“They’d say, ’You’re racially ambiguous.’ I’m like, ’That’s a new term. I’ve never heard that one before,’ which left me even more internally confused.”

I'm the AAPI Culture Editor here at BuzzFeed, where I cover everything from trending news to pop culture to AAPI issues.

The Olympic ice skater is of Chinese and European descent. In an interview earlier this year, she said, "I love being half Chinese, and both my parents are actually full Chinese, so raised in complete Chinese household. And it shaped a lot of who I am today, and I mean, I love it. Come on, the food's so good, and I love the parties. Chinese parties, guys, are really good. And everyone's so close, too; we're big on family, which I love. So, it's definitely a positive."

Her father, Arthur, welcomed Alysa and her four siblings via surrogacy with the help of anonymous egg donors.

The actor is of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, English, and Portuguese descent. On a 1994 episode of the Late Show with David Letterman, the TV host apologized for mispronouncing Keanu's name and asked about its meaning. "It means cool breeze over the mountains. It's from my great-great uncle," Keanu explained, clarifying it's a Hawaiian name. "But I don't know what it means the way you pronounce it," he joked.

In a 2021 interview with NBC News, he said, “My relationship to my Asian identity, it’s always been good and healthy. And I love it. We’ve been growing up together.” 

The singer is of Filipino, Spanish, Puerto Rican, and Ashkenazi Jewish descent. At a concert, he exclaimed, "I'm so proud and so humbled to be Filipino!"

During a 2017 interview with Latina, he shut down accusations that he chose his stage name over his real name (Peter Hernandez) in order to hide his Puerto Rican identity. "Who are you fooling? And why would anyone say that? That’s so insulting to me, to my family. That’s ridiculous. My last name is Hernandez. My father’s name is Pedrito Hernandez."

The actor is of Lebanese and Mexican descent. In 2021, she told Arab News, "I was raised and I was educated, like all Lebanese people are educated, to give back to Lebanon, to be a brotherhood. We are raised so that when we encounter a Lebanese person in life, we immediately come together."

In 2012, she said, "I have taught my child to embrace her Mexican heritage, to love my first language, Spanish, to learn about Mexican history, music, folk art, food, and even the Mexican candy I grew up with. I have always been an active part of my community. I have tried my whole life to represent my Mexican roots with honor and pride."

The choreographer is of Samoan, Chinese, and Scottish descent. In her autobiography, Young Queen, she wrote, "I was one of the only Polynesian girls in my year and I clearly remember feeling very different and even a little bit of an outcast. Because I was half Polynesian and half white, aka 'afakasi' in Samoan, I was struggling with my own identity and with fitting in. I was obsessed with trying to straighten my hair every day to look more European...

Now I have such a tremendous appreciation for my culture and identity, but unfortunately as a young girl I hadn’t figured all of that out yet. ... I wanted to write about this because I know so many other young afakasi and Polynesian teens grapple with these feelings as I did. Let me just say, you are not alone. I’ve been there, and trust me it’s a journey worth going through as you will eventually find your way."

The actor is of Chinese, Swedish, and Eastern European descent. In 2023, when discussing playing a mixed Asian character in The Summer I Turned Pretty with Character Media, she said, "As someone who's mixed, too, it was weird feeling like maybe I don't know where I fit in in the whole... But it's just so cool to be part of a show like The Summer I Turned Pretty, and to be supported by so many amazing Asian American artists, and I feel so lucky to be a part of it."

The model is of Palestinian and Dutch descent. In 2021, she told Teen Vogue, “In certain situations, I feel – or I’m made to feel – that I’m too white to stand up for part of my Arab heritage. You go through life trying to figure out where you fit in racially. Is what I am, or what I have, enough to do what I feel is right? But then, also, is that taking advantage of the privilege of having the whiteness within me, right? Am I allowed to speak for this side of me, or is that speaking on something that I don’t experience enough to know?”

