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An acting career could be harder for mixed race individuals?

Posted by Ria, 30 Oct

"Okay, are you Hispanic, for this role?" "Is she going to be African American?"

Those were the questions Naya Riviera was bombarded with by casting directors because of her mixed ethnicity. Who would have thought that with all her beauty, she still would have trouble making it in the entertainment industry? Apparently, "It was really tough and work started to slow down," she said on On MTV’s This Is How I Made It. This made her almost quit her acting and singing career all together.

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The singer-actress who is half Puerto Rican, one quarter German, and one quarter African-American believes she hasn't always gotten the recognition she deserves based on the confusion people have about her ethnicity... people just couldn't nail her identity. "I had people say that I just wasn’t a good singer, they didn’t know what to do with me, I would never fit in any markets...", she recalls as she talks about her experiences between the ages of 16 and 21 before she landed her role in Glee.

Eventually, everyone catches a break as she won two ALMA awards for her outstanding performance of Santana Lopez on Glee. She is also working on an album and has just signed on to work with Elton John's music management company!

Do you believe its just hard for mixed individuals no matter the career path they choose? If yes, what do you think of the recent contradictory article about mixed race individuals being the post-racial elite?