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Actor-Shared Background

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"The main character is a guy just like me. I wouldn't even have to act, just be myself."
Johnny Fontane, The Godfather

When a character in a film, TV show, or other form of media shares details of their heritage, upbringing, and/or backstory with the actor playing them. When this material and information is written to be a vital part of the character and story, it runs into Meta Casting.

While this may seem like a trivial case of Cast the Expert, 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 acting, nowadays it's preferred to cast an actor who shares the 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.

One area where this becomes controversial is sexuality and gender identity. Whether or not an LGBT character must be played by a matching actor is the subject of ongoing debate; many say the role should simply go to the best actor who auditions even if they're straight, while others think openly-queer actors should be encouraged to represent themselves onscreen after a history of exclusion. But many jurisdictions (including California) have non-discrimination employment laws that make it illegal for producers to specify that they want a queer actor in casting calls. Ironically, such laws are meant to protect LGBT people in the workplace.

When this goes from a minor detail to the focus of the story, it can be an example of Real Life Writes the Plot. Compare The Danza (where the character and the actor share a name), Disabled Character, Disabled Actor (where a character and the actor portraying them have the same disability), and Queer Character, Queer Actor (where a character and their actor are both part of the LGBT+ community).


Examples:

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    Anime/Manga 
  • Lady!!: Sarah Frances Russell is a Christian, and in the Arabic dub, she is voiced by Reem Saadeh, a Jordanian Christian.
  • Many anime characters with a Kansai dialect are usually voiced by people from the Kansai region.
  • In Fire Force, Captain Akitaru Ōbi's English voice actor, Jeremy Inman, was once a career firefighter/paramedic and a hazardous materials technician before becoming a full-time voice actor.
  • Girls und Panzer: Sumire Uesaka studied and majored in Russian language at a Japanese university and so she was cast as Nonna, the second-in-command of the Soviet-themed Pravda tank team. Later in the movie, she was joined by Klara, who was, unlike Nonna who is ethnically Japanese, was Russian and voiced by an actual Russian, Jenya Davidyuk.
  • In K, the Silver King, Adolf K. Weismann, who is German, is voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara, who grew up in Germany and speaks fluent German. Averted in that, as of the first two seasons and Missing Kings, he hasn't spoken German in the show... but at least one more animation project has been greenlit, so it could (and should) happen. (He hasn't had the most screentime, since he's spent the series thus far body-swapped with Daisuke Namikawa's character, but he's back in his original body as of the end of Return of Kings).
  • In Neon Genesis Evangelion, most of the characters have the same birthday as their original Japanese voice actors.
  • Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Many of the major voice actors and actresses were chosen due to their prior experience in rakugo. Rakugo and voice acting are quite similar in that one uses their voice to portray characters, sometimes by changing one's voice.
  • Summer Time Rendering: A few of the voice actors, such as Saho Shirasu (Mio) and Katsuyuki Konishi (Masahito), are natives of Wakayama prefecture who can naturally speak the region's unique variant of the Kansai dialect just like the characters they voice.
  • Why does Tsubasa Kazenari from Symphogear sing enka (Japanese folk music) when she goes to karaoke with Hibiki and Miku in episode 9? Must be because Nana Mizuki spent most of her childhoodnote  being trained to sing enka and participating in enka singing contests and jobs before she finally debuted as a voice actress/singer in 3rd-year high school. Normally, young people don't sing enka when they casually hang out with friends...
  • Tweeny Witches: Three-quarters Japanese, one-quarter Vietnamese Yuuki Tai provides the voice of Lennon, the son of a Japanese man and a native humanoid witch.

    Fan Works 
  • In the Coreline story Coreline: Invasion of Portland, it's revealed that Rosalind Price, originally from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., is German-American in ancestry. It's a nod to Constance Zimmer, who portrayed Price in the series. Zimmer is of German ancestry.
  • In Discordant Princess' The Great Mouse Detective 2: Unexpected Love, Ratigan's tombstone states that he was born on May 27th. In the movie, Ratigan is voiced by Vincent Price, who was ALSO born on May 27th.
    • Similarly, one of Discordant Princess' headcanons for Ratigan is that he is bisexual; it was rumored that Price was also bisexual.

    Film — Animated 
  • Barbie: Princess Charm School: Isla is Asian, and is voiced by Shannon Chan-Kent (though Isla is Japanese and Shannon is Chinese). It is played straight with two of her dubbers: the late Hiromi Hayakawa in the Latin Spanish dub and Rubina Kuraoka in the German dub.
  • Tip from Home (2015) is an immigrant and is half Barbadian, just like Rihanna (half Afro-Guyanese, half Barbadian).
  • Encanto: Almost all of the voice actors for the film are Hispanic, with a majority being of Colombian descent. Plus, the four black characters—Felix and his children Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio—are voiced by black actors, and most of them are Hispanic as well except for African-American Ravi Cabot-Conyers voicing Antonio (the only non-Hispanic actor in the main cast).
  • In Justice League: Doom and Superman vs. the Elite, Alfred Pennyworth and Manchester Black, who are British, are both voiced by Robin Atkin Downes, who was born in the UK.
  • The Princess and the Frog takes place in New Orleans, and has one of its main characters, Ray, voiced by Jim Cummings, who grew up in the area.
  • In The Rescuers, Miss Bianca is portrayed as representing Hungary. She was voiced by Eva Gabor, who was Hungarian herself.
  • Splinter in TMNT is a zigzagged example. Mako Iwamatsu, who's from Japan like Splinter is, recorded most of his dialogue for the character. After his death though, his remaining dialogue was done by Greg Baldwin, who's American.
  • With the exception of Heihei (who is, mind you, a chicken with no dialogue) and the elderly villager who wants to eat Heihei (both played by Alan Tudyk), all of the speaking roles in Moana are performed by actors with Polynesian ancestry. The only singing done by non-Polynesian performers is Chief Tui's singing (performed by Christopher Jackson), and the English portions of "We Know The Way" (performed by Lin-Manuel Miranda).
    • Dwayne Johnson (Maui) is half-Samoan; Oscar Kightley (who plays a fisherman) and former Pittsburgh Steelers player Troy Polamalu (the villager with the leaking roof) are both Samoan.
    • Auli'i Cravalho (Moana) and Nicole Scherzinger (Sina) are part Native Hawaiian.
    • Rachel House (Grandma Tala), Temuera Morrison (Tui), and Jemaine Clement (Tamatoa) all have Maori ancestry.
    • The Māori dub adds Māori voice actors Jaedyn Randell (Moana), Piripi Taylor (Maui), and Amanda Ashton (Sina) to the original Māori cast members.
  • The Super Mario Bros. Movie:
    • Aside from Charles Martinet, all the actors who voice members of the Mario Bros.' family (Jessica DiCicco, John DiMaggio, and Rino Romano) are of Italian descent like the Mario Bros.
    • Giacomo Campeotto, who voices Mario and Luigi's father in the Danish dub, is also of partial Italian descent on his own father's side.
  • Wreck-It Ralph: Ralph and his pursuits to shed off the bad guy cred can draw parallels to his voice actor John C. Reilly's acting career as like Ralph, Reilly similarly initially garnered recognition by playing Mook henchmen in Casualties of War and The River Wild but later on underwent Leslie Nielsen Syndrome in order to branch his ability to do other roles besides being just remembered for his initial roles, also what Ralph is trying to do.
  • Turning Red: The voice actress for Mei, Rosalie Chiang, was called Mei-Mei as a child by her mother just like her character, her mom’s middle name is Ming while Mei's mom’s first name is Ming, and her favourite animal was actually the red panda before being cast, the animal Mei transforms into.