She said she's looking forward to openly discussing things like this with her daughter. “I think that Khai will grow up feeling out the way that she can or wants to be a bridge for her different ethnicities. But I think that it will be nice to be able to have those conversations, and see where she comes from [with] it, without us putting that onto her. What comes from her is what I’m most excited about, and being able to add to that or answer her questions, you know?”

The actor is of Korean and European descent. During a 2025 interview with the PR Press, he said, "My mom is Korean. She always thought it'd be harder for me to break into film and acting because she hadn't really seen anyone. It's pretty new that it's Asians are leading film and TV here in North America. So, to land a role [in Heated Rivalry] that necessitated being Asian was something I don't think she saw coming. So that meant a lot."

The singer is of Black and Filipino descent. While visiting family in the Philippines, she told the Philippine Star, "It’s a big part of who I am, and I come from the Bay Area, where there’s tons of Filipinos. And I notice that when I leave the Bay Area, a lot of people don’t know about Filipinos. They don’t know who we are. They ask me questions, 'Do you eat with chopsticks?' etc."

During a 2018 interview with WWD, she shared that she identifies strongly with both sides. "My dad would throw down with the soul food when we had our Black side over. Black culture, to me, is so important, and I identify with young Black women. I represent young Black women, and I’m proud of that."

The actor is of Samoan and European descent. In 2020, he told Mr Porter's The Journal, "I’m half Samoan, but nobody knows it because I’m white and I have [dyed] red hair. My dad is a chief in Samoa. I almost identify more as a Samoan than I do as a New Zealander, just because I grew up with so much Samoan family, and the Samoan culture is really close to me. I feel ashamed of myself for not pursuing it more."

In 2022, KJ received the matai (chief) title Savae. After the ceremony, he shared pictures on Instagram, writing, "My goal is to serve my family and my village (Moata’a)."

The singer is of Filipino and European descent. In a 2018 interview with the Center for Asian American Media, she said, "My great-grandfather immigrated here from the Philippines when he was just a teenager. He’s my grandma’s dad, and my grandpa is also Filipino as well. My dad grew up in a house where they were always making Filipino food, his grandpa always spoke Tagalog. All of those traditions have trickled down to our generation. Every Thanksgiving we have lumpia, and things like that."

In a 2021 interview for V Magazine, she said, "I sometimes get DMs from little girls being like, 'I've never seen someone who looked like me in your position.' And I'm literally going to cry. Like just thinking about it. I feel like I grew up never seeing that. Also, it was always like, 'Popstar,' that's a white girl."

The tennis star is of Haitian and Japanese descent. In 2020, she told WSJ magazine, "I'm just trying to put a platform out for all the Japanese people that look like me and live in Japan, and when they go to a restaurant, they get handed an English menu."

She also recalled a time she played against a Japanese opponent as a young girl. "She was talking with another Japanese girl, and they didn’t know that I was listening [or that] I spoke Japanese. Her friend asked her who she was playing, so she said Osaka. And her friend says, 'Oh, that Black girl. Is she supposed to be Japanese?' And then the girl that I was playing was like, 'I don’t think so.' I remember that specifically because, yeah, I sometimes feel like a lot of people think that way about me."

The actor is of Māori and European descent. In 2025, she told BuzzFeed, "Growing up in New Zealand, it was always the supporting or the smaller roles for Māori and Pacific Island characters. They were often also characters that were the single mother, the poor demographic. For so long, you are typecast in that, and still, I don't understand why...

It shouldn't be: 'Oh, well, no, she's Māori, so she can't play that role.' It should be: 'She's a woman in that age group; let's see what she brings to the table.' That's what I'm really proactive about bringing."

The actor is of Korean and English descent. In a 2019 interview with Mixed Asian Media, he said, "To be on both sides, being Caucasian and Asian, how inclusive or exclusive do you want to be when it comes to race, with being Asian? It’s weird when some people try to measure your Asian-ness, when it’s like, 'I’m Asian.' It’s so extreme. 'Oh, you’re half, but you’re not Asian.' I am Asian. I’m probably more 'Asian' than you. I grew up in Korea...

