Daveed Diggs

Diggs in 2016, photo by prphotos.com

Birth Name: Daveed Daniele Diggs

Place of Birth: Oakland, Alameda, California, United States

Date of Birth: January 24, 1982

Ethnicity:
*African-American (father)
*Ashkenazi Jewish (mother)

Daveed Diggs is an American actor, rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is the vocalist for experimental hip hop group Clipping. His roles include the musical Hamilton, as well as the films Wonder, Blindspotting, Velvet Buzzsaw, The Starling, and, in voice performance, Ferdinand, Soul, DC League of Super-Pets, The Little Mermaid (2023), and Trolls Band Together; the series The Get Down, Black-ish, Sesame Street, Snowpiercer, The Good Lord Bird, Extrapolations, and, in voice-over, Undone, Star Wars Resistance, Central Park, Star Trek: Prodigy, and The Crossover; and the made-for-tv movie Tour de Pharmacy.

His father, Dountes Darnell Diggs, is African-American, and originally from El Cerrito, California. His mother, Barbara, who is caucasian, is Jewish, and originally from Haskell, New Jersey. Daveed went to Hebrew school. The name Daveed means “beloved” in Hebrew. Daveed has one child with his fiancée, actress and singer Emmy Raver-Lampman.

Of his religion, he has said:

I am Jewish… I was raised as a more practising Jew than I am now. But still, [it was] this particular Berkeley brand of Judaism that’s pretty lax…

Daveed’s paternal grandmother has the surname Williams.

Daveed’s maternal grandfather is Melvin Needell/Needle (the son of Hyman Needell/Needle and Hannah). Melvin was born in New York, to parents from Russia.

Daveed’s maternal grandmother is named Flora Forman.

Sources: http://nypost.com
http://www.broadway.com