    Film — Live Action 
  • Ana: Rafe, like Andy García, is Cuban-American.
  • Already Tomorrow In Hong Kong:
    • Jamie Chung is the American-born child of Asian immigrants, like her character Ruby. She's also a lover of fashion in real life and runs a fashion blog.
    • Like Josh, Bryan Greenberg is Jewish.
  • In American Psycho, Elizabeth went to Sarah Lawrence College, as did the actress who played her (who also wrote the film), Guinevere Turner.
  • Another Me: Sophie Turner also had a twin who died in the womb.
  • In Ant-Man and the Wasp, villain Ghost was made into a young woman played by Hannah John-Kamen. Since John-Kamen is half-black/half-white, Ghost's parents (shown in the flashback where she got her powers as a girl) were a white man and a black woman.
  • Bad Girls: Like Madeleine Stowe (who's part Costa Rican), Cody is a Latina (her last name being Zamora and she speaks in Spanish to Mexican bandits during the film). This may be the only film Stowe played a Latina in.
  • The Batman (2022): In this version, Selena is mixed race, with a white father and (presumably) black mother (though she isn't seen, being dead by the time of the film), like her actress Zoë Kravitz (though she's biracial on both sides).
  • Parminder Nagra's real-life leg scar (and how she got it) was added to the script of Bend It Like Beckham.
  • The Big Wedding: Madonna and Nuria are Colombian women. Actresses Ana Ayora and Patricia Rae both have Colombian parents.
  • Black Swan: Both Nina Salyers and Lily are trained ballet dancers just like their actresses Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis respectively.
  • In both Blockers and The Broken Hearts Gallery Geraldine Viswanathan played half-white, half-South Asian characters, and has spoken positively about having characters that share her background:
    Viswanathan for W Magazine: I think it’s a very exciting time to be entering this industry, and from my older peers who I’ve spoken to about this, this was just not an option before. Even the fact that my mom in the film is blonde, and she actually looks a lot like my mom, but we never have to explain it.
  • Bones & All: Taylor Russell, like Maren, is mixed race with black and white parents.
  • Born in the Maelstrom: Sasha Lane, like Rebecca, is mixed race (though of African-American and Maori, not white, ancestry). Also like Rebecca, she's said people in the past have made her feel out of place and "not black enough" for this.
  • Boy Eats Girl: Samantha Mumba, like Jessica, is mixed race. Jessica has a white father and black mother, Mumba is of the opposite parentage.
  • In The Browning Version and its famous 1951 film adaptation, protagonist Andrew Crocker-Harris is a classics (i.e. Greek and Latin) master in a respected public school. Sir Michael Redgrave, who portrays Crocker-Harris, was also a schoolmaster in a prestigious public school in Real Life before he became an actor. However, he taught modern languages (English, French, and German) and was more of a Cool Teacher rather than Crocker-Harris's Stern Teacher.
  • Cassanova Was A Woman: Jezabel Montero, like Cassanova, is Cuban-American. The other Latino characters are also largely played by Latino performers, judging by their names.
  • Centurion: Dimitri Leonidas is half-Greek, just like his character.
  • Contact:
  • Crash: Bahar Soumekh and Shaun Toub actually are Iranian-American, like their characters. However, they are both Persian Jews, not Muslims as seems to be the case in the film.
  • In Creed, one of Rocky's main issues is about his son moving to Vancouver in order to escape his famous father's shadow. In real life, Sylvester Stallone's oldest son Sage died of a heart attack while Creed was in pre-production, which influenced his and Coogler's decision to focus more on Rocky's father-son relationship with Adonis.
  • Crush: Gabriela and AJ Campos are both Latinas, to judge by their last name. Isabella Ferreira (Gabriela) and Auli'i Cravalho (AJ) play them-they're both Latinas as well.
  • Daddy Issues: Montana Manning is multiethnic like Jasmine.
  • Daphne & Velma: Sarah Jeffery is mixed race like Daphne is here, who's shown to have a white father and black mother (though the actress also is partly of Native American ancestry).
  • DC Extended Universe:
    • In Justice League, Barry Allen indirectly mentions that he's Jewish. So is Ezra Miller.
    • Wonder Woman 1984: The antagonist, Latin-American businessman Maxwell Lord, anglicized his own name for business purposes, having been born Maxwell Lorenzano. His actor, Chilean-American Pedro Pascal, had previously done the same; he originally used his father's last name, "Balmaceda", but too many non-Latinos struggled to pronounce it, so he switched to his mother's surname.
  • Dear White People: Like Sam, Tessa Thompson has mixed-race heritage.
  • Decision to Leave: Chinese actress Tang Wei, who is married to Korean film director Kim Tae-yong, plays a Chinese woman married to a Korean man.
  • Do Revenge: Drea Torres is a Latina to judge by her last name, and explicitly called a person of color. She's played by Camila Mendes, who's a Brazilian-American.
  • Duck Butter: Nima mentions she's of half Middle Eastern parentage, like Alia Shawkat who plays her. However, it's on her mother's side instead of her father's like Shawkat.
  • Elvis (2022): Austin Butler, like Elvis Presley, lost his mother when he was twenty-three. This led to Butler forming an intense personal connection with Elvis and helping him dive deep into Method Acting during filming in order to play him.
  • Endless: Alexandra Shipp plays Riley, who's biracial like her, with Black and White parents.
  • A minor example in Escape from the Planet of the Apes: on the set of the first two movies in the series, actress Kim Hunter (who played Dr. Zira, a super-intelligent chimpanzee) had endured a lot of joking offers of bananas from crew members, which annoyed her because she hated bananas. In Escape, a human zookeeper, thinking Zira to be an ordinary, non-talking chimp, wonders why she isn't taking the bananas she's been offered. Zira responds with a line that Hunter found extremely cathartic.
    Because I loathe bananas!
  • In Ex Machina, Caleb says that his parents were teachers. Domhnall Gleeson's father was a teacher before he was an actor.
  • The backstory given to Dolph Lundgren's character in The Expendables 2 holds all true to the actor: he studied chemical engineering, moved to the States with a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT, and started working as a bouncer which led him towards a completely different career.
  • Feast of Love: Margit is Hungarian, like actress Erika Marozsán.
  • Anna Paquin's character Amy in Fly Away Home is a New Zealander born in Canada who moved away when she was a young child, just like Paquin herself. Paquin, however, did not move back to Canada when she was a teenager, unlike Amy (this being possibly the only time she's acted with her own accent).
  • For Colored Girls: Tessa Thompson (Nyla) and Thandiwe Newton* (Tangie) are biracial like their characters.
  • Ever wonder how all of Harrison Ford's characters get that same damn scar on their chins? Ford himself got it in a car accident.note  Han Solo took part in a knife fight. Indiana Jones had a slight mishap his first time using a whip. Ad nauseam...
  • Supplementary material for The Force Awakens refers to Poe Dameron as a native of Yavin 4, because the Yavin 4 scenes in the original trilogy were filmed in Guatemala, the birthplace of his actor Oscar Isaac (in fact, this detail was his idea). The EU also states that General Hux was born during the last days of the Galactic Empire. His actor was born on May 12, 1983. Return of the Jedi was released on May 25 of the same year.
  • Ghostbusters: Supplementary material reveals that Winston Zeddemore served in the US Marines before becoming a Ghostbuster, like his actor, Ernie Hudson.
  • Harvey: The play described Harvey as a "6 feet tall, invisible rabbit". The movie changed this to 7 feet so that the six-foot-tall James Stewart could still look up at him when talking to him.
  • Hearts Beat Loud: Kiersey Clemons is, like Sam, biracial. Both have black and white parents.
  • Higher Learning:
    • Kristy Swanson had many things in common with her character, Kristen. As well as sharing the same name, both came from Orange County, California. Swanson was born and raised in Mission Viejo, CA.
    • Jewish actor Adam Goldberg played Jewish student David.
  • It's become a running gag that Tom Holland Cannot Keep a Secret (to the point where he wasn't trusted with full scripts for Avengers: Infinity War or Endgame lest he spoil the films in interviews). Similarly in the MCU, Spider-Man has not been successful in maintaining his secret identity; Tony Stark figured it out in Captain America: Civil War, Ned Leeds and Aunt May learned it in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and (judging from the trailers) we can add Nick Fury and Maria Hill (which, given their credentials, makes sense) as well as MJ in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
  • How To Blow Up A Pipeline:
  • In The Hunt for Red October, Sean Connery and Scott Glenn star as submarine captains Marko Ramius and Bart Mancuso, respectively. They both had naval experience before beginning their acting careers: Connery served in the Royal Navy, Glenn served in the United States Marine Corps, which is part of the Department of the Navy.
  • Inglourious Basterds: Mélanie Laurent really is a French Jew. Her grandfather had survived deportation to a concentration camp in World War II. She was pleased with being the "face of Jewish vengeance" and felt he would be happy about it as well.
  • In the Shadow of the Moon: Cleopatra Coleman, like Rya, is mixed race of Black and White descent.
  • Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. has some slight similarities to Tony Stark's life: a history of partying and drug use, while also being one of the finest in his craft when he gets his act together.
    • RDJ acts as himself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Almost everything Tony Stark did or said was because RDJ wanted to do it. For example, the awkward flow of conversations between Tony and Pepper in numerous scenes was just how RDJ normally talks, and even the famous "I am Iron Man" line at the end of the first movie was ad-libbed and the filmmakers just went with it.
    • Tony is also a recovering alcoholic in the comics. Part of the reason this huge part of his character has been omitted from the MCU was at Downey's insistence. He didn’t want to get in the headspace that could jeopardize his own recovery. Most notably, Shane Black wanted Iron Man 3 to be an adaptation of the Devil in a Bottle storyline, and while Tony's partying does lead to an intervention from Rhodey, he doesn't become a homeless drunk as he does in the comics. Disney also didn’t want to sink $200 million into a movie of their most popular Marvel character dealing with such a heavy topic.
    • Remove the "partying" part of that and he's a bit similar to Sherlock Holmes as well.
  • Jagged Mind:
    • Shein Mompremier is a Haitian-American like her character Rose.
    • Jimmy Jean-Louis is Haitian like Papa Juste.
  • James Bond:
    • Done backward in the case of Bond's Scottish ancestry. It was added into his history by Ian Fleming because of the very Scottish Sean Connery's portrayal of him.
    • Some of Bond's demons parallel Pierce Brosnan's: Bond lost his wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service; Brosnan was married to a Bond Girl (Cassandra Harris starred in For Your Eyes Only) and lost her to cancer. Bond alludes to this in GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough, without making a big point of it.
    • In the books, it's revealed that Fleming and recurring Big Bad Ernst Stavro Blofeld have the same birthdate: May 28, 1908. Moreover, Bond and Fleming were both kicked out of Eton after a few terms and served in the Royal Navy in the war.
    • Thunderball: In the original novel, Bond Girl Domino and her fighter pilot brother (whose murder kicks off the plot) are Italians with the surname Petachi. But when French actress Claudine Auger successfully auditioned for the role, the characters were changed to French to reflect her nationality, and they were given the surname Derval, and Domino's full name was changed from Dominetta to Dominique.
    • Of the six actors who've played James Bond, the only one who served in the Royal Navy like Bond did was Sean Connery.
  • Al Jolson, who played the Russian-born Jewish jazz singer and Black Face performer Jakie in the first The Jazz Singer film. Unique in that the original short story ("The Day of Atonement") and play were loosely based on Jolson's life. Al Jolson played the part because the original Broadway performer was unavailable for filming.
  • Most of Dwayne Johnson's characters are Polynesian and/or African-American like he is, but more interestingly, any time his character has children, they're always girls. Johnson only has daughters in real life, and this might be a stated preference of his in order to give a more convincing performance as a father.
  • Jupiter Ascending: Jupiter Jones and Mila Kunis are both immigrants from former Soviet countries, Jupiter from Russia and Mila from Ukraine. Moreover, Mila is Jewish and Jupiter's implied to be. Both also speak Russian.
  • The Karate Kid:
    • Ralph Macchio is Italian-American just like Daniel LaRusso. In fact, the character was originally named "Daniel Webber" and was not intended to be Italian-American, but his name and ethnicity were changed after Macchio's casting.
    • Mr. Miyagi is Japanese-American, as was the late Pat Morita.
    • Tamlyn Tomita, like Kumiko, was born in Okinawa.
    • Danny Kamekona was from Hawaii, where The Karate Kid Part II was filmed.
  • Kiss Me (2011): Mia is indicated to be half Spanish, like her actress Ruth Vega Fernandez.
  • The King of Staten Island: Like Scott, Pete Davidson's father was a firefighter who died when he was young, albeit during the 9/11 attacks instead of in a fire, and suffered from numerous mental health problems growing up as a result.
  • Liberal Arts:
  • Like her character Laura/X-23 in Logan, Dafne Keen is of mixed ancestry (British father, Spanish mother) and a native Spanish speaker (though Laura is Mexican with her biological father Logan being Canadian). Her casting was due to this.
  • In Madame Web (2024), Julia mentions knowing Taekwondo. Sydney Sweeney is a very avid practitioner of Mixed Martials Arts in real life.
  • Magic Mike: Before his acting career, Channing Tatum was a male stripper much like his character.
  • Margarita: Although the specifics are different, Nicola Correia-Damude is like Margarita a Latina.
  • Played with in The Mighty Quinn. The movie does not take place in Jamaica like one may assume (though it was filmed there), but St. Gregory, a fictional US territory. Since the characters are technically American, the movie gets away with casting mostly African-American actors like Denzel Washington and Sheryl Lee Ralph in the lead roles (albeit with fake Caribbean accents).
  • My Animal: Jonny it turns out is biracial, having a white father and a clearly black mother (though she's not seen-it turns out that her mom's dead). Amandla Stenberg, who plays Jonny, has the exact same parentage.
  • My Name is Khan: Both Rizwan and Shah Rukh Khan are Muslims married to Hindus.
  • Halle Berry played a biracial woman in Queen, and is one herself, though she identifies as just Black.
  • Gugu Mbatha Raw has a black father and white mother. Her characters Noni (Beyond the Lights), Ruth (Fast Color), and Dido (Belle (2013)) have the same ancestry, but with a white father/black mother instead. In fact, so far now whenever her characters' background has been shown, it matches hers (at least aside from their parents' specific races, except in Bonekickers with Vic, whose ancestry was the same). This may have been her request, as she's explicit in identifying as a biracial woman. In all of those cases though one of her parents is absent or even dead. Unlike her film alter egos, however, Mbatha-Raw enjoys close, very healthy relationships with both of her parents (per her interviews, her father has always played a very active role in her life and her parents both remain on such friendly terms with one another that the three of them often will do things together as a family).
  • No Country for Old Men: Woody Harrelson plays bounty hunter Carson Wells, mirroring the profession of his father, contract killer Charles Harrelson. Notable is that a murder carried out by Charles (on federal judge John H. Wood Jr.) is referenced in the book the film is based upon.
  • In Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Tim is biracial, with a white father and a black mother. His actor, Justice Smith, is also biracial, though his parentage is a reversal of Tim's (black father, white mother).
  • The Princess Bride: Christopher Guest, who plays Count Rugen, is a real-life nobleman of British ancestry.
  • Red, White & Royal Blue: Like his character Prince Henry, Nicholas Galitzine is also a prince — he's the direct descendant of House of Golitsyn / Galitzine, an exiled Russian noble family. His grandfather, father, and Nicholas himself are styled as Prince Galitzine. This article contains more info about the actor's Blue Blood heritage.
  • Part of a Lampshade Hanging in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. The (English) Cary Elwes points out that "Unlike some Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent!", a Take That! to the American Kevin Costner's performance as the title character in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
  • A lot of Seth Rogen's characters are Jewish, and a couple of them, such as Ben from Knocked Up and Kyle from 50/50 (2011), are from his hometown of Vancouver.
