Vin Diesel is an enigma. He arrived as a fully formed screen presence. He simply was. The name Vin Diesel perfectly encapsulates his appeal: a little silly, a lot of cool, and ambiguity that makes it unclear who or what this guy is really about.
Vin Diesel is best known for playing car thief Dominic Toretto in the Fast and Furious franchise. A franchise in which he has Cuban cousins, a half Brazilian child, and was portrayed, in flashbacks, by a Kiwi actor who shares a stage name: Vin(nie) Bennett. What’s the deal? What is Diesel’s ethnicity, and why is it so hard to pin down?
Let’s delve into the actor’s ethnic background, and determine why it’s befuddled so many fans.
Vin Diesel considers himself a person of color
Vin Diesel’s mother, Delora Vincent, is of English, German, Irish and Scottish descent. The actor credits his mother with being his anchor, and she has accompanied the actor on multiple red carpets. Diesel’s stepfather, Irving Vincent, is of African American descent, and it is because of Irving that the actor considers himself to be a person of color.
Diesel clarified the way he viewed himself, ethnically, speaking, during a 2014 interview with The Guardian. He stated that the experiences and values that Irving Vincent provided him as a child, and into adulthood, was paramount in shaping his cultural identity:
I’m definitely a person of color. The man who raised me was a black man, and he made me who I am and taught me who I am.
The actor is unsure of his father’s ethnicity
The confusion over Vin Diesel’s ethnicity partially stems from his own confusion. The actor told IMDb that he never got a chance to meet his biological father, and therefore isn’t sure what his ethnic makeup is. He merely quoted his mother, who has said that the actor has “connections to many different cultures.”
The actor also invoked the familial melting pots that are depicted in the Fast and Furious and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises in which he stars. He told the outlet how important family values are to him, and how they inform the stories he likes to tell. At the end of the day, he opines, ethnicity is irrelevant. “On a deep[er] level,” he noted. “We’re dealing with species at this point. We’ve gone beyond.”