Tessa Thompson

Thompson in 2015, photo by Prphotos

Birth Name: Tessa Lynn Thompson

Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States

Date of Birth: October 3, 1983

Ethnicity:
*father – African-Panamanian
*maternal grandfather – Mexican
*maternal grandmother – English, German, Scottish, Irish

Tessa Thompson is an American actress, musician, and songwriter. Her roles include the Creed and Thor/MCU franchises, as Bianca Taylor and Valkyrie, respectively; as well as the films When a Stranger Calls (2006), Make It Happen, Mississippi Damned, Everyday Black Man, Exquisite Corpse, For Colored Girls…, Dear White People, Grantham & Rose, Selma (2014), War on Everyone, Sorry to Bother You, Annihilation (2018), Furlough, Little Woods, Men in Black: International, Lady and the Tramp (2019), in voice performance; Sylvie’s Love, and Passing; and the series Veronica Mars, Hidden Palms, Copper, and Westworld.

Her father, Marc Anthony Thompson, is a singer and songwriter, for the band Chocolate Genius, Inc. Tessa’s father is of Panamanian [African-Panamanian] descent. Tessa’s mother is of half Mexican and half white American [English, German, Scottish, Irish] ancestry. A picture of Tessa with her mother can be seen here. Tessa’s paternal half-sister is singer and songwriter Zsela.

Tessa has played the role of an African-American and biracial woman in her career. In the 2014 film Dear White People, Tessa played a biracial college student dealing with racial tensions within Ivy League schools.

Tessa’s maternal grandfather is musician and actor Bobby Ramos (Rosendo R. Ramos).

Tessa’s maternal grandmother is Barbara Dunnington (the daughter of Ira Dale Dunnington and Mary Frances Streeter). Barbara was born in California, to parents from Indiana. Ira was the son of Jesse Clyde Dunnington and Blanche Martha Thornburg. Mary Frances was the daughter of Roland/Rolland Calvin Streeter and Ethel Mae/May Botkin.

Tessa has said:

…my grandfather, was of Mexican descent. He was a [Hispanic] performer in a time where there were very few of them. He was the only, very often, and I think because of this, he had a real pressure to assimilate because he didn’t want my mother to speak Spanish… My mom is a woman of color even though she might not be readily identified as such… Even though she is not a Black woman, throughout my life, she filled me with such pride of being one… She told me that my broad features and my brown skin looked beautiful when classmates did their best to convince me otherwise.

Sources: Mention of Tessa’s ancestry – https://www.yahoo.com

Marriage record of Tessa’s maternal great-grandparents, Ira Dale Dunnington and Mary Frances Streeter – https://www.familysearch.org