  • Many of Adam Sandler's characters in his films are Jewish, as is Sandler himself.
  • Save the Date (2012): Lizzy Caplan (Sarah) and Alison Brie (Beth) play Jewish sisters. Both actresses are Jewish themselves.
  • Emma Roberts' character in Scream 4, Jill Roberts, not only shares her last name, she also shares the fact of having a famous relative. Emma's aunt is Julia Roberts, an Academy Award-winning actress (her dad is less famous, but also an actor), while Jill's older cousin is Sidney Prescott, who became a bestselling writer after surviving multiple killing sprees. It lends a degree of Reality Subtext to Jill's villainy and motive, painting them in an even more twisted light — she's literally out to steal the success and career of her famous relative.
  • In Scotland, PA, Lt. McDuff (played by Christopher Walken) mentions offhand that he used to be a professional dancer, just like Walken.
  • Shiva Baby: Most (although not all, with the lead Danielle being the main exception) of the Jewish characters are played by real Jews.
  • Signature Move:
    • Fawzia Mirza is of Pakistani descent like her character Zaynab is. They both are also Muslims.
    • Sari Sanchez is a Mexican-American like Alma.
  • Somebody I Used to Know: Cassidy has a black mother and white father it turns out. Her actress, Kiersey Clemons, is also of black and white descent.
  • Steam (2007): Reshma Shetty, like Niala, is an Englishwoman with South Asian ancestry (Indian in her case). Both also later moved to the US (Shetty now has American citizenship).
  • Strategic Air Command stars James Stewart as a US Air Force Reserve colonel assigned to the Strategic Air Command who in his "normal life" is also a professional baseball player. At this time, James Stewart was an actual Air Force Reserve colonel (and a combat veteran during World War II) assigned to the real-life Strategic Air Command who, in his "normal life," was a Hollywood movie star.
  • Tommy Boy: Tommy Callahan graduates from Marquette University, which was also Chris Farley's alma mater.
  • Top Gun: Maverick made Iceman a survivor of various diseases who now has trouble speaking to reflect Val Kilmer's health history since the original.
  • Victor/Victoria: King Marchand's bodyguard "Squash" Bernstein is said to be a former All-American football player. Before becoming an actor, Alex Karras was a defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions from 1958-1970 and was All-American twice before that (1956 and 1957) while playing for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. Though unlike Squash, there's no evidence that Karras was Closet Gay.
  • Vince Vaughn's characters in The Break-Up, Couples Retreat, The Dilemma, and Fred Claus live in Chicago, as does Vaughn.
  • What We Do in the Shadows: Stu the I.T. guy, whose actor is...an I.T. guy named Stu. In fact, he wasn't even hired to be an actor, he was hired to work on computers for the film and was added to the movie during filming. His character is basically the exact same person as the actor.
  • Where Hands Touch: Amandla Stenberg is also biracial as Leyna is, though the mix is different—her father is white, her mother's black. Leyna's mother and father are the opposite.
  • Women Is Losers: Most of the Latino characters are played by Latinos.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 4400: Kausar Mohammed is a Pakistani-American Muslim like Soraya.
  • The 4400:
  • In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., one of the few details given about Skye's upbringing in the first season is that she was found in China (her actress, Chloe Bennet, is half-Chinese). Her parents appear in the second season, confirming Skye's heritage is similar to Chloe's. Only difference is her parents are reversed—Skye's father is Caucasian and her mother Chinese, while Chloe's father is Chinesenote  and her mother Caucasian.
  • All Creatures Great & Small (2020): Nicholas Ralph, like James Herriot, is Scottish unlike the previous actors who'd played him. He therefore also uses a Scottish accent (unlike them).
  • Amber Brown (2022): Carsyn Rose is mixed race like Amber.
  • American Gods (2017):
    • Ricky Whittle, like Shadow, is half Black and half White.
    • The Native American characters are played by actors of indigenous ancestry, though not always the same specifically (e.g. Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, who's Mohawk, plays Cherokee Sam Black Crow).
  • Arrowverse
    • Arrow:
    • The Flash:
      • Candice Patton was born on June 24th, just as Iris West is revealed to have been in "The Once and Future Flash".
      • Cliffard and Marlize DeVoe, a South African couple, are played by South African actors Neil Sandilands and Kim Engelbrecht.
      • Jessica Parker Kennedy is biracial just as her character Nora II is.
    • Supergirl: Nia Nal reveals herself to be a transgender woman. She is played by trans woman Nicole Maines, who became known for the Maine Supreme Judicial Court case Doe v. Regional School Unit 26 regarding gender identity and bathroom use in schools.
    • Black Lightning: Tobias Whale's actor, Marvin Jones III, is a real-life albino black man.
    • Batwoman: Word of God says that, unlike in the comics, Kate is a vegan in the show just like Ruby Rose is; this change seems to have been done mostly for practicality's sake. They're both lesbians as well, but that was already part of the character.
    • Superman & Lois:
      • Erik Valdez is, like his character Kyle Cushing, a Latino man.
      • Inde Navarrette, as his daughter Sarah, is half Latina like her (though on her mom's side).
  • At least two of Richard Dean Anderson's characters, MacGyver and the Stargate-verse's Jack O'Neill, are from Minnesota, same as Anderson.
  • Are You Being Served?:
    • In the final episode, "The Pop Star", Mr. Spooner is revealed to be a talented lead vocalist. Same for his actor Mike Berry.
    • John Inman was working in retail when he auditioned. Wendy Richard has also previously worked in a department store.
  • Jimmy Nail had done a spell of manual work in Germany himself, before filming Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
  • The Baby-Sitters Club (2020):
    • Takayo Fischer, like her character Mimi in this adaptation, not only is Japanese-American as well but was also forced to go to Japanese-American internment camps as a child. John, Claudia, and Jeanine's actors have Japanese ancestry as well, though they're Canadians.
    • Malia Baker's biracial, like Mary Anne is.
  • Band of Brothers:
    • Lewis Nixon was a Yale graduate in real life. He was played by Ron Livingston, who also attended Yale.
    • David Schwimmer is Jewish like Herbert Sobel was in real life.
    • Accidental example. Ross McCall is not Jewish. His character Joe Liebgott is said to be Jewish but wasn't actually in real life (everyone just thought he was).
  • Barney & Friends: Min is Filipina like her actress Pia Hamilton.
  • Beauty and the Beast (2012) has Catherine's mother shown to be East Asian in the pilot, just like Kristin Kreuk's. Nicole Gale Anderson, who plays her sister Heather, also has an Asian mother, albeit South East Asian.
  • Being Human (UK): Annie, like Lenora Cricklow, is mixed, with a black father and white mother.
  • Being Human (US): Sally is revealed to have Indian ancestry, as Meaghan Rath does.
  • Better Things: Pamela Adlon, like Sam, is a single mother with three daughters. Both are actors too, with an English mother and an American father. They're also both half-gentile and Jewish.
  • The Big Bang Theory:
    • Like his character Sheldon, Jim Parsons is a native Texan.
    • Mayim Bialik holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and her character, Amy Farrah Fowler, is a neurobiologist.
    • Simon Helberg's character Howard was known for showing off magic tricks. Helberg started his career as a stage magician.
  • Big Sky: Janina Gavankar, Vinny Chhibber, and Bernard White all have South Asian ancestry like their characters - Ren (Gavankar) calls them desi (a term for people of this heritage).
  • Birds of Prey (2002): Reese, like his actor Shemar Moore, is a biracial man, as his father turns out to be white with his mother being black.
  • The Bisexual: Like Desiree Akhavan, Leila's of Iranian heritage, with parents from Iran.
  • Bones:
    • Pelant went to Stanford University and got a degree in Computer Science, just like his actor, Andrew Leeds.
    • Both Arastoo and his actor Pej Vahdat are Persian Muslims (though Pej isn’t Iranian-born).
    • David Boreanaz really did want to be a pro athlete before wrenching his shoulder as Booth did.
    • Like Angela, Michaela Conlin has both a White father and a Chinese mother.
  • The Boys (2019):
    • Haley Joel Osment plays Mesmer, a supe who is a Former Child Star.
    • Tomer Kapon, who plays Frenchie, has served in the Israeli military (most easily noticed when he handles guns, check that trigger discipline).
    • Kimiko turns out to be Japanese (well, her first name was kind of a giveaway already to anyone familiar with Japanese names). Karen Fukuhara is Japanese-American, born to Japanese parents in California.
    • Elena, Maeve's ex-girlfriend, is Latina. Nicola Correia-Damude, who portrays her, is also Latina (Guyanese from her mother).
  • When Cordelia fell into a pit and was impaled by a rebar in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she was just following in the footsteps (or was that footfalls?) of the actress who portrayed her — Charisma Carpenter had something very similar happen to her when she was young, and her scars from that experience were used for that scene.
  • Burden of Truth: Joanna, Diane, Kodie, Owen, and Luna are played by actresses with the same backgrounds as them.
    • Kristin Kreuk is half Chinese on her mother's side and with a White father like Joanna.
    • Nicola Correia-Damude is Guyanese-Canadian like Diane.
    • Sera-Lys McArthur (Kodie) and Meeghan Fairbrother (Owen) are Indigenous Canadian as well.
    • Star Slate, like Luna, has Indigenous and Caucasian ancestry.
  • Harry Anderson shared many similarities with his character "Harry the Hat" from Cheers, all of which were written into the character before Anderson auditioned: named Harry, never seen without his hat, does magic, small-time con artist (which Anderson wasn't, but had an onstage persona who was).
    • He also played a Character of the Day called Jack Fable on the children's show The Noddy Shop, who came to the shop to teach one of the child characters magic tricks for the school talent show.
  • On Chuck, the Ontario-born Vik Sahay's character Lester is revealed to have come from Saskatchewan.
  • City on a Hill:
    • Mark Ryder, like Diarmuid Doyle, is from Belfast.
    • Pej Vahdat is Iranian-American like Ramin Melani.
  • Class of '09: Sepideh Moafi played Hour Nazari, who's Iranian-American like her. Hour's family had fled Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution as refugees like her real parents did as well, receiving political asylum in the US. Moafi has been public, like Hour, on her past experience as a refugee.
  • The Cleaning Lady:
    • Élodie Yung as Thory is a partial example. While she's half Cambodian, half white French, Thory is full Cambodian.
    • Lou Diamond Phillips plays Joe Fabroa, who like him is one half Filipino.
  • Michael "Dauber" Dybynski from Coach was a former college football player who took a ridiculously long time to graduate. His actor, Bill Fagerbakke, was a former college football player who took six years to graduate, though not because he was an idiot like Dauber. He got into college on a football scholarship but switched his focus to theater after he injured his knee during his second year.
  • Community:
    • Abed is half-Polish, as is his actor, Danny Pudi.note 
    • Some of the actors share the same religion as their characters, which they all reveal in the episode "Comparative Religion":
      • Annie is Jewish, and Alison Brie got her start playing at the Southern California Jewish Community Center. Even further, both character and actor have a Jewish mother and a Christian father.
      • Both Troy and Donald Glover were raised as Jehovah's Witnesses.
      • Yvette Nicole Brown is a committed Christian but is probably less abrasive about it than Shirley often is.
    • Britta was born on October 19, 1980. In real life, Gillian Jacobs was born on October 19, 1982.
    • Pierce Hawthorne is supposed to have made his fortune with a moist-towelette company called "Hawthorne Wipes." Chevy Chase, in real life, also has a family fortune derived from a personal sanitation product. His real name is Cornelius Crane Chase, and he is the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane, who was heir to the Crane Plumbing company, which manufactures and distributes plumbing fixtures and products (most notably, toilets for home and commercial markets) in North America.
  • The Company You Keep:
    • Charlie Nicoletti, like Milo Ventimiglia, is Italian-American.
    • Emma is Korean-American like actress Catherine Haena Kim.
    • Daphne turns out to be biracial, with black and white parents, like Felisha Terrell (although with their genders reversed from her actual parents'). Terrell says it was her very first role playing a biracial woman like herself.
  • Condor: Joubert is revealed to be an Israeli of Palestinian ethnicity, just like actress Leem Lubany's background.
  • The Confessions of Frannie Langton: Karla Simone-Spence, who played Frannie, is of Jamaican ancestry like her.
  • Crazy Ex-Girlfriend:
    • Rachel Bloom and Rebecca are both Jewish, both were considered "weird" as children, and both had anxiety and depression (although Rachel handled it slightly better than Rebecca). In fact, both have a lot in common, aside from the fact that Rachel grew up in Southern California and her parents didn't push her to be a lawyer. Bloom says that Rebecca is what she would be like if she hadn't discovered music and comedy.
    • When Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna were first developing the show as a pitch to Showtime, Bloom was also planning her wedding, and the resulting stress considerably boosted Bloom's own existing anxiety issues, which in turn she wrote into Rebecca's character.
    • Like Heather, Vella Lovell has Black and White heritage.
  • On Criminal Minds, Dr. Spencer Reid hails from Las Vegas and performs magic tricks as a hobby, just like the actor portraying him, Matthew Gray Gubler.
  • Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders: Agent Simmons is, like his actor Daniel Henney, the child of a Korean-born mother and white American father.
  • The Crown: Prince Phillip's brother-in-law, the German prince Georg Donatus, is played by actual German prince August Wittgenstein (full name: Prince August Fredrik of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg).
  • CSI: NY:
    • Gary Sinise and Mac Taylor are both originally from Chicago, Illinois. Gary's skill at playing bass guitar was incorporated into the character as well, and he brought in members of his Lt. Dan Band to perform on two episodes. In fact, the basses Mac plays are Gary's own. Additionally, Mac's involvement in the creation of the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 is based on the actor's real-life assistance with the project.
    • Melina Kanakaredes and her Greek character Stella both speak the language fluently. (Melina is the child of Greek immigrants.)
    • 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.
    • Vanessa Ferlito is originally from New York, like her character Aiden Burn.
    • Sela Ward and Jo Danville are both cheerleaders from the southern US.
    • Eddie Cahill and Don Flack are both Irish.
  • Lt. Horatio Caine on CSI: Miami hails from Forest Hills, Queens, NY. So does actor David Caruso.
  • Most of the cast of Dad's Army were military veterans, some of both World Wars:
    • John Laurie and Arnold Ridley were particularly affected by their experiences; Ridley suffered from blackouts and nightmares for most of his life. In addition, Laurie and Ridley actually served in the Home Guard.
    • Like Mainwaring, Arthur Lowe 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.
  • Daisy Jones & The Six:
    • Camila Morrone plays Camila Alvarez, who's a Latina as she is.
    • Sebastian Chacon plays Warren Rojas, who is Latino like him.
    • Seychelle Gabriel plays Julia, Camila's daughter, who's a Latina as well.
    • Jacqueline Obradors is Camila's mother Lucia and once again both are Latinas.
  • Dash & Lily: Like their characters, Midori Francis and Troy Iwata are both half-Japanese and half-Caucasian. Additionally, the show made a point of casting their Japanese-American relatives with actors of the same ancestry.
  • Deadly Class: Benjamin Wadsworth is half Latino like Marcus, though his father comes from Mexico rather than Nicaragua.
  • Death in Paradise: Detective Inspector Richard Poole owns a large telescope that he named "Lucy", admitting that he has always been keenly interested in astronomy. Poole's actor, Ben Miller, was completing his PhD in Astrophysics when he veered into stand-up comedy and acting.
  • Deutschland 83: Sylvester Groth, like Schweppenstette, emigrated from East Germany. He started his acting career in East Germany, then on a trip to Austria, he defected to West Germany.
  • Doctor Who:
    • In the episode "The Day of the Doctor," a far-future incarnation of the Doctor (played by former Doctor Tom Baker) is revealed to be working as a museum curator. This was an actual job of Tom Baker for a while during his stint in the army.
    • Sophie Aldred had a Real Award, Fictional Character in the form of 2 Blue Peter badges, both hers.
    • Bill Potts meets the Doctor at a fictional university in Bristol. Pearl Mackie studied drama at the University of Bristol.