Then you have people in America that are second or third generation, but they’re full Asian. Do they see themselves as more 'Asian' than you when you’re just half or a quarter? When you grew up in Asia? How do you measure that? If you’re Asian, you’re Asian. If it runs through your blood, it runs through your blood."

The actor is of Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, French, Irish, and Native American descent. In a 2021 interview with Glamour, she said, "My mom is from the Philippines, and growing up, there weren’t really that many women who looked like me and my mom and my family on screen. It’s so important to share all the different stories because America is a massive melting pot, [just like the] world. There are so many different stories that need to be told so that we are exposed to them and can have more empathy towards different people."

At a 2023 press conference in Manila, Vanessa spoke about the struggle to land roles. "I remember, I was auditioning for a movie that I was very passionate about, a character that I always wanted to play, and I was told I couldn’t because I wasn’t Black or Latina. I’m like, 'I’m ethnic! If that’s what you’re looking for.' But you know, it’s hard. It really is. And I think I’m still out there, trying to find where I fit in Hollywood."

The actor is of Indian and European descent. In 2019, he published Mixed Feelings, a book of poetry and interviews that explores mixed identities. In a 2019 interview with 34th Street, he said, "I realized the collective mixed experience is so similar. It doesn’t matter what the racial background of those mixed-nesses are. We are all unified in the similarities of the experience."

He told Brown Girl Magazine, "As a mixed person, I am unclassified in all the different groups. I am definitely a person of color because I am brown, and I walk around as a brown person, but as a mixed person, you inhabit different spaces. Negative or positive, there is no such a thing, but you kinda just are an 'other.'"

The singer is of Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, and Danish descent. In 2025, she told BuzzFeed about her experience in Fifth Harmony. "The audience always perceived that I was Latina or Latina/Black. So, I was told from people from above to kind of tuck a piece of myself away, being Polynesian, because we come from such a small demographic. They were probably thinking there's not much of a market of selling me in that lane."

A 2016 trip to Tonga with her grandparents sparked a shift in perspective. "We do belong in rooms. I should never tuck away where I come from and my grandparents' story. If I shy away from who I am, that's me looking away from my grandparents, who have brought me to where I'm at. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be receiving these types of blessings."

The actor is of English and Malaysian descent. In 2018, he told Bustle, "Just because by blood I'm not full Asian doesn't mean I can't own my Asianness. And I relate so much more with my Asian side. I sound ridiculously British, but I was born in Sarawak [Malaysia]... Like, I'm from the tribe in the middle of the jungle — you cannot get any more Asian than that. I’ve grown more than half my entire life in Asia, exposed to more cultures than you can shake a stick at just through what I've done in the past. If anyone can relate to being Asian in the Asian culture, it was me."

The singer is of Japanese, Spanish, Black, Native American, Dominican, and German descent. In a 2019 interview with Revolt TV, she said, "When I started going on auditions, they would put me for roles [as] the Spanish girl, or the Japanese girl or the Black girl. When I was 12 [or] 13, someone told my mom, 'You should really play up one or the other. You should straighten her hair so she could look more Asian, or you should keep her hair natural and curly and put a little bronzer on her so she [will] look more Black."

The actor is of Black and Samoan descent. When a Twitter user accused him of not identifying as Black, The Rock wrote, "Glad I came across this and I’ll give you guys some context & truth. I identify as exactly what I am - both. Equally proud. Black/Samoan."

The actor is of Japanese, Cherokee, German, and Swedish descent. In a 2021 Teen Vogue interview, he said, "I felt like I couldn’t fit in anywhere. Even coming into acting, I never really thought about leaning into my Japanese heritage because there’s this feeling I have that I’m not Asian enough to do it. And I felt like if I was cast as a distinctly Asian character, there’d be controversy around that."

While playing Paxton Hall-Yoshida on Never Have I Ever, he was inspired to dive deeper into his family history like his character did. "My bachan used to smoke, and I have a memory as a kid of seeing her out on our balcony, crouching while smoking. I’d learn later that she did this because during the war, everyone had to turn off their lights and crouch if they were outside so they weren’t detected by planes. There are so many things I wish I could ask her about her life now."

