Gina Rodriguez

BraveHeart Women Awards 2011 - Arrivals

Rodriguez in 2011, photo by Prphotos.com

Birth Name: Gina Alexis Rodriguez

Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Date of Birth: July 30, 1984

Ethnicity: Puerto Rican [African, Spanish, Taíno], other

Gina Rodriguez is an American actress, model, and writer. Her roles include the series The Bold and the Beautiful, Jane the Virgin, Carmen Sandiego, as the voice of the title character; Diary of a Future President, Lost Ollie, and Not Dead Yet; the films Filly Brown, Enter the Dangerous Mind, Sleeping with the Fishes, Sticky Notes, Deepwater Horizon, Annihilation, Miss Bala, Someone Great, Kajillionaire, Awake (2021), I Want You Back, and, in voice performance, The Star (2017), Ferdinand, Smallfoot, and Scoob!; and the made-for-tv movie My Super Psycho Sweet 16: Part 2. She has also directed episodes of Jane the Virgin and Diary of a Future President.

Her parents, Magali and Genaro Rodriguez, are Puerto Rican. A picture of Gina with her parents can be seen here. Gina is married to actor, model, and MMA fighter Joe LoCicero, with whom she has a son.

Gina was raised Catholic. She is a practicing Christian.

One of Gina’s great-grandmothers was named Rosa.

Gina has said that her father is of African-Latino descent.

She has stated (at 46:10) that her maternal grandmother’s father was Jewish, a French Jew.

She also added:

I have Dutch in me and Taíno. Possibly some Italian too. I’m all the things!

On diversity in casting, Gina has said:

Television and film are supposed to be a reflection of reality, right? We just want to see a slice of life. We want to be able to connect. We want to cry. We want to look at our lives on screen. It’s clear to me that execs need to step outside of their office and really look at life. We are in interracial relationships. We speak multiple languages. We’re multiple religions inside of that. I have Jewish ancestors. My sister converted to Judaism. I have Christians and Catholics and Buddhists in my family. I have multiracial, multiethnic relationships. We need to start casting color-blind because there is no specific anymore.

Sources: https://twitter.com
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http://dishmag.com

81 Responses

  1. Anneka says:

    She looks 100% Taino

  2. Gavinboi says:

    Are there any full-blooded Tainos left? Wikipedia says not.

    • Oaken05 says:

      No. The language became extict by like the 1500’s; like, 80-90% of Taino’s had died in the first 50 or so years of contact. As an individual culture, they’ve been gone for quite some time, maybe even as far back as the 1550’s.

      • Gavinboi says:

        That’d be so little that a single ancestor wouldn’t count as part of one’s ancestry, so I presume most people with Taino ancestry have it from Mestizo ancestors.

        The Guanches of the Canary Islands and Tasmanian Aboriginals are also two ethnic groups with no full-blooded members left.

  3. G177S says:

    Looks a bit polynesian.

  4. danishcookie7 says:

    She kinda looks Filipino.

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