    • Dan Lewis hails from Liverpool as does his actor John Bishop.
  • Doom Patrol:
    • Larry Trainor is gay, like his actor, Matt Bomer.
    • Cliff Steele was a wealthy auto racer who fell on hard times and lived in a trailer before he moved in with the Chief. His actor, Brendan Fraser, was an A-list actor who fell on hard times, having declared bankruptcy once.
  • Sitcom star Fran Drescher has two examples from her career:
    • Most of Fran Fine's backstory on The Nanny is identical to Drescher's own life. Lived in Queens, graduated from Hillcrest High (with Ray Romano/Ray Barone), parents named Sylvia and Morty, a sister named Nadine, the list goes on and on.
    • Happily Divorced focuses on the main character, like Drescher, getting divorced after her husband reveals his homosexuality. The two remain close friends, and Fran's ex-husband is one of the producers for the show.
  • Euphoria:
    • Jules mentions plans to go to fashion design school, which was Hunter Schafer's original career plan before deciding to go into acting.
    • Just like Rue, Zendaya is half African-American and half Caucasian.
  • Everything Now: Mia is biracial like Sophie Wilde, with a white father and black mother.
  • Everything's Gonna Be Okay: Kayla Cromer and Lillian Carrier, who play autistic characters Matilda and Drea, respectively, are both on the autism spectrum. Carrier also works as an autism consultant on the show.
  • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier reveals Sam Wilson, like Anthony Mackie, hails from Louisiana.
  • Fear the Walking Dead: Travis is revealed to be Maori, like Cliff Curtis, the actor playing him. However, he's apparently American-born or spent most of his life in the US since he has an American accent.
  • The First Lady: O-T Fagbenle, like Barack Obama, was born to a black father and white mother.
  • Friends:
    • It's all over this trope, with all the actors incorporating huge aspects of themselves into their characters. Monica was originally designed as rather cold and cynical, but Courteney Cox turned her into the Team Mom to the in-universe gang that she was to the real-life cast. Matthew Perry influenced a lot of Chandler's neuroses: having divorced parents, being terrible with women (Chandler was gay before he was cast), and using humor as a defense mechanism, which Perry comments was the first thing he and the producers discussed. Matt Le Blanc made Joey more of a big brother figure to the gang, like his real-life relationship with the three girls, and David Schwimmer and Ross Gellar were both Jewish.
    • In one interview, the cast is asked 'Who is The Most...' questions about each other. It's really hard to tell if they're talking about the actors or characters. Perry/Chandler is the funniest, Cox/Monica gives the best advice, Aniston/Rachel cries the most, LeBlanc/Joey would defend you in a fight, Kudrow/Phoebe is the quirkiest, Schwimmer/Ross is the most serious...
  • In the short-lived NBC sitcom Friends with Benefits, main character Sara Maxwell is from Louisiana, just like portrayer Danneel Ackles.
  • In Full House, Uncle Jesse's surname was changed from Cochran to Katsopolis after the first season, to reflect John Stamos' Greek background (which also retcons the girls into being half-Greek). His family when they come to visit is also very Greek.
  • Game of Thrones has an interesting subversion. Both Jon Snow and his actor are the sons of Noblemen but unlikely to inherit the title (Lord and Baronet, respectively), since Snow is illegitimate and Harington is legitimate but is not the firstborn son.
  • Gen V: Indira Shetty's English accent and Indian first name indicate that she's an Englishwoman with at least some Indian ancestry just as actress Shelley Conn is.
  • Not a person, but the entire setting of Ghosts (UK). The premise of the show is that the last Lady Button died childless at the age of 99, leaving Button Hall to a very distant and very surprised relative who now has to find a way to fix up the crumbling stately home. Button Hall is "played" by West Horsley Place, which in 2014 was inherited by a distant and very surprised relative of the previous owner, who had just died childless at the age of 99; happily, the new owner was able to fix up the crumbling stately home (by auctioning the deceased duchess's possessions, raising £8.8 million) and then subsequently transferred ownership of the house and estate to the West Horsley Place Trust.
  • Gilligan's Island: Alan Hale Jr. (Skipper) served in the US Coast Guard during World War II.note 
  • Ginny and Georgia:
    • Antonia Gentry is biracial like Ginny, although she has a white father and black mother instead of a black father and white mother.
    • Mason Temple, similarly, is half Taiwanese and half white the same as Hunter.
    • Humberly González is Latina like her character Sophie Sanchez.
  • Glee:
    • Similar to the Lost example below, we have Tina Cohen-Chang (Korean/Jewish), played by Jenna Ushkowitz.
    • You can briefly see Kurt Hummel's birthday when he fills out a college application. It's the same month and date as Chris Colfer's, though Kurt is three years younger.
    • In "Blame it on the Alcohol", Rachel expresses her desire to have Blaine's "vaguely Eurasian-looking children"—Blaine's actor, Darren Criss, has a Filipino mother and an Irish father.
    • In Season 4, cheerleader Kitty is played by Becca Tobin, who cheered for her middle school.
  • Gossip Girl (2021):
    • Tavi Gevinson's casting in a series about blog-famous socialites in Manhattan is amusing once you remember that she was infamously one herself at the start of her career, starting as a blogger and NYC fashion scene fixture.
    • Jordan Alexander is of African-American and Caucasian heritage like Jordan is.
    • Evan Mock is biracial, born to a Caucasian father and Asian mother just as Aki was.
    • Zión Moreno is a Latina like Luna La, her character.
  • Hacks: Chilean Lorenza Izzo plays Ruby, Ava's ex-girlfriend, who's a Latina too to judge by her yelling at Ava in Spanish.
  • Hanna: Rhianne Barreto, like Sophie, is mixed race with European and South Asian descent.
  • On Hannah Montana, Miley Stewart and her father Robbie Ray are former residents of the fictitious Crowley Corners, a small rural town in Tennessee, and the show constantly reminds the viewers of the household's Deep South roots. This reflects the background of Miley Cyrus and her father, Kentucky-born 1990s country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, who resided in Thompson Station, Tennessee. Also an Actor-Inspired Element, as the decision to make Miley Stewart Southern was partly because a younger Miley found it hard to disguise her accent. Also, like Billy Ray, Robbie was a former country music heartthrob and superstar who settled down to raise his family.
  • In the beauty pageant episode of Hey Dude!, Melody introduces herself and states that she is from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Melody was played by Christine Taylor, and Allentown is her real-life hometown.
  • High Fidelity: Rob, like Zoë Kravitz, is a biracial woman. We see that her mom is white (her dad's not seen, but he's obviously black from her looks). They both moved to and live in Brooklyn as well.
  • Hightown: Monica Raymund is Dominican-American just like her character Jackie. She expressed happiness playing the character partly as a result of this (along with them both being queer).
  • How I Met Your Mother':
    • Ohio native Ted Mosby is played by Ohio native Josh Radnor.
    • Canadian Robin Scherbatsky is played by Canadian Cobie Smulders. And while her nationality isn't explicitly pinpointed, Robin's mother is played by British Tracey Ullman with her accent intact. Smulders' mother is also British.
  • How to Get Away with Murder: Wes is mixed-race, with a black mother and a white father, just like Alfred Enoch.
  • I Love Lucy's Lucy Ricardo grew up in Celoron, NY, much like Lucille Ball did.
  • The Indian Detective: Like Doug, Russell Peters is an Indian-Canadian with parents born in India before immigrating, plus a Western first and last name. Both were raised as Catholics too.
  • In From the Cold: Margarita Levieva is, like her character Anya/Jenny, Russian by birth and became an American later (although there ends the similarity).
  • In the Russian medical sitcom Interns, the role of Dr. Phil Richards is played by Odin Biron. Like his character, Biron was born in the US and moved to live and work in Russia. In addition, Richards states that he was largely raised by two fathers. Odin Biron came out to his parents as a teenager, although he's forced to downplay that in Russia due to the homophobia prevalent in the country.
  • Interview with the Vampire (2022):
    • Jacob Anderson, Rae Dawn Chong, and Bailey Bass play biracial characters (more specifically black/white), with all of them having this heritage (although Chong also has Chinese ancestry, hence her surname).
    • Like his character Louis de Pointe du Lac, Jacob Anderson (who's half-English, half-Afro-Caribbean) is in an interracial relationship with a Caucasian — he's married to Aisling Loftus, who was born in England and is of Irish descent; their mutual ties to England mirror to some degree Louis and Lestat de Lioncourt sharing a connection to France, with both countries being former colonial powers. Moreover, Anderson and Loftus have a mixed-race daughter, which makes her somewhat analogous to Claudia.
      • Furthermore, Anderson has stated in this interview that if he were a vampire, he wouldn't miss the sun, and Louis feels exactly the same way. The actor didn't have to do much preparation for the role because he identifies himself as a deeply sad person, and thus can easily relate to Louis' depression.
    • Eric Bogosian shares the same birth year as his character Daniel Molloy, as they were both born in 1953. note 
  • Irma Vep: Mira turns out to be Swedish like actress Alicia Vikander is, though she's "become American" (it's left unclear if this means she's now a US citizen or just has played so many American roles it's rubbed off).
  • JAG: Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie is partially of Iranian heritage and speaks Farsi, as is and does actress Catherine Bell too.
  • Jeremiah: Elizabeth is mixed race. Actress Kandyse McClure who played her is of Cape Coloured descent (a South African ethnic group with Black, White, and Malay ancestry).
  • Jupiter's Legacy:
    • Anna Akana, like her character Raikou, is mixed race with Caucasian and East Asian parents.
    • Humberly González (Gabriella) and Jess Salgueiro (Jacinda) portray characters who appear to be Latina, or at least of Iberian descent (Salgueiro's Portuguese Canadian) like them, to judge by their names.
  • Kiss Me First: Tippi appears to be a Japanese-English woman like her actress Haruka Abe, as indicated by her English accent and legal name of Tomiko Teshima.
  • The Japanese drama about voice acting Koe Girl has among the main characters gravure idol Jun Amaki, who plays the part of Konatsu Morimoto, a wannabe voice actress who is also trying to make it big as a gravure idol. When Konatsu's modeling work is shown, some of the pictures come from earlier actual Jun Amaki photoshoots.
  • The Last of Us (2023) has the Texan brothers Joel and Tommy Miller respectively portrayed by Pedro Pascal, who grew up in San Antonio, and Gabriel Luna, who was born and raised in Austin.
  • In one episode of Law & Order, Lenny Brisco mentioned that his father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic, while he was raised Catholic himself, the same as Jerry Orbach's real family background.
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit:
    • Richard Belzer has openly stated that John Munch is basically "me as a cop." Thankfully, Belzer doesn't share the darker elements of Munch's backstory.
    • Fin was in the Army, just as Ice-T was.
    • Kelli Giddish is from Georgia, as is Rollins.
    • Both Amaro and Barba are Cuban-Americans who speak fluent Spanish, reflecting that Danny Pino and Raúl Esparza are as well.
    • The Irish Declan Murphy is played by second-generation Irish immigrant Donal Logue.
    • Kat Tamin is a Lebanese-American like Jamie Gray Hyder.
    • In the episode "Inheritance", Marcus Chong (best known as Tank in The Matrix) plays a character whose heritage (half African-American, half Chinese-American) matches his own exactly, even to the point of each parent's race (his father is the former, his mother the latter).
  • Law & Order: UK: DS Matt Devlin mentions his Irish heritage while trying to gain the trust of a young prostitute he's questioning. Indeed, although Jamie Bamber was born in London, he has Irish ancestry and citizenship, as his mother is Irish.
  • A League of Their Own (2022):
    • Lupe is a Mexican-American like Roberta Colindrez.
    • Jess is a Canadian like Kelly McCormack.
  • Legion:
    • Dan Stevens was adopted when he was a baby, which is the same thing that happened to his character David Haller (who was born as David Xavier).
    • Amber Midthunder is, like Kerry Loudermilk, Native American (Sioux specifically).
    • Like Charles Xavier, Harry Lloyd was new to fatherhood when he was cast in the role.
      Interviewer: Since he hasn't met other mutants yet, how does he react to meeting his adult son?
      Lloyd: Before I read the script, I was thinking, "How's that scene gonna go?" I, myself, have a baby daughter who's about the same age as baby David is to Charles, and I was imagining that, if I met her when she's in her 30s, my first reaction would be, "I'm so glad you're okay. This is great. I'm so excited. I have so much to ask."
  • Let the Right One In: Like their characters, Demián Bichir (as Mark), Madison Taylor Baez (Eleanor) and Fernanda Andrade (Elizabeth) are all Latinos. Further, Mark says he's from Mexico originally, like Bichir is.
  • Liar: In an unusual example, Vanessa's birth date (September 21, 1976) is the same as her actor Shelley Conn's. Possibly thrown in from Conn, since she provides this over the phone as Vanessa.
  • Life: Detective Dani Reese is revealed as half-Iranian like Sarah Shahi, and she speaks a bit of Farsi to an Iranian woman.
  • Line of Duty: Joanne Davidson it turns out is from Glasgow, Scotland like her actress Kelly Macdonald, thus she kept her native accent for the role.
  • Lip Service: Laura Fraser is actually from Glasgow and still lives in the city with her family.
  • Lost:
    • Doctor Pierre Chang shares the same French-first-name Chinese-last-name formula as his actor, François Chau.
    • Jack Shepard went to Columbia University, as did Matthew Fox.
  • Lost in Space (2018):
    • Maxwell Jenkins, who plays Will Robinson, is a lover of science fiction and robotics in real life who describes his favorite movie as The Iron Giant, and was so excited to play the role that he demanded his parents allow him to audition. So joyous is his performance that it almost feels like he isn't acting.
    • Taylor Russell, like Judy Robinson, was born to a Black father and White mother.
  • Lost Girl: Ksenia Solo is from Latvia and ethnic Russian. Like her, Kenzie has Russian ancestry and speaks Russian a few times in the series (it was Solo's native language before she'd emigrated to Canada).
  • Lovecraft Country:
    • Jamie Chung, like Ji-Ah, is Korean. Well, Korean-American, though it's one of her few roles where she's been a character of Korean descent.
    • Monique Candelaria is Native American like Yahima, though of Aztec and Apache descent rather than Arawak.
  • The L Word:
    • Two examples from the original main cast:
      • Bette is biracial, having a black father and white mother, just as Jennifer Beals does. She's insistent on having this background if her character's heritage is ever shown. They are both Buddhists as well.
      • Jenny, like Mia Kirshner, is Jewish and her grandmother was imprisoned in Auschwitz (Kirshner's paternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors).
    • The L Word: Generation Q, the Sequel Series, incorporated new cast members' heritage into their characters:
      • Dani Nunez is half Chilean and half Iranian, like actress Arienne Mandi.
      • Gigi Ghorbani is of Iranian descent like actress Sepideh Moafi.
      • Sophie Suarez, like Rosanny Zayas, is a black Latina.
  • Max Klinger from M*A*S*H was from Toledo, Ohio, as was his actor Jamie Farr, who also served in Korea (Klinger's dog tags were Farr's own). And yes, the Mud Hens are a real team, and Tony Packo's is a real restaurant (though it has fallen on hard times). Like Klinger, he also has Lebanese ancestry.
  • The Magicians: Despite the Race Lift changing Penny from white in the novels to Indian-American in the show, actor Arjun Gupta is a Florida native just like the character.
  • In McHale's Navy, Ernest Borgnine wore a hat badge that always seemed smaller than any of his costars'. This is because everyone else was using badges that came from the central costuming department and that were then-current (the 1960s) US Navy issue that were inaccurately large for the World War II period. Borgnine's badge was his own personal property, kept by him from his active-duty days in the Navy, which began before Pearl Harbor—and he had already been discharged and re-enlisted because of the attack, much like McHale.note 
  • The Messengers: Erin is Jewish, like Sofia Black-D'Elia, her actress.
  • Miami Vice: Det. Larry Zito, as seen in "Down For The Count (Part 1)", was a boxer much like his actor, John Diehl. Also in the second part, which begins with his funeral, it's implied that he had a Catholic upbringing, just like Diehl had.
  • Murder in the First: Raffi Veracruz appears to be a Sephardic Jew judging by her name, like the actress playing her, Emmanuelle Chriqui.
  • The Murders: Kate, like Jessica Lucas, is the child of a black father and white mother, explicitly being called biracial in the series.
