actor, rapper, and musician Will Smith, with whom she has two children, actors and musicians Jaden Smith and Willow Smith.
Jada’s paternal grandfather was Robsol Grant Pinkett (the son of Maslin Frysinger Pinkett and Martha Josephine Dyer). Robsol was born in Maryland. Maslin was the son of Daniel James Pinkett and Sarah E. Peaker. Martha was the daughter of Eli Dyer and Alverta Hackett.
Jada’s paternal grandmother was Shirley Nancy Crystal Holland (the daughter of James P. Holland and Alice Whitehead). Alice was the daughter of Joe Whitehead and Sallie Watkins.
Jada’s maternal grandfather was Gilbert Leslie Banfield (the son of Gilbert Banfield and Ella E. R. Parris/Paris). Jada’s grandfather Gilbert and his parents, who were black, were from Saint Michael, Barbados, in the West Indies/Caribbean.
Jada’s maternal grandmother was Marion Eliza Martin (the daughter of Ralph Nunis Martin and Daisy Maude Costa/Coster). Marion was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to emigrants from Jamaica (Saint Ann and Kingston, respectively). Marion, along with her parents, are listed as “Mulatto” on the 1920 U.S. Census. Marion is listed as “Black” on the 1930 U.S. Census. Ralph was the son of James Wisdom Martin and Louisa Ann McCormick. In her autobiography, Worthy, 2023, Jada writes that her grandmother Marion’s grandfather was of Portuguese Jewish background.
Pinkett Smith in 2010, cinemafJoe Seer / Shutterstock.com
Sources: http://readingeagle.com
Genealogy of Jada Pinkett Smith – http://www.geni.com
Genealogy of Jada Pinkett Smith (focusing on her father’s side) – https://www.wikitree.com
Jada’s maternal grandfather, Gilbert Leslie Banfield, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Birth record of Jada’s maternal grandmother, Marion Eliza Martin – https://familysearch.org
Jada’s maternal grandmother, Marion Eliza Martin, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Marion Eliza Martin on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
hey ian cole wats up?! the reason why alot of ppl fr jamaica look like jada is because we really are mixed! (im jamaican – black, caucasian, indian).
dont know if u kno this bt there also ALOT of white jamaicans and other pure races here. thats y our motto is: out of many one people!
~peace~
lmao @ Yolanda….and my lil cuz is super light skinned, has long red curly hair and has freckles…I could’ve swore up and down that her dad was white….NOPE he was also black…she is black i would say 100% but lets get real..THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS 100% BLACK!!! All…well most “African Americans” are mixed with sumthing, sure its most likely way way way down the line in our ancestory, but clearly through some of our late relatives(hint:my little cuz) and most of our features (my grandmother, my mom, my aunties…h#ll most of the women in my fam and i have high cheek bones, indian maybe?!)you can tell we have some sort of white ancestory and some sort of indian(high check bones) in our blood. Being that the WHITE MAN made that d@mn 1 fcckin drop rule(1 drop of black and voila, your black whether u like it oh not) that we’re classified as black!! Yea well whateva masser, i guess eyez be black then*rollz eyez*(don’t get me wrong i love me and what i am, i just hate how we are human beings being rounded up like cattle and being branded whateva they think we should be classified as, i mean shouldn’t we live our lives without being judged by the color of our skin or how people are just throwing you into a box of race that THEY think we should be seen as?!). I HATE how U.S.A is the only d@mn country that classifies humans into categories. Hate it!!
Sorry,but the U.S is not the only country that does that
It´s not as much skin color as it is ancestry. What the US does is put you in a box based on your ancestry, and more biasedly, whether or not you have African Ancestry. In Brazil and other Latin American countries, they base off of skin color, true. But someone who looks white, even though they have an African ancestor, will still be called ¨white.¨Just as if someone who looks black, although having a white ancestor, is ¨black¨. In the USA, however, if someone looks white, but they have a black ancestor, ignorant society will say they are ¨black.¨In my book, that doesn´t make sense.
To tell the truth (American87) SOCIETY doesn’t make sense,and it hasn’t for long time now.Every since looking different became a bad thing.
Just because you look a certain way doesnt mean that you can tell where you came from or what they are. Calling someone “white” because they look white isn’t any better either, nor is “grading” or casteifiying someone based on their hue.
Yolanda I think you just desire yourself
Yolanda, you’re ignorant.
& to everyone who thinks that the way that you look determines your hertiage, you are ignorant as well.
I am a brown skinned “African-American” who comes from Native American great grandmothers (on both sides), and an half Irish grandfather. I dont go around saying “Im Black, Indian, and Irish” BUT I am….my brown skin does not exclude me from my heritage. There are biracials (of Black & White) who are of darker skin than Black people of two Black parents..soo…you have no point.
Yeh but I think after reading most of the comments on this site most people agree that being African American means you are Black and have some mixed European or Native American heritage down the line somewhere.