Nikki Blonsky

Blonsky in 2007, photo by Joe Seer/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Nicole Margaret Blonsky

Place of Birth: Great Neck, New York, U.S.

Date of Birth: November 9, 1988

Ethnicity:
*father – Ashkenazi Jewish
*mother – Slovak, Irish

Nikki Blonsky is an American actress, singer, dancer, and internet personality. Her roles include the films Hairspray (2007), as lead Tracy Turnblad, Queen Sized, Harold, Waiting for Forever, The English Teacher, Geography Club, and The Last Movie Star, and the series Huge and Smash.

Her father is a municipal worker and her mother is a school aide. Her father is Ashkenazi Jewish. Her mother is of half Slovak and half Irish descent, and is Catholic. Nikki was raised Catholic.

Nikki’s paternal grandfather was Paul Blonsky (the son of David Blonsky and Rachel Cooper). David was born in New York, the son of Russian-born parents, Joseph Blonsky and Annie Finkofsky. Rachel was born in Russia, the daughter of Philip S. Cooper and Sarah Leah Kuper.

Nikki’s paternal grandmother was named Anita Kanter (the daughter of Luis/Lou A. Kanter and Terisa/Theresa).

Nikki’s maternal grandfather was named Stephen Martin Smeja II (the son of Stephen Smeja and Madaline/Magdelena). Nikki’s grandfather Stephen was born in New York, to Slovak parents.

Nikki’s maternal grandmother was Margaret Mary Cosgrove (the daughter of Thomas Patrick Cosgrove and Mary E. Stinton/Stanton). Margaret was born in Massachusetts. Thomas was born in Maryhill, Lanarkshire, Scotland, the son of Irish parents, Felix Patrick Cosgrove, from Corbane, County Fermanagh, and Catherine B. McMurray/MacMurray. Nikki’s great-grandmother Mary was Irish, from Derry.

Source: Genealogy of Nikki’s paternal great-grandmother, Rachel Cooper (focusing on her own mother’s side) – https://www.geni.com