Actress Gina Torres has appeared in many of your favorite TV shows, including Law & Order, Bones, Gossip Girl and Riverdale. The actress usually plays roles designed for African American actresses.
But Media Take Out learned that Gina recently opened up about her struggles in Hollywood as an Afro-Latina, and how she felt like there was “no place” for her in the industry.
“I feel like I was living in three worlds,” Gina said while taking part in a roundtable discussion for MSNBC. “There was my world, that I grew up in, also Spanish-speaking. Home, Cuban parents, and then you go out into the world, and I’m speaking English and I’m in the Bronx. And then, going into this industry as an actress, then nobody recognizes you as either one.”
She explained, “There was no place for me as a Latina, and then as a Black woman—I didn’t identify as a Black woman, because for me it was cultural. Because, of course, I present Black, I am a Black woman. I am also Cuban. When you’re here in the United States and they ask you to be in a box, and you don’t fit into the box…culturally, it was different. It was not one that I identified with. But to work, to survive, it was something that I had to learn.”
Before becoming a well known actress Gina was trained as a singer. After her graduation from the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, she decided to pursue her dream of being an actress. She made her onscreen debut in 1992 in an episode of Unnatural Pursuits, and continued to work steadily through the years.
She has been nominated for her work on shows like Angel, Suits, Hannibal, and 9-1-1: Lone Star, and won an ALMA Award and Imagen Award. However, for all her success, Gina said she was not always comfortable with her place in the industry.
