History Main / PlaysGreatEthnics

* London-born actor Ritchie Coster (whose ethnic origins are Dutch) is dark-haired, dark-eyed, and has spent his career playing non-English characters of various types. He was The Chechen (a Chechen, naturally) in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Mister Zoric (a Hungarian) in ''Film/LetMeIn'', Simon Matic (a Bulgarian) in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', Joey Sadano (an Italian) in ''Film/AmericanGangster'', Jorgan Stern (a Pole) in ''Series/LawAndOrder'', Fazal (a Saudi Arabian) in ''Film/Traffic2000'', Nicolai Trepov (a Russian) in ''Hack'', and the list goes on and on and on. One can count the number of times he's played English characters on both hands.

* Noble Johnson was an African-American actor who, from UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood through the late '40s, portrayed not only characters of African descent, but also American Indians, Mexicans, Arabs, Polynesians, and at least two Eastern Europeans, often using makeup of his own design.

* Creator/BenKingsley was born in England to an English mother and Indian father. His roles have included several Jews (of various nationalities), Iranians (''Film/PrinceOfPersia'' and ''Film/HouseOfSandAndFog''), Middle Eastern characters of other origins, Indians ([[Film/{{Gandhi}} one of which]] was his breakout role and won him an Oscar), Americans, Russians, Italians, at least one Frenchman ([[Film/{{Hugo}} Georges Méliès]]), a [[Film/EndersGame Māori]], and an Egyptian (Potiphar). In ''Film/IronMan3'', he plays a Middle Eastern terrorist [[spoiler: who's really a British actor who looks foreign enough to pretend to be a vaguely-Asian person, lampshading this trope.]] In fact, many people have assumed he's Jewish due to the number he played, though Kingsley corrected them that no, so far as he knows that isn't the case (his mother was born out of wedlock and did not talk about her background, so it's possible but unconfirmed).

* '' Creator/IsmaelCruzCordova is a an Afro-Puerto Rican actor. He has played multiple characters who are Latin Americans, [[Film/MaryQueenOfScots2018 Italian]], [[Series/TheMandalorian Twi'lek]] and even [[Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower Elf]].

* Jenette Goldstein is Jewish-American but has been able to pass herself off as numerous different nationalities - her IMDB page even describing her as "a true chameleon". Her [[{{Film/Aliens}} most famous role]] has her playing a Mexican and she played another Hispanic in ''Film/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas''. She also played Irish in ''{{Film/Titanic 1997}}'' and ''Film/ThePresidio'', a Caucasian blonde in ''Film/NearDark'' and she finally got be Jewish in ''Film/LethalWeapon2''.

* Creator/MyrnaLoy - before becoming a Hollywood star - had exotic looks that allowed her to get several Asian roles (in {{Yellowface}} of course). ''Film/TheMaskOfFuManchu'' for example.

-->[-[[BrickJoke Wait, is caveman an actual ethnicity?]]-]

* Subverted by Creator/RashidaJones. She is the daughter of the Black musician Quincy Jones and the Ashkenazi Jewish actress Peggy Lipton and looks like she could play any kind of ethnicity except East Asian. However, her most famous roles (Karen Filippelli in ''Series/{{The Office|US}}'' and Ann Perkins in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'') have simply been AmbiguouslyBrown blends ethnically and emphatically American nationally.

[[caption-width-right:350:Guess what his real ethnicity is.[[note]]It's [[UsefulNotes/NewZealand Māori]]. And if you picked either "Mexican" or "caveman" (neither of which are ethnicities), you get a DopeSlap. Clockwise from top left: ''Film/ThreeKings'', ''Film/TrainingDay'', ''Film/TenThousandBC'', and ''Film/WhaleRider''.[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Guess what his real ethnicity is.[[note]]It's [[UsefulNotes/NewZealand Māori]]. And if you picked "caveman", you get a DopeSlap. Clockwise from top left: ''Film/ThreeKings'', ''Film/TrainingDay'', ''Film/TenThousandBC'', and ''Film/WhaleRider''.[[/note]]]]

* Creator/RosarioDawson is mixed race and so she can play a variety of races in films. She passed herself off as Middle Eastern in ''{{Film/Alexander}}'' and Greek in ''Film/PercyJacksonAndTheLightningThief''.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''Series/TheXFiles'' when one of TheMenInBlack claims that Saddam Hussein is in fact a character actor with a background in dinner theater who "[[TropeNamer plays great ethnics]]".