The actor is of Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Chinese, and Irish descent. In a 2024 interview with StyleCaster, she spoke about the difficulty of landing roles after Moana. "People didn't know my face, and when casting did see my face, they'd say, 'You're racially ambiguous.' I'm like, 'That's a new term. I've never heard that one before,' which left me even more internally confused because my identity has always been Hawaiian.

Suddenly, all of these phrases were thrust at me: 'Well, you're white-passing, but you're also racially ambiguous, so you can play Latinx, you can play Asian, you can play all of these different things.' I was like, 'I just want to play smart women. The bar is there.'"

The fashion designer is of Korean, Japanese, and Black descent. In 2009, she told Working Mother, "I was a mixed-race girl with a Korean-Japanese mother and an African-American father, and none of the other kids at my school were like me. I was nearly six feet tall by the time I was 11 years old...

As my mom did for me, I’m helping my own girls learn about tolerance — to respect differences in culture, religion, and even the way we look. I also try to set boundaries, let them know what’s expected, and give them room to develop and grow."

The actor is of Tahitian, Cambodian, Nigerian, English, Italian, Greek, and Scandinavian descent. In 2022, he told Mixed Asian Media, "Being mixed affects my day-to-day life, so it’s affected every role I've had. It's hard because naturally, we want to label everything. It's just what we do. There's no shame in that. It's comforting for us to be able to look at something and say, 'Let me classify that and put it somewhere in my brain,' right? I don't take offense to that, but I'm painfully aware of the fact that I was like the only person of color in my school growing up and the only mixed kid in my town and the only dark kid in my family, until my little brother and sister were born."

The rapper is of Filipino and Black descent. In 2018, she told HelloGiggles, "I definitely felt out of place at times because the cultures that I was raised around were completely night and day. But I feel like those types of internal struggles help me understand people better, and I now know that not one set of people is the same. Like, my mom is of Filipino descent and my dad is of Black descent, so it allows me to be sensitive to other people’s cultures. Because sometimes people might not communicate or understand the things that I do. I might not understand what someone else is doing, but I’m always able to know that people come from different places and have different understandings."

The actor is of  Māori and European descent. In 2015, he told Stuff, "I'm part white, but I'm not just white. And I don't think of myself as white, because I wasn't brought up that way. When they say 'white guys' when they're talking about me and Taika [Waititi], they're imagining a completely different life, completely different things. They're imagining this privilege that we didn't have."

The singer is Bangladeshi and Irish. In a 2018 Facebook post, she wrote, "I’m a Bangladeshi- Irish, South London born musician. As many of my fellow south asians will know - there aren’t many of us in the entertainment industry - it isn’t seen as a ‘real’ job amongst many in our culture, especially for women... f**ck that. Do your thing. I pay homage to MY culture in the Don’t Let Me Down music video - regardless of these restraints - and hope that other lil Desi girls will pick up their guitars, paintbrushes, voices and go and do what they feel they have to do too."

In 2021, Joy told BBC that exploring her culture didn't just begin when she became a musician. "It started much earlier. When I felt a void that needed to be explored and understood, as I was growing into this brown woman. Being half Bangladeshi and half Irish, both cultures are incredible at telling stories. The Bengali language lends itself so beautifully to telling stories, to creating a scene or an exaggeration of the story sometimes. Particularly how aunties tell stories."

The singer is of Native Hawaiian, Filipino, and Ukranian descent. In 2019, she told Modern Luxury Hawai‘i, "I was born in Honolulu, but only lived there for the first few years of my life. I was really young when we moved away, but I associate those early memories with family. My tutu had 17 brothers and sisters — I always laugh when I think back to how we used to gather together for a family photo and how challenging it was to fit all of us into the frame! All of my family is still in Hawai‘i, so I go home as often as possible. Being born there and knowing that I am part Hawaiian, makes me feel connected to the ‘aina and the spirit of Hawai‘i."