  • Narcos: The actor portraying Javier Peña, Pedro Pascal, grew up in Texas, the same state in which the real Javier Peña was born and raised. Additionally, Javi briefly mentions in the third episode that he favors dogs over cats, a preference that Pascal has also demonstrated.
  • NCIS:
    • One episode of season 2 involved an elderly retired Marine who earned the Medal of Honor in WWII. He was played by a retired Marine who himself earned the MoH.
    • Another episode involved a retired Marine played by Drew Carey, who was also a Marine. They even used a photo of Carey in his Marine uniform for his character.
  • Never Have I Ever:
    • The Indian or Indian-American characters are mostly of Indian descent as well (but not always the same nationality).
    • Fabiola Torres is played by Lee (LaRhonza) Rodriguez, who's Afro-Latin like her (in Rodriguez's case, specifically black Mexican).
    • Darren Charles Barnet, like Paxton Hall-Yoshida, is half Japanese (although on his mother's side, unlike Paxton).
    • The Vishwakumar family are Tamil. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Devi), Poorna Jagannathan (Nalini), and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohan) are of Tamil ancestry too.
  • The Office (US): Pete "Plop" Miller, the new customer service guy in Season 9, lived in Vermont for most of his life before moving to Scranton. His actor Jake Lacy is a proud Vermonter as well.'
  • Jack Harper, the bus conductor from On the Buses, was played by Bob Grant, who worked as a bus conductor in Real Life to pay his way through RADA.
  • One of Us is Lying: Latina sisters Bronwyn and Maeve Rojas are both played by Latinas. Marianly Tejada (Bronwyn) is Dominican-American and Melissa Collazo (Maeve) is Puerto Rican-American.
  • One Tree Hill: Much like Dan abandoned Lucas before he was born, Chad Michael Murray's mother walked out on her family when he was young. This is part of the reason Chad requested the role of Lucas over Nathan.
  • Only Murders in the Building: Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora and Aaron Dominguez, who played Oscar Torres, are both Latinos like their characters.
  • Orange Is the New Black:
    • Both Nicky and Natasha Lyonne are estranged from their mothers and have had issues with substance dependency. Also, Lyonne actually did have a heart infection; the scar is real.
    • Kimiko Glenn, like Brook Soso, is of mixed Japanese and Scottish ancestry too.
  • Perfect Strangers plays with this in an episode where Balki and Larry act as flight attendants. Balki asks a passenger if he would like a beverage, and the passenger replies, "White Russian." Balki laughs, thinking that the passenger is referring to him as a White Russian. Balki says that many people make that mistake and that he is actually an olive-skinned Myposian. Bronson Pinchot, who plays Balki, is half Russian.
    • This was also done in an earlier episode. An angry prosecutor in a courtroom addresses Balki by his full name, then pauses, turns around, and asks "Is that a Russian name?..." Balki then corrects him.
    • Also in a deleted scene shown in a blooper reel, Balki is shown yelling with his arms outstretched, "I AM NOT RUSSIAN, I AM MYPOSIAN!"
  • Person of Interest:
    • Like Jim Caviezel, Reese is from Washington state.
    • Like Michael Emerson, Finch is from Iowa.
    • In season 3 episode 18, Allegiance, Shaw states that her mother was Iranian, making her half-Iranian like Sarah Shahi, the actress portraying her. She also speaks fluent Farsi.
    • Like Amy Acker, Root is originally from Texas. In "QSO", Root goes undercover as a ballet dancer. We don't see what she does, but one audience member finds her quite impressive. Acker studied dance for over ten years before she was acting.
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock: Madeleine Madden, like Marion, is of white and Aboriginal descent.
  • On The Pinkertons, Angus Macfadyen plays Allan Pinkerton, who like him was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
  • The Power (2023): Auli'i Cravalho and John Leguizamo both have Latino ancestry, as the young actors playing her siblings/his younger kids do. Leguizamo's character Rob's surname is Lopez, with the kids getting it alongside Cleary as a result. He and Jos, Cravalho's character, speak Spanish to each other in the pilot as well.
  • Power Rangers:
  • Number Six in The Prisoner (1967) gives his exact date and time of birth — one of the only times in the series he volunteers any information. The date and time in question, in fact, belonged to Patrick McGoohan.
  • Halle Berry successfully lobbied for the title role in the Mini Series Queen (the story of Alex Haley's paternal grandmother) because they are both biracial (though the mixes are different—Queen's father was white, Berry's mother is).
  • In Relic Hunter, Sydney Fox was born in Hawaiʻi, just like her actress Tia Carrere.
  • In The Sandman (2022), Desire, a nonbinary character, is portrayed by nonbinary actor Mason Alexander Park.
  • Resident Alien: Asta, Dan and Jay (who it turns out is Asta's daughter, are Ute (or half Ute, half white, in the last case), while their actors all have indigenous ancestries too. This also holds true for the supporting Ute characters, who are also played by indigenous actors.
  • Schitt's Creek:
    • Eugene Levy is Jewish, as is his character Johnny Rose.
    • Catherine O'Hara is Irish-Catholic, as is her character Moira Rose, but so is Levy's real-life wife Deborah Divine. Eugene Levy felt this would make O'Hara believable playing his real-life son's mother. She's also known Dan since he was a baby, given her long working relationship with his father.
    • As noted above, Dan Levy is the real-life son of Eugene, and his character David refers to himself as a "half-half situation" during the Christmas Episode when someone asks him if he is Jewish.
  • In the S Club 7 TV series, Tina Barrett's character was written to be a choreographer. Tina had been a dancer before joining the band and choreographed a few of their routines — as she was shown doing in the series.
  • Sex/Life: It turns out Bille is half Persian, like Sarah Shahi, on her dad's side.
  • Shadow and Bone: Jessie Mei Li is mixed race, with a Chinese father and English mother. Her character Alina has thus become of mixed Shu Han (counterpart Chinese) and Ravkan (Russian) ancestry, similarly.
  • Cece from Shake it Up, like Bella Thorne, is dyslexic. Also Deuce, like his actor Adam Irigoyen, was born in Cuba.
  • She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Nikki has a Philippines flag pin, indicating she has Filipina ancestry just as Ginger Gonzaga does.
  • Silicon Valley:
    • Dinesh was born in Pakistan, but moved to the US for college and work, just like Kumail Nanjiani did in real life.
    • Jared, like his actor Zach Woods, grew up in New York. Woods obviously didn't have all the foster parents Jared did.
    • Monica is briefly mentioned to be from Canada, just like her actress Amanda Crew is.
  • Single Drunk Female:
  • The Society: Natasha Liu Bordizzo, like Helena, is mixed race.
  • SOKO Potsdam: David Grünbaum is a German native of unspecified Middle Eastern descent, which once caused him to get some guff from a Politically Incorrect Villain. His actor Omar El Saeidi was born in Giessen, Hesse to Egyptian parents.
  • Stargirl (2020): Yvette Monreal is, like Yolanda Montez, a Latina and has said she was raised very Catholic as well.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series
    • Leonard "Bones" McCoy is from Toccoa, Georgia, just like actor DeForest Kelley.
    • Pavel Chekov is from Russia. His actor, Walter Koenig, based Chekov's dubious Russian accent on that of his father, who was a Russian Jew.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • Geordi La Forge is a Military Brat and has an ambiguously French name, like his actor LeVar Burton. (The name bit, however, is more of a fun coincidence, as the character was named after a fan of the original series, and LeVar is a contraction of the actor's birth name, Levardis.)
    • Why did Commander William Riker suddenly start playing the trombone a few seasons in? Because actor Jonathan Frakes mentioned to Gene Roddenberry that he was a jazz trombonist.
    • Similar to the trombone, Beverly Crusher's dancing skill is mentioned once or twice, and she has an impressive dance-off with Data in the episode "Data's Day". In fact, Gates McFadden is a professional dancer, with several choreography credits on Jim Henson films.
    • Patrick Stewart shares several traits with Captain Picard. Deep knowledge and love of Shakespeare is an obvious one. Less well-known is that Stewart's fondness for Raymond Chandler stories helped to create the "Dixon Hill" meta-character.
  • Star Trek: Discovery: Captain Phillipa Georgiou, who is revealed to be from Malaysia, just like her actress Michelle Yeoh (although from different places in Malaysia: Georgiou is from the island of Pulau Langkawi, while Yeoh is from the mainland). Averted with Emperor Phillipa Georgiou, who is not from Malaysia, despite having the same accent.
  • Star Trek: Picard:
    • Jean-Luc Picard admits, just as Patrick Stewart has, that he isn't a fan of science fiction. He also has a pet pit bull, a breed Stewart has spent much of his later years rescuing and rehabilitating.
    • Evan Evagora shares a lot in common with his character Elnor, as he explains in this interview:
      Evagora: Art was imitating life in a way with certain aspects of my character. Elnor grows up in a house around all women, but in real life, I'm the youngest of seven kids, and I have five older sisters. My house was filled with women all the time growing up. Elnor's favorite book is Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. My favorite book is Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. I came to L.A. to film this, and I'd never been here before. I'd never set foot here before. It was a new experience for me. Just as leaving his home is new for Elnor. The article also mentions that "Evagora says the mentor relationship Elnor has with Picard on the series mirrors his own interactions with Patrick Stewart on set."
    • Although it wasn't explicitly stated onscreen in Season 1, showrunner Michael Chabon confirms that Rios is Chilean, like his actor Santiago Cabrera.
      Fan: So... is Cristóbal Ríos Chilean?
      Chabon: Claro que sí (Yes, of course).
      • This is confirmed by Rios in season 2.
    • Captain Liam Shaw of the USS Titan-A in season 3 is from Chicago, just like his actor Todd Stashwick.
  • St. Elsewhere: Like their characters Mark and Ellen Craig, William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett met and fell in love at college and married soon after graduation.
  • Strange Empire:
    • Cara Gee and Tahmoh Penikett really do have First Nations ancestry (they're of the Ojibwe and White River peoples respectively). However, Kat's half Cree, and Caleb is half Blackfoot, so their specific heritage isn't a match.
    • Tattiawna Jones, as well, is mixed Caucasian and Black Canadian like her character.
  • The Summer I Turned Pretty: Belly and Steven Conklin were born to an East Asian mother and white father. Actress Lola Tung and actor Sean Kaufman both have East Asian/white parentage themselves.
  • Supergirl (2015): Julie Gonzalo is Argentine like her character Andrea Rojas (both emigrated to the US and gained citizenship). This is the first time she played a Latina too (probably because she's fair-skinned, which doesn't fit US stereotypes).
  • Superman & Lois:
    • Erik Valdez is, like his character Kyle Cushing, a Latino man.
    • Inde Navarrette, as his daughter Sarah, is half Latina like her (Mexican on her dad's side).
  • Swarm: Hailey identifies herself as black due to having black ancestry from her father, but passes for white. This is the same as her actress, Paris Jackson. Further, she compares herself with the singer Halsey, who also has this ancestry and can pass for white.
  • S.W.A.T. (2017):
    • Stephanie Sigman is bilingual in English/Spanish, which she uses in the episode "Los Huesos". The same goes for Lina Esco, who also speaks in Spanish frequently on the show. Both are also Latinas of course like Jessica Cortez and Chris Alonso. Additionally, Esco is a rape survivor like Chris, as she revealed once.
    • Kenny Johnson is also dyslexic like Luca is.
    • Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara from BuzzFeed Unsolved cameo as a pair of UFO hunters with a Youtube show, which is essentially what they are in real life.
    • Lyndie Greenwood, like Erika Rogers, is biracial with black and white parents.
  • Teen Wolf:
    • Scott McCall is part Mexican, according to Word of God — just like the actor who plays him, Tyler Posey.
    • Season 6 shows that Jackson is dating Ethan, meaning he was previously a closeted bisexual. His actor, Colton Haynes, was a closeted gay man for years (he came out while Jackson was Put on a Bus between Season 2 and 6).
  • Tehran: Most of the Israeli and Iranian characters are played by actors of those backgrounds (even if not born there in the latter case). It goes for those of Iranian Jewish descent as well.
  • That '70s Show is set in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin. Kurtwood Smith, who plays Red Forman, was the only cast member who actually lived in Wisconsin.
  • Timeless: Like Goran Višnjić, Garcia Flynn was born in Croatia, though his mother was American. This explains his accent.
  • Trigonometry: Thalissa Teixiria, like her character Gemma, has white and black parents (though Gemma's are reversed genders from her own). Also, it's indicated that Gemma's of half-Brazilian descent like Teixiria since she speaks Portuguese too.
  • Trinkets:
  • The Troop is a show set in Oklahoma. Season 2 adds native Oklahoman Malese Jow to the cast.
  • True Lies (2023): It's revealed Helen is originally from Manila in the Philippines, having moved to the US with her family as a child. Ginger Gonzaga is of partial Filipina ancestry.
  • The Twilight Zone (1985): Like his character Roger Simpson Leeds in "Dream Me a Life", Eddie Albert was an elderly widower whose wife died three years earlier.
  • Utopia Falls: Phillip Lewitski, like Apollo, is of Indigenous heritage (Mohawk, in his case).
  • On The Vampire Diaries, Katerina Petrova/Katherine Pierce is Bulgarian, as is Nina Dobrev, the actress who plays her.
  • Victorious: Like Victoria Justice, Tori is half Puerto Rican.
  • Vida:
    • Mishel Prada, like her character Emma, is Mexican-American. The only difference is that while her character is of full Mexican descent, Prada is of mixed Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, and French descent.
    • Likewise, Roberta Colindrez is half Honduran and half Argentine like her character, Nico. However, Colindrez is Mexican-American, having been born in Mexico though growing up within the US.
    • All of the other Latino characters are also played by Latinos, though they're not always Mexican-Americans specifically.
  • Walker: Emily Walker played soccer in her youth, just like her actress, Genevieve Padalecki.
  • The Walking Dead (2010):
    • Glenn reveals his family is from Michigan with Korean ancestry, just like his actor Steven Yeun.
    • Paola Lázaro asked the producers if Princess (who is Mexican-American in the comics) could be given Adaptational Nationality to represent her own Puerto Rican heritage. They obliged her.
  • Wednesday:
    • Both Jenna Ortega and her character Wednesday are Latina.
    • Emma Myers is a big fan of K-pop and so is her character Enid.
  • What We Do in the Shadows (2019): The main characters all share the same ethnic background as their actors. Iranian-British Kayvan Novak plays Nandor, from what is now southern Iran, Cypriot-British Natasia Demetriou plays the Greek/possibly Cypriot Nadja, plain English Matt Berry plays the English Laszlo, white American Mark Proksch plays the extremely white American Colin Robinson, and Hispanic Harvey Guillén plays Guillermo.
  • When We Rise: Trans woman Ivory Aquino plays Cecilia Chung, a trans woman, and in fact, this is her first role playing someone sharing her gender identity.
  • Whiskey Cavalier: Like her character Tina Marek, Marika Domińczyk was born in Poland, and then emigrated to the US with her parents.
  • The White Lotus:
  • Wild Cards (2024): Max, like Vanessa Morgan, turns out to be mixed race with a white father.
  • The Wilds:
    • Helena Howard, playing Nora, is of mixed African-American and Caucasian ancestry like her character.
    • Martha and Jenna Clause are both Native American, though from different tribes.
    • Fatin and Sophia Ali are both of South Asian Muslim background.
  • On Wizards of Waverly Place the Russo family is said to be Mexican-Italian. The only one of the children to be of Mexican-Italian ethnicity is Selena Gomez. In reality, the Russos were written to be an Irish family but were changed to Mexican-Italian to accommodate Gomez's casting. Of course, Jerry, the father, is of Italian descent, just like his actor David DeLuise. Justin's actor David Henrie is at least of Italian background.
  • WKRP in Cincinnati: Howard Hesseman was a radio DJ for a station in San Francisco before appearing in WKRP. He ad-libbed most of his on-air segments on the show.
  • Yellowjackets:
    • Tawny Cypress and Christina Ricci are from New Jersey, like their characters. Christina even played on the girls' soccer team around the same time the past flashbacks take place.
    • Courtney Eaton, like Lottie, is mixed race with Caucasian and East Asian ancestry (although she's also part Māori, which Lottie's not been shown to be).
  • You Me Her:
    • Jennifer Spence, like Carmen, has Japanese ancestry.
    • Ennis Esmir, like Dave, has Turkish ancestry (born in Turkey, actually).