* Back in the days when YellowFace was still considered apropos, Henry Silva, a man of Spanish and Italian descent whose ethnicity, he jokes, had been "assumed to be everything" made a career playing YellowPeril characters in movies like ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'' and whatever other ethnic heavy the studios wanted him to.

* Tige Andrews was really of Lebanese descent, but in his regular roles on cop series, he played an Italian (Lt. Johnny Russo on ''Series/TheDetectives'') and Captain Adam Greer on ''Series/TheModSquad''.

* Sudanese-English actor [[OverlyLongName Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi]] (better known as Creator/AlexanderSiddig) is a preferred choice for characters from anywhere in the Arab world or greater Middle East, especially if you don't want a [[AcceptableEthnicTargets terrorist]]. He also played the Carthaginian Hannibal, although that's not actually that much of a stretch (more like having a Spaniard play a Roman than play, say, an Indian), the fictional-but-Spanish-like [[Series/GameOfThrones Prince Doran Martell of Dorne]], and [[Series/{{Cosmos}} Isaac Newton]].

** Aquaman's father in the film is played by Temuera Morrison (NZ Māori), who, alongside Māori characters, has also played a Hispanic boat captain in ''Film/Speed2'', and the ambiguous Jango Fett and clone troopers in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels.

* Korean-American (possibly the Very First Korean-American) actor Philip Ahn only portrayed Korean characters a handful of times in his almost 50-year career. Early in his career was promoted by studios as "Chinese", by the logic that most [[GlobalIgnorance Americans wouldn't know what Korea was]], and after World War II broke out was typecast as Japanese characters, to the degree that some audiences thought he actually was Japanese and sent him death threats.

* Swedish actor Creator/PeterStormare has played a German "nihilist" in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'', a Russian cosmonaut in ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'', an Italian mercenary in ''Film/TheBrothersGrimm'', an Italian-American mob boss in ''Series/PrisonBreak'', a drunken and violent Frenchman in ''Film/{{Chocolat}}'', a drug lord from a fictional Eastern European nation in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' - the list goes on.

* London-born actor Ritchie Coster (whose ethnic origins are Dutch) is dark-haired, dark-eyed, and has spent his career playing non-English characters of various types. He was The Chechen (a Chechen, naturally) in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Mister Zoric (a Hungarian) in ''Film/LetMeIn'', Simon Matic (a Bulgarian) in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', Joey Sadano (an Italian) in ''Film/AmericanGangster'', Jorgan Stern (a Pole) in ''Series/LawAndOrder'', Fazal (a Saudi Arabian) in ''Film/{{Traffic}}'', Nicolai Trepov (a Russian) in ''Hack'', and the list goes on and on and on. One can count the number of times he's played English characters on both hands.

[[caption-width-right:350:Guess what his real ethnicity is.[[note]]It's Māori. And if you picked "caveman", you get a DopeSlap. Clockwise from top left: ''Film/ThreeKings'', ''Film/TrainingDay'', ''Film/TenThousandBC'', and ''Film/WhaleRider''.[[/note]]]]

* Indian-born American actor Creator/ErickAvari has made a career out of this: he's played British characters, Arab characters (even an ''alien'' Arab in the original ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' movie and the [[Series/StargateSG1 follow-up TV show]]), Egyptians, Russians, Spaniards, and so on. He's even occasionally played the odd American here or there. Wiki/TheOtherWiki, in point of fact, says that he's "portrayed representatives of more than 24 different nationalities".

* Korean-American (possibly the Very First Korean-American) actor Philip Ahn only portrayed Korean characters a handful of times in his almost 50-year career. Early in his career was promoted by studios as "Chinese", by the logic that most [[ViewersAreMorons Americans wouldn't know what Korea was]], and after World War II broke out was typecast as Japanese characters, to the degree that some audiences thought he actually was Japanese and sent him death threats.

* Sudanese-English actor [[OverlyLongName Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi]] (better known as Creator/AlexanderSiddig) is a preferred choice for characters from anywhere in the Arab world or greater Middle East, especially if you don't want a [[AcceptableEthnicTargets terrorist]]. He also played the Carthaginian Hannibal, although that's not actually that much of a stretch (more like having a Spaniard play a Roman than play, say, an Indian), and the fictional-but-Spanish-like [[Series/GameOfThrones Prince Doran Martell of Dorne]].

* Creator/GiancarloEsposito is of Italian and Black American ancestry. This means he usually gets cast as generic Black guys, but his vaguely Mediterranean features have also led to him being cast as a Hispano-American, including [[Series/BreakingBad his most famous role]] as a Chilean drug lord.