During a 2017 interview with the Inquirer, she exclaimed, "Filipino pride! ... I’m just really proud to be able to represent my people in Hawaii and the Philippines. ... I feel like some of the best voices in the world are Filipino voices. I got my voice from my Hawaiian side, too — my grandmother."

The singer is of Pakistani and Irish descent. In a 2018 interview with Vogue, he said, "That was confusing for people, they didn’t really understand. 'Who’s the brown person? Is it your mum or is it your dad?' That was nobody’s fault, other than learning these things. It’s natural. There are more mixed-race people around now."

Zayn also responded to frequently being called "Britain's most famous Muslim," explaining that he never professed to be Muslim and doesn't identify as one. "With my mum and dad, they were always there to educate us – I did go to mosque, I did study Islam – but they gave us the option so you could choose for yourself. There’s definitely beautiful parts to every religion."

The actor is of Filipino and European descent. In 2020, he told People, "I’ve been half-Filipino my whole life. But no one ever asked about it. It’s tough, this idea of 'white-passing.' It’s not even a term I heard of until the past two years. When people have a say in who you are — people you don’t even know — it makes you rethink what your balance is. Something you’ve had down your whole life. It’s a tricky cocktail in America. I’ve always been proud of my heritage, of being Filipino. Just because people don’t see it doesn’t make it any less real to me."

The actor is of Indian and English descent. In 2019, she told Teen Vogue, "There were moments growing up where you’re like, 'Oh, I don’t really feel Indian enough.' But now I’m at a place where I’m like you know what? It’s okay. It doesn’t make me any less Indian, or any less half Indian. My two favorite meals — one is my mum’s curry and one being a roast dinner. And that is me in a nutshell...

There’s a thing of someone [being] like, 'She’s not white, she’s not Black, she’s not Latina, what is she?' There were definitely a few leads that I went for where I think, ultimately, I was maybe the other choice, the 'exotic' choice, or the 'other.'"

The actor is of Chinese Malaysian, English, and Dutch descent. In a 2021 interview with Men's Fashion Post, he said, "Growing up, I felt like I didn't really know who I was. Being mixed-race, I didn't know what my identity was. I didn't fit in with my white friends, and I didn't fit in with my Asian friends, so I was always trying to change who I was in an attempt to find out who I really am. But as an actor, you're given a character and literally what lines to say, so something about living another person's life and exploring that is really interesting to me. I love the escapism of it."

The filmmaker is of Māori and Russian Jewish descent. In 2019, he told CBC Radio, "We've been represented in the past as always through a white lens. We're the Native presence in films that talk to trees, and we're smudging all the time, and we're riding whales, and we're talking to the ghosts of our ancestors — which, sure, maybe for a few of us ... I don't. I'm just a normal dude." He emphasized that it's important for Indigenous people to play all kinds of roles, not just ones focused on their culture or trauma. "I like it when our experience is presented in a way that feels normal. It's more relatable to audiences."

The actor is of Chinese and European descent. In a 2015 interview with Prestige Hong Kong, she said, "I’d go out for so many auditions, for everything. And then I’d be told, 'You’re too Asian' or 'You’re too white.' I remember someone telling me, 'Don’t feel bad. One day they won’t be trying to match you to fit with anyone else. You’ll just be hired for you.' So you can’t help but get frustrated. That’s part of it all."

In 2019, she told HuffPost, "My mom always taught me that I mattered. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought, I mattered. I’ve always had this strength because of my mother. But this is something that all Asians do have ― we have a very strong sense of self, and that’s not something anyone else can take away."

The singer is of Lebanese, Spanish, and Italian descent. She told Faze magazine, “I am a fusion. That’s my persona. I’m a fusion between black and white, between pop and rock, between cultures — between my Lebanese father and my mother’s Spanish blood, the Colombian folklore and Arab dance I love.”

She continued, “I was born and raised in Colombia, but I listened to bands like Led Zeppelin, the Cure, the Police, the Beatles and Nirvana. I was so in love with that rock sound, but at the same time, because my father is of 100% Lebanese descent, I am devoted to Arabic tastes and sounds.”