    Music 
  • Tom Waits' song "Eyeball Kid" from the album Mule Variations is shown from the perspective of a freak show carnival barker showing off the kid, mentions the kid's birthday being "the seventh of December, 1949". This is, of course, Tom Waits' own birthday.

    Professional Wrestling 
This is a very common occurrence in Professional Wrestling, where a wrestler's background will be used to create a gimmick for that wrestler.
  • One famous example is Ray Traylor's background as a prison guard at a Georgia prison, which was used to create his character the Big Boss Man.
  • Another famous example is that of Paul Bearer, most famous as manager of The Undertaker. In real life, Bill Moody was a funeral director who owned and ran a funeral home until his death in 2013.
  • Naomi was brought up as the dancing valet for the 'Funkasaurus' Brodus Clay. She had been a dancer for the Orlando Magic for years prior to getting into wrestling. Averted with her partner Cameron, who was not a dancer.
  • Aiden English was given the gimmick of a snobby pretentious actor wannabe, later transitioning into a vaudeville performer. He studied acting in college and has a Bachelor of Arts, and he had been stage acting for years beforehand.
  • Devin Taylor was assigned the role of backstage interviewer. She's a qualified broadcast journalist in real life.
  • Back in the 1980s, Wendi Richter's first gimmick was that of a Texas cowgirl. She had done rodeos and worked with horses for years. The props and costumes she wore were what she had used back then.
  • Tyson Tomko and Brodus Clay were both bodyguards for famous artists (Tomko for Limp Bizkit, Clay for Snoop Dogg) before they were enforcers for higher-rated WWE and TNA wrestlers like Christian, Trish Stratus, Alberto Del Rio, or EC3.
  • Bob Holly's original gimmick was that of a NASCAR driver-turned-wrestler. He had been racing cars for a while while not wrestling and even drove a World Wrestling Federation-sponsored super late model in the 1995 NASCAR All Pro Series.

