Mixed Race Celebrities - Vin Diesel - He's a talented actor of mixed-race descent, best known for his roles in xXx, Pitch Black, and The Chronicles of Riddick.
Mixed Race Celebrities - Vin Diesel (Mark Sinclair Vincent)
Birthdate: July 18, 1967Birthplace: NYC, NY
Family: Vin Diesel has a fraternal twin brother named Paul.
Racial / Ethnic Heritage: Although most people guess he's part Italian and African-American, Vin Diesel prefers to identify himself as simply "multicultural" or "Italian and a lot of other things."
A writer for Alternet says, "In what seems to be Hollywood's version of the one-drop rule, the majority of multicultural actors who are part African-American play African-American characters, not biracial, white, or characters of different ethnicities." Vin Diesel agrees with this assessment. As a result, he enjoys having a "kind of ambiguous, chameleon-like ethnicity," he says. He also acknowledges that it is this ambiguity that has enabled him to play a wide range of characters and ethnicities (from an Italian American, to a black lead, to ethnically ambiguous characters).
Diesel used to see his mutable features as a disadvantage, but now he tells EOnline that "Being multicultural has gone from the Achilles' heel of my career to a strength."
Factoid #1: Vin Diesel keeps his hair completely shaved; no one knows what kind of hair he has - whether curly or straight - and without that clue, it's hard to identify his ethnicity. But this is just how Vin Diesel wants it.
Factoid #2: Before he became an actor, Diesel directed and starred in a short film, which was screened at the Cannes festival, entitled Multi-Facial; the film is about an actor who switches ethnicities at auditions, trying to pass as Italian, Latino and African-American in an attempt to get work.
Factoid #3: Vin Diesel has named his production company "One Race."
Factoid #4: The source of his name: "Vin" is short for his last name - Vincent. "Diesel" is a nickname he received from Chuck Norris when they met in 1993 ("Diesel" being a reference to someone with a very defined, toned body).
Factoid #5: As a boy, Vin Diesel was a skilled breakdancer who appeared in an instructional breakdancing video; he also appeared as a dancer in music videos for his cousin, rapper Kwamé.
Movie Roles Include: The Pacifier (2005); The Chronicles of Riddick (2004); xXx (2002); The Fast and the Furious (2001); Pitch Black (2000); Boiler Room (2000); Saving Private Ryan (1998); Strays (1997); Multi-Facial (1994).