Zoë Saldaña
Saldaña in 2011, photo by kathclick/Bigstock.com
Birth Name: Zoë Yadira Saldaña Nazario
Place of Birth: Passaic, New Jersey, U.S.
Date of Birth: June 19, 1978
Ethnicity: Dominican Republic, Puerto Rican, evidently small amount of Lebanese and Haitian
Zoë Saldaña is an American actress and dancer. She has starred as Uhura in the rebooted Star Trek films, Neytiri in the Avatar franchise, and Gamora in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy/the MCU. She is also known for her roles in the films Center Stage, Get Over It, Crossroads, Drumline (2002), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Terminal, Haven, Guess Who, Constellation, Premium, The Heart Specialist, After Sex, Blackout (2007), Vantage Point, The Skeptic, Death at a Funeral (2010), The Losers, Takers, Burning Palms, Colombiana, The Words, Blood Ties, Out of the Furnace, Infinitely Polar Bear, The Book of Life, Nina (2016), Live by Night, I Kill Giants, Missing Link, Vampires vs. the Bronx, Vivo, The Adam Project, Amsterdam, The Absence of Eden, and Emilia Pérez; and on television’s Rosemary’s Baby (2014), Maya and the Three, From Scratch, and Special Ops: Lioness.
Zoë is the daughter of Asalia Nazario and Aridio A. Saldaña. She is a black Latina. Her father was born in Cotui Pro Sa, Dominican Republic. Her mother is Puerto Rican. Zoë has described herself as “three quarters Dominican and a quarter Puerto Rican.” She was initially raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, then spending a few years in the Dominican Republic after her father’s death; before moving back to Queens.
She is also said to have some degree of Lebanese and Haitian ancestry. She speaks English and Spanish fluently. Pictures of Zoë’s family members can be seen here.
Zoë is married to Italian artist Marco Perego, with whom she has three children.
Zoë has said:
There’s no one way to be black… I’m black the way I know how to be. You have no idea who I am. I am black. I’m raising black men.
Saldaña and her husband Marco Perego at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in 2015, photo by kathclick/Bigstock.com
i swear she was half white=/
Ethnic, I read somewhere that she has Lebanese, Indian, Irish, and Jamaican lineage, do you know if this is true?
thanks Magdalena
I actually found a quote supposedly from her saying
“I’m Dominican, Lebanese, Indian, Irish, Jamaican.”
and then in an interview she says
“My mom is Puerto Rican and my father is Dominican. ”
hmm…
you can obviously tell she has african ancestry in her, she looks like a mix of black/taino indian to me and could possibly have some spanish in her too. nevertheless i still love her, one of my favorite afro-latina actresses
zoe is puerto rican and dominican..and that’s that..no discussion needed..she is a darked skin puerto rican and dominican woman..she is latina not black.
But Latina is not a race, its an ethnicity. They’re different. She IS black because most of her roots are African. Just like Desi Arnaz IS white because most of his roots are European. Just because you speak Spanish instead of another language doesn’t constitute being a different race.
Damn, you sound like there’s something wrong with being black. Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are of African decent which means we’re technically Black.
check yourself girl. look up my comment under truth
You know, most of this ignorant chatter comes from self proclaimed Latino’s or Hispanics who are in fact AMERICAN, and know absolutely nothing about the history of the Caribbean, Central or South America. Take this nonsense about black and white to Argentina and you’re in for a rude awakening. At least they got it right in Brazil. Although afro-Brazilians are still crusading for equality, they have not been allowed to forget the fact that they are indeed BLACK, something that eludes so many Dominicans–thankfully Ms. Saldana is not one of them. She has said to the Dominican press “yo soy una mujer negra”, so please, don’t speak for her.
people think cause you darker complexion or just cause you look black that you black which is not true its so many different erhnicities in this world and we all mixed up that we all get confuse i barely got black in me and lighter than most white people but im still consider black and i love it because thats part of me though im very mixed up we all are never jugde a book by its cover
Of course we should never judge a book by its cover, and people are allowed to self-identify with any ethnicity that they choose, but the concept of race, although not cut and dry, is not up for debate. The history of the Caribbean and Central and South America runs a parallel to American history. They too had slaves from Africa brought there, white (Spaniard) imperialists, and natives or ‘Amerindians’. Racial composition varies from island to island and country to country in that region, but we can’t say that blacks from Africa or whites from Europe suddenly changed races when they got to the New World. That is ignorant. If you go to any country in the Eastern hemisphere, her race would NOT be up for debate, but in the U.S., our bureauracry has systematically cultivated a new race that includes everyone who comes from a spanish-speaking nation. The problem with this? It’s ridiculous! Race is not definied along ethnic terms, as blacks in America are not the same as blacks in Nigeria, and asians in Japan are not the same as asians in China, despite the fact that they belong to the same race. Ethnicity and race are two terribly different terms that carry different meanings for the logical world, but not for Americans. Now if we want to label her mulatto that seems feasable, it’s likely that she is mixed even if she looks predominantly black, but to deny the fact that she is of black African descent is ridiculous.