Jason Mantzoukas
Mantzoukas in 2013, photo by PrPhotos.com
Place of Birth: Nahant, Massachusetts, U.S.
Date of Birth: December 18, 1972
Ethnicity: Greek
Jason Mantzoukas is an American comedian, actor, and writer. His roles include the films I Hate Valentine’s Day, Conception, The Dictator, They Came Together, Adult Beginners, Search Party, Sleeping with Other People, Dirty Grandpa, How to Be Single, The Lego Batman Movie, The House (2017), The Disaster Artist, The Long Dumb Road, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Infinite, and America: The Motion Picture; and the shows The League, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, No Activity, and Star Trek: Prodigy. He hosts the movie discussion podcast How Did This Get Made?, alongside June Diane Raphael and Paul Scheer. He co-wrote the film Ride Along. He is also known as Zouks, Hey Nongman, The Dink Dink Man, and Jeffrey Characterwheaties.
Jason’s father, William Mantzoukas, was born in Greece, and moved to the United States in 1951. Jason’s mother, Cynthia (Mourousas), is also of Greek descent.
Jason has said:
I’m 100 percent Greek, but I look like I could be Indian or Middle Eastern or Hispanic.
Jason’s paternal grandfather was named Venizelos Mantzoukas/Mantzioukas. Venizelos was born in Lefkothea, Greece.
Jason’s paternal grandmother was Evdoxia Toulopoulos (the daughter of Vasilios Toulopoulos and Panagiota/Panayiota Roussopoulos). Evdoxia was born in Lefkothea, Greece.
Jason’s maternal grandfather was named John Theodore Mourousas (the son of Theodore/Theodoros Mourousas/Mouroussis and Mary/Marigo). John was born in Tzeferemini (Valira), Messenia, Greece. Jason’s great-grandfather Theodore was the son of John Mouroussis.
Jason’s maternal grandmother was Ann/Aurania Carmeri/Karmere/Karmiri (the daughter of Leonidas Karmeris and Nikoleta Economopoulis). Ann was born in Arfara, Messenia, Greece.
Source: Obituary of Jason’s paternal grandmother, Evdoxia (Toulopoulos) Mantzoukas – http://www.obitsforlife.com
He doesn’t even look 5% Greek, let alone 100%.
Was he adopted from a Gulf Arab family?
He actually looks Indian way more than Middle Eastern
he may be one the many greeks of roma descent
He looks like your typical Greek. What are you on about?
Looks Saudi Arabian. But many Greeks tend to look like this (if not as unattractive as him).
maybe in your Semite dreams, there’s a huge gap in physical appareance between Greeks and Saudis.
He looks Indian, you would see way many Indian guys with his typical look.
Nah that’s not true he’s an exception for sure.
You’re wrong. I don’t like to be antagonistic but that’s straight up not true. Greeks are not white, many people are very uncomfortable with the idea that Eurasia is one continent and thus marking Greeks as white simply due to European origin is laughable. Go to Greece and get back to me.
No need to spam the comments. One dumb comment was enough.
He’s probably a Cypriot or a Greek Islander like most ‘greek’ americans, they are not ethnic Greeks. 90% of Greek population live in the Mainland, and they don’t look much different from Albanians and South Slavs.
This isn’t true though, he said he’s 100% Greek. If you ever been to Greece you would see many dark people btw, Greeks don’t have a “typical look”. Even in ancient Greek paintings you would see people who could pass for what we call now Gulf Arabs, same exact features and all.
Some modern Greeks may be white due to admixture from Balkan peoples, but most Greek ppl look like Jason, including mainlanders. The farther north you go in Greece the whiter the people look, but that should be no surprise considering race is a spectrum anyways. Remember that there is not one type of Greek person the same way there isn’t one way to represent Latino people, their ancestry can vary. Greece historically is at the crossroads of Afro-Eurasia and as such had far more in common culturally and genetically with their Mediterranean neighbors such as Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt. For example, I’m half Hungarian half Greek but my ancestry test came back as 20-25% middle eastern bc my grandfather was of a haplogroup descended from the Mycenaean Greeks, who were ethnically a mix of mainland Greeks, Anatolians, Caucasians, and Iranians. Thus many Greeks have a mixed ancestry and it makes sense as to why the majority are not white or white-ish. Greeks who appear whiter and look like Balkan people likely have Balkan admixture in the same way that darker Greeks have non-white admixture. Some Albanians/south Slavs may be non-white and resemble Greeks if they have Turkish ancestry but that is the minority. USA’s view on race is heavily flawed, Europe is not even a continent. In reality Eurasia is a spectrum and most Greeks are not white and fall in with Middle Easterners, North Africans, West Asians, and Latinos as not white but white passing at times.
