Sources are Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo, made with Microsoft Excel and Photopea
Few-Interview-1996 on
Yes, I’ve seen this before.
For my part, the really amusing part comes in science fictiony-type films. In the future, *something* seems to have led to the near-disappearance of East Asians and the total disappearance of South Asians.
Edit: I should perhaps also note that I’m Turkish, and the subtleties of US under- or over-representation are less jarring to me than the loss of a third of the world’s population. 😉
balancedgif on
nice. now do LGBTQ people.
pepperonijabroni on
does this categorize jewish people as white?
crujiente69 on
Ill comment again that to hollywood, diversity means black and not any other ethnic groups. Theres more hispanics and asians near hollywood than most places in the US but yet they get hardly any representation
Trashmouse12 on
What does ‘Mixed’ mean in this data?
gereffi on
I wonder if this would align more with US demographics from 20-30 years ago. A lot of Hispanic people in the US are people who came to the US during their lifetime or had parents who did. Those people probably don’t have much opportunity to become a movie star as people who have been in the US for many generations.
rubey419 on
I’m Filipino American.
Does the data include half-blood?
Dave Bautista (half Pinoy) for example is Asian American.
agate_ on
I bet you’d get different results if you looked at the top five actors in the cast listing rather than the top three. Hollywood loves to cast a minority in a supporting role and call it diversity.
Jusfiq on
Question on Hollywood demographics. Is that the demographic of the actors or the demographic of the characters? For example, Jake Gyllenhaal the actor is white, but Prince Dasan the character he played is Asian.
Capital_Historian685 on
Politics often seems like it’s the same way, with the two main parties (and the media) talking mostly about black and white voters, as if the US isn’t extremely multicultural by now.
WereAllThrowaways on
This would be a lot more interesting if you also included the demographics of people paying to watch movies in theaters, as well as streaming demographics.
TheFeshy on
How much of this is because of the weird way “hispanic” is treated in the US census? It’s like a D&D “half-X” template you can add on to any other ethnicity, instead of a standard check box. Or is that captured as “mixed?”
kolejack2293 on
I am dominican living in the US for some context. A big part of this is simply that a very large chunk of hispanics and asians are recent immigrants and are not consuming american media as much as their own media. Most of my family barely watches american TV/movies, they watch a ton of dominican stuff. Same for music and news.
The other factor is that there are not a lot of hispanics/asian immigrants who get into theater/acting. Immigrant culture almost universally encourages getting into fields that make money.
Black americans have been here for centuries. They fully consume american media.
So while these might be the nations demographics, hollywood doesn’t care for that. They base their market testing on *who consumes what they produce*. If they see 18% of the nation is hispanic but only 7% of their viewers are hispanic, they will adjust for that. If they see that 12% of the nation is black but 18% of their viewers are black, they will adjust for that.
These things will change over time, especially with generations born here. But even then, it takes time. Lots of people born here will be born into neighborhoods that are 90%+ their people, and they will still largely consume their peoples media.
hellofemur on
Hispanic/Latino is just such a strange category because if an actor doesn’t present as obviously Latino then it’s not in their bio or press releases, even though the family might continue to list themselves as Hispanic on the press release for generations. Especially in Los Angeles, there’s tons of families who have been in the US for more than 3 generations but still list themselves as Hispanic on the census.
But if you’re going into acting and have no obvious Latino features, then you’re probably going to anglicize your name and since wikipedia generally only mentions parental ethnicity it’s just not going to show up here.
MazdaProphet on
Jewish is classified as white
Desperate_Opinion243 on
A flaw with the US census to note is you’re pretty much either a listed minority or you are white. Not much room for anything in-between. White is a catch-all.
The entirety of the Middle East is considered White by US Census
califcondor on
Makes me question the main argument of producers saying there aren’t enough bankable Asian stars. Korean content clearly proves there is a huge market for Asian faces yet there still seems to be a disconnect in Hollywood.
Pathetian on
I would be interested in how much of this is one particular actor, since the time frame is so small. Certain actors might be a huge chunk of these bars alone.
