Mena Massoud
Massoud in 2018, photo by Prphotoscom
Place of Birth: Cairo, Egypt
Date of Birth: September 17, 1991
Ethnicity: Egyptian
Mena Massoud is a Canadian actor. He has starred in Disney’s live-action Aladdin (2019), as the title character. His roles also include the films Strange but True, Run This Town, Lamya’s Poem, in voice performance; The Royal Treatment, and Hotel for the Holidays, and the series Open Heart, Jack Ryan, and Reprisal.
He was born in Egypt, the son of Gorgit and Mansour Massoud, and moved to Canada when he was three, settling in Markham, Ontario. His family are Coptic Christians. A picture of Mena with his parents can be seen here. A picture of Mena with his father can be seen here.
He has said:
A lot of the Egyptian community is made up of doctors, pharmacists and engineers. All throughout high school I took sciences, but eventually I chose to pursue what I truly want to do…
Mena founded the plant-based food travel show Evolving Vegan.
Source: Interview with Mena Massoud – https://www.thedailybeast.com
He looks heavily mixed with Sub Saharan
Mena as a child and his father:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9L-VGsW4AY7sdn.jpg
Mena with his parents at the Aladdin premier:
https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1150898383/photo/premiere-of-disneys-aladdin-arrivals.jpg?s=594×594&w=gi&k=20&c=vEPoHVzZoK-3uKzWicBefVyXN5-L164Ty-LFzxokngc=
Coptic Egyptians are an ethno-religious group and are typically endogamous. Copts themselves seem to have an East Sub-Saharan component to their DNA; from what I can tell it’s between 6-10%.
https://www.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/s4u3ku/my_illustrative_dna_results_g25_coordinates/
https://www.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/zy3hu1/earlier_this_week_i_posted_23me_results_100/
So while he very well could have a recent Sub Saharan ancestor, there’s nothing to suggest he does.
It’s not even just Copts – or even particularly Copts, in fact. Most Egyptians have minor (but statistically significant) SSA ancestry. But, like you said, there is nothing to suggest anything particularly recent – or anything beyond average – for the Massouds.
Ethnic, is there a picture, please?
not at the moment.