Communities of Color

In addition to examining all underrepresented individuals nominated for an Academy Award®, it was also important to understand the prevalence of nominees and winners from specific racial/ethnic groups. By disaggregating the data, we provide a deeper exploration of how different communities are represented at the Oscars®.

While in other sections we provided information on individuals who were multiracial/multiethnic, in this analysis we included those people in every group with which they identified. Consistent with how we have evaluated race/ethnicity for other categories on this site, the information we obtained on racial/ethnic identification from online sources was used to guide the classification of people into the following groups. Some choices might be controversial, as they may not align with how an individual person identifies but draw on information about a person’s ancestry. In other words, the family history or origins of some nominees may lie in a group with which they do not identify. Until we hear from individuals directly, we have included people in all of the groups that their ancestry or family history might suggest are appropriate. If anything, this increases the percentage or number of nominees per group and actual estimates may be lower.