Lesley-Ann Brandt

SPCA Red Carpet Luxury Lounge - September 19, 2012

Brandt in 2012, photo by Prphotos

Place of Birth: Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Date of Birth: December 2, 1981

Ethnicity: Cape Coloured [English, East Indian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Khoisan, Ashkenazi Jewish]

Lesley-Ann Brandt is a South African-born actress. She is known for her roles on the shows Lucifer and Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and in the films A Beautiful Soul, Drift (2013), and Heartlock.

Her family moved to Auckland, New Zealand in 1999. She is married to American actor Chris Payne Gilbert, with whom she has a son. She speaks Afrikaans.

She is a “Cape Coloured,” and has said “I’m a coloured South African…british, East Indian, German, Spanish, Dutch aka a Mutt!” She has also said that she has Khoisan ancestry.

She has specified:

My heritage consists of German… my last name… Indian, British and Spanish. My mother has the Indian, but is very fair and could be mistaken for white if you’ve never met her or you’re not from South Africa. Her father however was a very dark man with Indian heritage. Her mother had an olive complexion… My father on the other hand has mostly European heritage… (a white German grandfather on his fathers side and a white British Grandfather and Spanish grandmother on his mothers side)… but looks much darker than me. On my dad’s side, my grandfather had really dark olive colouring with green eyes and my grandmother was often mistaken as white during Apartheid. She would often sneak into white only grocery stores to buy food because no one really questioned her.

A DNA test whose results Lesley-Ann displayed on her Instagram page stated that her genetic ancestry is:

*30% Central/South Asian
*26% European
*21% East Asian
*17% African
*5% Ashkenazi Jewish

30 Responses

  1. andrew says:

    http://solarey.net/actress-lesley-ann-brandt/

    “My heritage consists of German, ( my last name), Indian, British and Spanish. My mother has the Indian, but is very fair and could be mistaken for white if you’ve never met her or you’re not from South Africa. Her father however was a very dark man with Indian heritage. Her mother had an olive complexion. My father on the other hand has mostly European heritage, (a white German grandfather on his fathers side and a white British Grandfather and Spanish grandmother on his mothers side), but looks much darker than me. On my dad’s side, my grandfather had really dark olive coloring with green eyes and my grandmother was often mistaken as white during Apartheid. In Thailand, I’m mistaken as Thai, in New Zealand I’ve been told I look Polynesian. Indians can see my Indian heritage and in America, I’ve been told I look African American or Latin American. I like it that way.”

  2. andrew says:

    She had a DNA test:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BHfIojXjh5m/
    http://i67.tinypic.com/fco4mh.jpg

    30% South Asian
    21% East Asian
    26% European
    17% African
    5% Ashkenazi Jewish

    IMO her ethnicity should be simply listed as “Cape Coloured”.

    • passingtime85 says:

      Uh oh, it’s a FamilyTreeDna test, we all know how Follers feels about those…

      • follers says:

        It’s an updated version, myOrigins, released in 2014.

        And yes, of course FamilyTreeMaker is the same as 23andme, even though every single, without exception, FamilyTreeMaker “Middle Eastern” result was wildly different on Finding Your Roots, season 1, while every single, without exception, 23andme result was between 95% and 99.9% Ashkenazi, on Finding Your Roots, seasons 2 and 3.

        Again, this is just a wild, repeated, coincidence and everyone should accept it, as I of course do.

        • passingtime85 says:

          Like I’ve stated, my personal tests between both companies, yielded the exact same results. So because of what I’ve personally witnessed, those “wildly” different results were not inaccurate as you believe them to be. They were most likely very accurate.

          One more thing. You mentioned FamilyTreeMaker on Barbara Walters’ page. I wasn’t going to correct you because I thought it was an isolated mistake, but now that you’ve mentioned it again, I have to point out FamilyTreeMaker, which is owned by Ancestry.com, is orientated towards genealogical records, ie family trees, and not the same as their autosomal DNA testing which is called AncestryDNA.

          FamilyTreeDna’s Population Finder, aka MyOrigins, test is the one that Gates used to test his guests DNA. If you’re going to declare a test faulty, you may as well question its validity by using its proper name, and not confuse with an unrelated test.

          There is no connection whatsoever between FamilyTreeDNA and FamilyTreeMaker.

          • follers says:

            Yes, despite the wild, ridiculous, totally unbelievable, coincidence I mentioned, which is reflected in every single test, without exception, the results between the two companies are the exact same. The AncestryDNA results were very accurate. You are right. I am wrong. Thank you for setting me straight.

          • passingtime85 says:

            None of the celebrities ever took tests from each company. I did, the results were the same.

            Explain that to me.

          • follers says:

            Your personal, essentially anecdotal, evidence doesn’t interest me. Since the discussion we had in September, two very important pieces of information became known to me:
            1. The results of all the other Jewish guests on Walters’ season, which were also all over the place.
            2. The results of a whole new season’s worth of Jewish guests, with 23andme, in 2016, which were as consistent as the 2014 season.