And recent studies indicate that Greek Islanders are almost genetically identical to mainland Greeks, and even that mainland Greeks derive significant parts of their ancestry from the Mycenaeans (from Peloponnese) and Minoans (Crete), as well as other Greek Islanders. They are all ethnically Greek despite differing levels of non-white admixture. I’ll give you Greek Cypriots though, they are genetically a bit different, but still Greek nonetheless .
Typical greek/arab, they are more middle-eastern than european
he’s not “typical” and you know it, because you’re a troll.
He actually is pretty typical for a Greek person. The further south you go in Greece the more people will look like him. I can tell you’ve never been to Athens or Peloponnese because the majority of the people there look just like Jason.
Greeks aren’t arabs lol
Greeks are not Arab but they are closer to Arabs than to other Europeans. Turks are not Arab either but also not white. Arabs, Greeks, and Turks all fall into a non-white category along with some North Africans, peoples of the Caucasus, and West Asians such as Kazakhs. You will find variations of whiteness within these cultures but overall, their traits and ancestries overlap enough to constitute a race. Similarly to how you will find lots of variation between a British person and Polish person but they are still both white. Same thing with Koreans and Vietnamese for example. Greeks are not white and I am more than happy to back that up if you would like.
He can only pass as someone from Gulf states, not the Levant or North Africa. He also look very Indian to me.
agree, he would be exotic even for Lebanon or Syria, he has either roma gipsy or arabic peninsula flair, also N.Indian
No Untermensch is correct. He is typical of most southern Greeks/Greek islanders. He could also pass as Arab or Hispanic, maybe even Indian. All of those groups fall in the same category though. The ancestry of most Greeks are overall a biracial people, and for most Greeks (especially the further south you go), their ancestry is tied more closely to Turkey and the Middle East than to the Balkans, but variation does occur. Jason likely has higher instances of Middle Eastern DNA.
he’s very arab looking but many greeks have “arab” features, genetically they ARE 1/3 middle eastern, greek islanders and cypriots even more. and he’s obviously going full-ethnic with with the tan, hair and beard.
This.
There’s nothing called Arab look, “Arabs”is similar to Latinos, this term is now used to literally describe literally any Arabic speaker no matter their race or backgrounds. 22 countries are Arabic speaking countries, you would find black Arabs like the Sudanese, white and even blond Arabs like the Syrians, and brown Arabs like the Moroccans. What you mean here is “Gulf people”, he can pass as someone from the Gulf countries but not from other Arabic speaking countries. He also looks very Indian
That’s bull —- and just not true.
You need to do some homework before you go fishing out false facts.
No need to correct someone when they speak the truth. Most Greeks are not white and if you beg to differ, you need to go to Greece. My dad is 100% Greek and is not white – via an ancestry test roughly half of his genome comes from the Middle East/SW Asia. This is typical for many Greeks, especially those south of the North Macedonian province. This should be no surprise as the Ancient Greeks were not white but of the same race as Persians, Turks, and other Middle Eastern peoples with whom they had significant admixture. The only reason Greeks are thought of as white is because they are in Europe, which is irrelevant since Eurasia is technically one continent and anyone who says otherwise cannot give a good reason as to why Europe is a separate continent. Greeks are non-white and any modern Greeks who appear white are not truly Greek ethnically as they have Slavic admixture from the north.
The genetics back this up. Haplogroup studies show that Greeks are closest genetically to Turks as opposed to any other people.
Finally someone is educated when it comes to Greek ancestry!! Kudos