    Puppet Shows 
  • A partial example, since the shared background wasn't established until after the performer's death: Kermit's Swamp, which had previously wandered around most areas of the US where a swamp might be, now seems to be firmly established as in Mississippi, not far from Jim Henson's birthplace.

    Video Games 
  • In Fate/Grand Order, the French servant Jacques de Molay, or her female counterpart, is voiced in Japanese by Shiki Aoki, who had a French grandfather.
  • Trevor Philips from Grand Theft Auto V is Canadian, as is his actor, Steven Ogg.
  • Joe Zieja attended a military academy before joining the Air Force and then going into intelligence gathering. He voices Claude in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, who's also attending a military academy, and Full Band in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, who's an air force pilot, and both of them have a way of gathering intelligence.
  • Troy Baker provides the voice of Joel in The Last of Us. Both Baker and Joel are from Texas.
  • One of the motion actors playing Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Motosada Mori, is a real-life mercenary. He also invented CQC for the games, paralleling how Snake and The Boss developed CQC together.
  • Michael "Mikee" Tsarouhas, an ex-Marine, has voiced soldiers in several Source engine games and mods, most notably Insurgency and Black Mesa.
  • The English version of World of Final Fantasy cast Broadway and musical actress Christina Rose as Celes Chere mainly because of the character's famous opera scene. It doesn't count as Cast the Expert since Celes never sang anyway.

