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26 Stars You Didn't Know Are Of Arab Descent
1. Jerry Seinfeld, the creator of Seinfeld has a Syrian-Jewish mother.
2. Vince Vaughn‘s paternal grandmother was of Lebanese descent. He has a mixed background that includes roots in Italy, Holland, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland.
3. Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher is half Welsh, half Syrian.
4. Zoe Saldana was born in New Jersey to a Dominican dad and a Puerto Rican mom. She confirmed in an interview that she is also part Lebanese, and that she is proud of her Middle Eastern roots and enjoys Lebanese food.
5. The Apple founder and innovative genius Steve Jobs was born to Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian Muslim, and Joanne Schieble, whose parents objected to her relationship with a Muslim. As a result Jobs was adopted as a baby by Paul and Clara Jobs.
6. Shakira was born in Colombia to a Colombian mom and a Lebanese dad who was born in New York City after his parents emigrated from Lebanon.
7. The Prison Break star Wentworth Miller has a father who is part African-American and Jamaican and a mom who is part Syrian and Lebanese.
8. Salma Hayek was born in Mexico but her paternal grandfather was Lebanese.
9. Alia Shawkat – best-known as Maeby Funke on Arrested Development – has an Iraqi father.
10. Jenna Dewan-Tatum, previously credited as Jenna Dewan, starred in Step Up and married the actor Channing Tatum. Her father is half Lebanese and half Polish.
11. In 2014, Ariana posted on Facebook that she had “just found out my grandparents are heavily Greek and part North African…. I thought I was Italian… who am I?” It seems that she took a genetic test and, like many people of Sicilian ancestry, she has some genetic heritage from Algeria or Morocco.
12. Paula Abdul was born in San Fernando, California, and gained her Syrian ancestry through her father Harry Abdul, who came from the Syrian Jewish community in Aleppo.
13. American Pie star Shannon Elizabeth has a father of Lebanese and Syrian ancestry.
14. Catherine Keener is best-known as Steve Carrell’s love interest in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. She is Irish on her father’s side and Lebanese on her mother’s.
15. 1990s supermodel Yasmin Le Bon was born to an Iranian father and an English mother.
16. Former tennis world champion Andre Agassi had Arab descent through his father, who was a former Olympic boxer for Iran and came from Armenian and Assyrian heritage.
17. Seventies rock legend Frank Zappa was part Lebanese, through his father, who was born in Partinico, Sicily and had Greek and Arab ancestry.
18. Dr. Mehmet Oz was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Turkish immigrants. TV’s He was named one of the top 500 influential Muslims of 2009.
19. Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar is part Lebanese.
20. Tiffany was the first teen singer to have her first two singles go straight to number one in the billboard charts. Her dad was of Lebanese and Syrian descent, and Tiffany was born Renee Darwish but changed her name to pursue her singing career.
21. US presidential candidate and activist Ralph Nader was born in Connecticut to Lebanese immigrants.
22. Yasmine Bleeth, the Baywatch star was born to a Russian-Jewish father and mother was an Algerian of European descent.
23. Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan‘s father is half Iraqi-Jewish and half Polish-Jewish ancestry. His mother is Hungarian.
24. Tony Shalhoub, who won a Golden Globe for starring in Monk, was born to Lebanese parents living in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
25. Julia Sawalha has a British mother and a Jordanian father, the actor Nadim Sawalha, who was born in Jordan and appeared in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and The Living Daylights. Julia Sawalha is best-known for her long-running role in the comedy Absolutely Fabulous.
26. The late DJ and radio host Casey Kasem was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Lebanese Druze immigrant parents.
Source: stars.topix.com