            That information for all intents and purposes ended the discussion.

          • passingtime85 says:

            “All over the place” that’s an overstatement. I could defend my position once again, but you’ve made up your mind.

            One thing though, you could admit to, is that you made a mistake about FamilyTreeMaker. A simple whoops would suffice.

          • follers says:

            It’s not an overstatement. As for FamilyTreeMaker, I may have misnamed it, but the exact name doesn’t interest me and is totally irrelevant to the point.

          • passingtime85 says:

            Once again you’ve missed the context clues. I was changing the topic, directing it to a new point. You never seem to acknowledge when you’re incorrect. You just ignore it. I know it does matter to the overall conversation. I was merely taking the opportunity to raise a new qualm I have when discussing anything with you. But you cannot relate to that, because I’m confidant you have a developmental disorder probably somewhere in the autism spectrum.

          • follers says:

            Keep telling it like it is.

          • passingtime85 says:

            Will do.

      • passingtime85 says:

        Now that old arguments are pretty much done, I’d like to raise a new concern. I didn’t mention it before because I am a bit of a jerk.

        I actually really don’t trust the new redesign of FamilyTreeDna’s autosomal test, the MyOrigins update. I haven’t signed into my account in a long time and wanted to look at my ethnic makeup according to them, and found that vs the original Population Finder results, MyOrigins is actually off by more than 10% when it came to Ashkenazi heritage.

        In the Population Finder the variance was stated in percentages +or- for any given result. For my original “Jewish” result it hovered at 43.09% with a +/-4.3% possible variance. MyOrigins does not even bother to tell you what the possibly variance could be, or give you the nifty option that 23andme gives you which is the 3 different readouts of a conservative/standard/speculative view. MyOrigins simply states ethnic makeup as if it’s an absolute, which now places me somehow at 60% Ashkenazi, which is impossible.

        I find that FamilyTreeDna’s autosomal tests are less trustworthy than they ever been.

  3. Kimmel says:

    Wow, I have no idea who she is, but she is an incredible exotic mix.

  4. Sage says:

    @fuzzybear44 I agree, black people should be able to play themselves.

  5. bablah says:

    I’d be inclined to believe her if she said she’s malaysian, but just indian and european. hmmm… doesn’t look like any indian I’ve seen.

    • fuzzybear44 says:

      East Indian. could mean a lot of things.(siddi for example), she’s not being clear. She’s. Also bushmen. which she stated in a interview

      • fuzzybear44 says:

        Sorry my fault not siddi, but others

        • andrew says:

          she’s a “Cape Coloured”.

          • fuzzybear44 says:

            @ Andrew

            Yes I see she’s a Cape Coloured. Also go by her, she’s everything including a bit of indigenous African. I’m just saying that East Indian can be anything, in other words she’s being to vague on the subject

            See this is my pet peeves. Hollywood likes to use people like her who say they aren’t black , to play black people. What a black American can’t play themselves anymore?They used Africans(English and South African), then they turn around and use African Americans to play Africans(when there are plenty of African Actors). They have Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans etc. , Who say they aren’t black playing AA. White people play everybody, including African American , African and Asian

          • fuzzybear44 says:

            @Ethnic or Follers

            She says she also part Bushmen or Khoisan. It should be added:
            Starts at the 1:50 mark
            http://www.foxla.com/good-day/good-day-la-celebrity-interviews/86834057-story

          • fuzzybear44 says:

            @Ethnic or Follers

            Thank you

        • getttea says:

          Fuzzybear44

          African Americans aren’t the only black people. Afro Doninicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans are black too.

          If Lesley Brandt has indigenous African blood she’s only just now claiming it. Why now I don’t know.

          • fuzzybear44 says:

            @getttea

            Quote:
            (African Americans aren’t the only black people. Afro Doninicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans are black too. )

            Yes I know this. I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. I was saying , that when that make movie about African Americans, they hire members from those other black groups. instead of hiring AA’s to play themselves. Also that Doninicans, and Puerto Ricans often say that they’re not black.

            Quote:
            (If Lesley Brandt has indigenous African blood she’s only just now claiming it. Why now I don’t know.)

            IMO , I think she has more than just Khoisan. However her just now opening up about her indigenous African blood , might be because from this documentary I saw on Coloured, they try to distance themselves from their black bloodlines. Many of them liked the separate category, and don’t want to be seen as black,(not all of them , but many)

        • getttea says:

          @fuzzybear44 You’re right, African Americans should be able to play themselves. I didn’t realize years ago that so many African American roles now do not even go to African American actresses and its not fair.

          People with complex mixes like Brandt (who only have small African admixture) is understandable why they don’t identify as black (they shouldn’t) but to acknowledge you’re not Black then still go after Black or Black American roles is distasteful and enables a bigoted Hollywood practice.

    • getttea says:

      There are some Sri Lankans with her look.

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