In recent years, actress Jessica Alba has criticized Hollywood for its lack of diversity, raising eyebrows about her ethnicity. Alba kicked off her acting career at age 13 in 1994’s Camp Nowhere. From there, she scored high-profile roles in TV series such as The Secret World of Alex Mack and the lead in James Cameron’s Dark Angel.
After earning a Golden Globe nomination in 2001 for her performance in Dark Angel, Jessica Alba found herself with leading roles in two comic book films in 2005. She starred opposite Bruce Willis in the gritty Film Noir homage Sin City, as well as playing the Invisible Woman in Marvel’s Fantastic Four. Both films were box office hits and earned sequels. She returned for a Sin City follow-up in 2014 and another outing with the Fantastic Four in 2007.
Despite making her first Marvel appearance nearly 20 years ago, Alba expressed her disappointment with the lack of racial diversity she observed since. “Even if you look at the Marvel movies – that’s the biggest driver of fantasy and what’s happening right now in entertainment, because it’s sort of the family thing – it’s still quite Caucasian,” she told Glamour UK in 2022. “I would say I was one of the few back in the day… And it was before Marvel was sold to Disney, but it’s still quite more of the same.”
Jessica Alba’s Ethnicity is Quite Diverse
These comments made some fans curious about Jessica Alba’s ethnicity. Alba, born in Pomona, California, grew up in a traditional American family in Southern California. Her mother’s side has a rich heritage of French, Danish, Welsh, German, and English ancestry. On the other hand, her father’s lineage traces back to Mexican-Indian and Spanish roots. Additionally, her paternal grandparents, both born in California, were descendants of Mexican immigrants, according to her appearance on Finding Your Roots.
Jessica Alba was also raised in different parts of the United States during her formative years. Alba’s father served in the Air Force, leading the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas. Eventually, they settled in Claremont, California when she was nine.
While Jessica Alba certainly has a point regarding the ethnicity of their casting, the studio is improving. In 2018, the Oscar-winning film Black Panther showcased a predominantly Black cast and earned a sequel. More recently Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings featured their first Asian-American superhero as a lead character. Furthermore, in the film The Marvels, three women take the lead, two of whom are women of color.