    Visual Novel 
  • In the Yuri visual novel Yumeutsutsu Re:Master, Marie Mahler, a Greek expat in Japan and an illustrator, is voiced by Haruna Ikezawa, who was born and raised in Athens and can speak some Greek.

    Web Video 
  • angelarts' VA Let's Play Earthbound: Poo is from Dalaam, which is in the EarthBound equivalent of Asia. His voice actor, PixelPrattleXP, is a British voice actress of South Asian descent.
  • Critical Role: Taliesin Jaffe is known for writing characters that mirror things he's going through in real life.
    • Percy de Rolo's struggle against Orthax is a mirror for Taliesin's own struggle with depression. When Vox Machina finally gets to fight Orthax, Taliesin even cheers "THERAPY!"
    • Ashton Greymoore is a young punk who grew up in a terrible group home, and the way Taliesin plays him shows how familiar he is with the gutter-punk community and their general attitude toward life. Taliesin has also stated that Ashton's chronic pain mirrors his own, though Ashton is significantly worse at managing theirs.
  • Epic Rap Battles of History:
    • "Bruce Banner vs Bruce Jenner" features transgender rapper No Shame as Caitlyn Jenner post-transition.
    • Any time a combatant is non-white, Peter and Lloyd will always bring in a guest star of the appropriate ethnicity. They also usually get women for the female roles, except for Lady Gaga, who was played by Peter in drag (which wasn't a huge stretch as Gaga is often compared to Drag Queens).

    Western Animation 
  • Amphibia: The main character, Anne Boonchuy, is Thai-American. She's voiced by Brenda Song, an American who is half-Thai.
  • Batman: The Animated Series had one-off villain Calendar Girl, voiced by Sela Ward, who were both former models "past their prime" in the eyes of the industry, with Ward in particular being told "What we really want is Sela, but Sela ten years ago" when she applied to be a Bond girl at 39... opposite 42-year-old Pierce Brosnan.
  • Blue Eye Samurai: The series' main character Mizu is biracial as she's of mixed Japanese and European descent like her voice actress Maya Erskine, though the European half is different between the two as Mizu is half British, while Erskine is half Irish.
  • DC Super Hero Girls:
    • Jessica Cruz, a Green Lantern of Latina background, is voiced by Cristina Milizia, who has Spanish relatives.
    • Frost's Hero Of The Month entry shows her being good at math, as well as making some math-related puns in later episodes. She's voiced by Danica McKellar, who's also a gifted mathematician.
  • Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz has Dorothy, a Kansas girl, voiced by Kari Wahlgren, who grew up in Kansas.
  • For DuckTales (2017), series showrunner Frank Angones admitted to casting as many ethnic characters with actors of their respective nationalities as much as possible. It's impressive how much they do. For example:
    • Scrooge in this series is voiced by David Tennant, making this the first time he's been voiced by an actual Scottish actor. Likewise, his parents are voiced by Graham McTavish and Ashley Jensen, who also have a Scottish background.
    • Catherine Tate, who's British, voices Magica DeSpell, who's been subjected to Adaptational Nationality to match her ethnicity.
    • "The House Of The Lucky Gander" takes place in China, and has a character named Toad Liu Hai voiced by Chinese-American actor B.D. Wong.
    • "The Spear Of Selene" takes place in Greece, and has Selene, Zeus, and Storkules voiced by actors of Greek descent (Nia Valadros, Michael Chiklis, and Chris Diamantopoulos respectively).
    • Don Karnage is made into a Latino, and is voiced by Mexican actor Jamie Camil.
    • Panchito and Jose are voiced by Bernardo De Paula and Jose Arturo Del Puerto, who are respectively Mexican and Brazilian like their characters.
    • Gizmoduck is Race Lifted into Hispanic and voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The same applies to his Mama who's voiced by Selenis Leyva.
    • The Middle Eastern warrior Faris D'Jinn is voiced by Iranian actor Omid Abtahi.
    • Jormungandr is a serpentine wrestler that came straight from Norse Mythology and voiced by Norwegian actor Kristofer Hivju.
    • Zan Owlson is implied to be African-American, and she's voiced by black actress Natasha Rothwell.
  • Elena of Avalor has a few examples:
    • Jillian Rose Reed (Naomi) is American but is reportedly raised by Puerto Rican parents. Naomi and her family are said to be from another kingdom, though Naomi seems to consider Avalor a second home.
    • Lou Diamond Phillips (Victor) is Filipino (Filipina mother, American father), though he has passed as a Mexican-American in some of his roles, such as in La Bamba. Probably helps that the Philippines has a prominent Spanish influence, on par with that of Latin American countries.
    • Jane Fonda supported the Chilean "No" movement against Pinochet's dictatorship, as seen in No, making her character role in Elena of Avalor ironic.
    • Antonio Angama is voiced by Danny Trejo, who was born in Mexico.
  • Gargoyles: Elisa Maza was originally going to be Hispanic, but her race and ethnicity were changed to half-African, half-Native American after Salli Richardson-Whitfield was cast in the role.
  • The Ghost and Molly McGee: Early development work had Molly's family as mixed Caucasian and African-American. When Ashly Burch was cast as her voice, the character became half-Thai, half-Caucasian instead.
  • Harley Quinn (2019): Not only are the canonically non-white characters voiced by matching actors, like Phil LaMarr as Black Manta and Aline Elasmar as Talia al Ghul, but so are the characters that were made into racial minorities for this series. Lex Luthor, the Queen of Fables, and Catwoman are black and respectively voiced by Giancarlo Esposito, Wanda Sykes, and Sanaa Lathan. Golden Glider and Captain Cold are Asian and voiced by Cathy Ang and Ben Levin. And while Nightwing's ethnicity isn't established, he is Ambiguously Brown and voiced by the Hispanic Harvey Guillén, suggesting that he too is Hispanic.
  • In Infinity Train, Jesse Cosay is a Native American who hails from the Apache tribe. His voice actor, Robbie Daymond, is part-Apache himself.
  • Legend of the Three Caballeros has Panchito, a Mexican, voiced by Jamie Camil, who's also Mexican.
  • The Legend of Vox Machina: At the end of Season 1, Percy shoots a hole through his own right hand to stop Orthax from taking over his body, and later develops a prosthetic glove to help with the use of his fingers. His voice actor, Taliesin Jaffe, has a benign tremor in his right hand, which is especially noticeable during moments of high emotion. Percy's struggle against Orthax is also a mirror for Taliesin's own struggle with depression, with Orthax even being jokingly nicknamed "the dark specter of [Taliesin's] soul" in the original stream.
  • The Magic School Bus:
    • Dom De Luise's character in "Gets Ready, Set, Dough!" is a baker, a reference to his second career as a gourmet cook.
    • Keesha is Black, just like her VA Erica Luttrell.
  • Mickey and the Roadster Racers reveals that Billy Beagle has a car collection, much like his voice actor, Jay Leno.
  • Molly of Denali: All the Indigenous characters are played by Indigenous actors. For example, Molly is voiced by Sovereign Bill (Tlingit and Muckleshoot).
  • Ninjago: Out of the main cast, only one of them is voiced by an actor with Asian decent. That being Kai, who is voiced by the Chinese-Canadian Vincent Tong.
  • In Puppy Dog Pals, it's revealed that Chloe's family is Jewish. Chloe's mother is voiced by Tara Strong, who was born to Jewish parents.
  • Rosie's Rules: All of the Latino characters are voiced by Latino actors.
  • Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Recurring villain Hypno-potamus is from New Zealand, much like his actor Rhys Darby.
  • A similar instance happened with Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. Shaggy's original voice actor, Casey Kasem, was an avid vegetarian who quit voicing the character in 1997 due to a dispute over having to voice Shaggy in a Burger King commercial. After Kasem returned in 2002, Shaggy was written as a vegetarian and continued to be portrayed as such until Kasem retired from the role permanently in 2009.
  • In one episode of The Simpsons, Dennis Weaver voices Buck McCoy, a former Western star who had a detective show in the '70s. Dennis Weaver himself, of course, was a former Western star who had a detective show in the '70s.
  • In Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Adam McArthur is an avid martial artist who occasionally competes in tournaments, just like his character Marco Diaz.
  • An episode of Static Shock featured a villain named Replay, who was a former child star who had trouble getting work after his sitcom was canceled. They got real-life former child star Neil Patrick Harris (who hadn't yet had his big comeback role with How I Met Your Mother) to voice the character.
  • Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters has a few cases of this:
    • Nathan Park/Wingspan, one of the show's protagonists, is Korean and is voiced by Korean-American voice actor Steven Yeun.
    • Riya Dashti, who's of Iranian background, is voiced in flashbacks by Kathreen Khavari, whose parents were born in Iran. Khavari also voices Riya's aunt.
    • While she doesn't have French ancestry, Vanessa Marshall is fluent in a French accent, hence why she uses the accent for Madam Toussant, the leader of the Sables.
  • Beast Boy in Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go! is vegetarian or vegan, depending on the episode (either way, he doesn't eat meat). His voice actor, Greg Cipes, has been vegetarian since he was eight years old and went vegan in 2009.
  • We Bare Bears had an episode called "Ramen" which has a character named Kazumi, who owns a Japanese noodle shop. She's voiced by Romi Dames, who was born in Japan.
  • Work It Out Wombats!: Tymika Tafari is Jamaican-Canadian, and her character Ellie is Jamaican. Also, JunJun, Kaya, Amado, and Gabriela are Philippine eagles who are all voiced by Filipinos.

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