![Racial Demographics of Major Hollywood Roles vs. US Census Demographics [OC] (reuploaded with sources)](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2lp7ge0q193g1-1024x777.png "Racial Demographics of Major Hollywood Roles vs. US Census Demographics [OC] (reuploaded with sources)")
20 Comments
Sources are Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo, made with Microsoft Excel and Photopea
Yes, I’ve seen this before.
For my part, the really amusing part comes in science fictiony-type films. In the future, *something* seems to have led to the near-disappearance of East Asians and the total disappearance of South Asians.
Edit: I should perhaps also note that I’m Turkish, and the subtleties of US under- or over-representation are less jarring to me than the loss of a third of the world’s population. 😉
nice. now do LGBTQ people.
does this categorize jewish people as white?
Ill comment again that to hollywood, diversity means black and not any other ethnic groups. Theres more hispanics and asians near hollywood than most places in the US but yet they get hardly any representation
What does ‘Mixed’ mean in this data?
I wonder if this would align more with US demographics from 20-30 years ago. A lot of Hispanic people in the US are people who came to the US during their lifetime or had parents who did. Those people probably don’t have much opportunity to become a movie star as people who have been in the US for many generations.
I’m Filipino American.
Does the data include half-blood?
Dave Bautista (half Pinoy) for example is Asian American.
I bet you’d get different results if you looked at the top five actors in the cast listing rather than the top three. Hollywood loves to cast a minority in a supporting role and call it diversity.
Question on Hollywood demographics. Is that the demographic of the actors or the demographic of the characters? For example, Jake Gyllenhaal the actor is white, but Prince Dasan the character he played is Asian.
Politics often seems like it’s the same way, with the two main parties (and the media) talking mostly about black and white voters, as if the US isn’t extremely multicultural by now.
This would be a lot more interesting if you also included the demographics of people paying to watch movies in theaters, as well as streaming demographics.
How much of this is because of the weird way “hispanic” is treated in the US census? It’s like a D&D “half-X” template you can add on to any other ethnicity, instead of a standard check box. Or is that captured as “mixed?”
I am dominican living in the US for some context. A big part of this is simply that a very large chunk of hispanics and asians are recent immigrants and are not consuming american media as much as their own media. Most of my family barely watches american TV/movies, they watch a ton of dominican stuff. Same for music and news.
The other factor is that there are not a lot of hispanics/asian immigrants who get into theater/acting. Immigrant culture almost universally encourages getting into fields that make money.
Black americans have been here for centuries. They fully consume american media.
So while these might be the nations demographics, hollywood doesn’t care for that. They base their market testing on *who consumes what they produce*. If they see 18% of the nation is hispanic but only 7% of their viewers are hispanic, they will adjust for that. If they see that 12% of the nation is black but 18% of their viewers are black, they will adjust for that.
These things will change over time, especially with generations born here. But even then, it takes time. Lots of people born here will be born into neighborhoods that are 90%+ their people, and they will still largely consume their peoples media.
Hispanic/Latino is just such a strange category because if an actor doesn’t present as obviously Latino then it’s not in their bio or press releases, even though the family might continue to list themselves as Hispanic on the press release for generations. Especially in Los Angeles, there’s tons of families who have been in the US for more than 3 generations but still list themselves as Hispanic on the census.
But if you’re going into acting and have no obvious Latino features, then you’re probably going to anglicize your name and since wikipedia generally only mentions parental ethnicity it’s just not going to show up here.
Jewish is classified as white
A flaw with the US census to note is you’re pretty much either a listed minority or you are white. Not much room for anything in-between. White is a catch-all.
The entirety of the Middle East is considered White by US Census
Makes me question the main argument of producers saying there aren’t enough bankable Asian stars. Korean content clearly proves there is a huge market for Asian faces yet there still seems to be a disconnect in Hollywood.
I would be interested in how much of this is one particular actor, since the time frame is so small. Certain actors might be a huge chunk of these bars alone.
Show me the data for whites minus Jews