History Main / ActorSharedBackground

* ''Series/WuAssassins'': The Chinese-American members of the cast are played by Chinese-American and Chinese-British actors. Lead character Kai Jin is played by Indonesian actor Creator/IkoUwais and is specified to have had a Chinese father and an Indonesian mother (who was Muslim, as Uwais is). Scottish crime boss Alec McCullough is played by the Scottish actor Tommy Flanagan.

** Carmine Giovinazzo's past of aspiring to a professional baseball career and then being sidelined by an arm injury was incorporated into Danny Messer's backstory. Rather naturally, the actor's Italian ethnicity was also incorporated. Additionally, both actor and character are from Staten Island. Also, the painting Danny gestures toward in an early episode involving an art gallery was done by Carmine himself, as were several others on display there.

** Creator/SelaWard and Jo Danville were both cheerleaders.

* Lt. Horatio Caine on ''Series/CSIMiami'' hails from Forest Hills, Queens, NY. So does actor David Caruso.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': The main character, [[Characters/AmphibiaAnneBoonchuy Anne Boonchuy]], is Thai-American. She's voiced by Creator/BrendaSong, an American who is half-Thai.

** Like Mainwaring, Creator/ArthurLowe was largely in a non-combat role during WW2, working as a radar technician before entering the entertainment services out of boredom with his role.

** Tavi Gevinson's casting in a series about blog-famous socialites in Manhattan is amusing once you remember that [[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/09/20/tavi-says she was infamously one herself at the start of her career]], starting as a blogger and NYC fashion scene fixture.

While this may seem like a trivial case of CastTheExpert, there are very justified reasons for following this trope, at least when it comes to race and ethnicity. In the United States, for example, the Screen Actors Guild ''requires'' that an actor at least partially share the ethnic background of whatever character they're playing, precisely to avoid {{blackface}}, {{yellowface}}, and other offensive ethnic caricatures. While this isn't required for voice actors, it is generally preferred that they too share their character's ethnicity. Sometimes it happens in reverse as well, where the actor is cast first, and the character's family and ethnic background are then based on the actor's, such as a biracial actor being given biracial siblings and interracial parents whenever the character's family makes an appearance.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' takes place in New Orleans, and has one of its main characters, Ray, voiced by Creator/{{Jim Cummings|1952}}, who grew up in the area.

* ''Manga/{{Lady}}'': Sarah Frances Russell is a Christian, and in the Arabic dub, she is voiced by Reem Saadeh, a [[UsefulNotes/{{Jordan}} Jordanian]] Christian.

* On the final episode of ''Series/AreYouBeingServed'', "The Pop Star", Mr. Spooner is revealed to be a talented lead vocalist. Same for his actor Mike Berry.