Wist je dat deze celebs Oekraïense roots hebben? -

While most of the celebrities we see on our screens today hail from the US, the majority are the descendants of immigrants. North America being the melting pot that it is, it's no surprise to learn that many of our favorite stars are closely connected to other nations around the world. For instance, there is a large Jewish-Ukrainian diaspora in the US due to the anti-Semitism they suffered in their home country when it was under Soviet rule.

Ukraine has a rich cultural history of dance and music, which natives brought with them all over the world. Perhaps this is why so many of the talented performers of the last century have Ukrainian roots.

More and more celebrities are coming forward to proudly declare their Ukrainian roots and show solidarity with their people since the Russian invasion on February 24. Click through this gallery to see which famous faces have connections to the troubled European nation.

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Wist je dat deze celebs Oekraïense roots hebben? -

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Mila Kunis -

Mila Kunis is the most internationally famous actress who was actually born in Ukraine. She lived in the city of Chernivtsi until she was seven years old, at which time her parents relocated to the US.

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Leonardo DiCaprio -

Leonardo DiCaprio has often stated that he's "half-Russian," but further examination of his family tree suggests he might actually be connected to Ukraine. His grandmother Elena Smirnova was a native of Odesa before her family fled the Russian Revolution in 1917. She was only three years old at the time.

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Steven Spielberg -

Famed film director Steven Spielberg has Ukrainian grandparents on both sides of his family. They came to the US from the cities of Odesa and Kamianets-Podilskyi. He grew up with a strong connection to his cultural roots, and once said, “I felt I had a piece of Ukraine in my own home, especially around dinnertime.”

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David Duchovny -

'The X Files' and 'Californi­cation' star David Duchovny spent most of his life thinking he was Russian, but in 2014 he discovered that he actually had Ukrainian heritage. His paternal grandfather lived in a town called Berdychiv before moving to the US in the 1920s.

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Dustin Hoffman -

Dustin Hoffman is another famous actor who only discovered his Ukrainian ancestors later in life. He appeared on the TV show 'Finding Your Roots' in 2016 and discovered that his paternal grandparents fled Ukraine due to the anti-Semitic rule of the Soviets.

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Lenny Kravitz - Rock legend Lenny Kravitz has Ukrainian roots on his father's side. His grandfather was a Ukrainian citizen who lived in Kyiv before emigrating to the US. His family was part of the Ukrainian-Jewish diaspora in New York.

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Zoë Kravitz -

This means Kravitz's only daughter, Zoë Kravitz, also has Ukrainian heritage. Kravtiz is an accomplished actress and musician who is starring as Catwoman in the latest Batman film opposite Robert Pattinson.

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Milla Jovovich - Milla Jojovich was born in Kyiv in 1975 to a Russian Soviet actress and Serbian doctor. However, she says her birth in Ukraine was sort of an accident, and she spent her childhood in Moscow. Her family moved to the US when she was six and she identifies as American, but often speaks out on political issues in Ukraine.

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Liev Schreiber -

Liev Schreiber has connections to Ukraine through his grandfather on his mother's side. In 2005, Schreiber wrote and directed his first film: 'Everything is Illuminated.' It follows a young Jewish-American man traveling to Ukraine to find his roots. Schreiber felt a personal connection to the story, as it mirrored a similar yearning for connection that he felt in his youth.

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Pablo Schreiber -

Schreiber's brother Pablo has also made a name for himself in the acting world. The younger Schreiber is best known for playing the creepy and corrupt prison guard in the hit series 'Orange Is the New Black.'

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Michael Bolton -

Michael Bolton, born Michael Bolotin, shared that he comes from a Ukrainian family in his 2013 memoir 'The Soul of It All.' In the book, he partly credits his singing talents to his heritage: "If my voice comes from farther back in my family history, there may have been a rocking cantor among my Ukrainian ancestors in Kiev.”

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Bob Dylan -

Legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has Ukrainian ancestry on his father's side. His paternal grandparents left Odesa in the early 1900s to escape the anti-Semitic leaders and start a new life in the US. When Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017, Odesa's Jewish community threw a huge celebration and declared him "one more pride of Odesa.”

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Sylvester Stallone -

Sylvester Stallone's mother managed to trace their ancestry back to Ukraine. She discovered that his great-grandmother was part of a Jewish family that owned real estate and textile plants in Odesa, before moving to the US during the 19th century.

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Steven Tyler - Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler has often declared that he has some Ukrainian blood mixed into his rich and complex heritage. His maternal grandfather was Ukrainian, making him part Ukrainian, German, English, Italian, and African American.

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Liv Tyler -

Liv Tyler spent the first eight or so years of her life thinking that musician Todd Rundgren was her father, before she learned that Steven Tyler was her biological dad. This provided a wealth of information into her own ancestry.

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Vera Farmiga -

Oscar-nominated actress and star of 'The Conjuring' film series, Vera Farmiga is also a proud Ukrainian-American. Both her mother and father are Ukrainian and met in the US after emigrating. Farmiga considers Ukrainian to be her native language despite growing up in the US, and is an expert at Ukrainian folk dancing!

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Taissa Farmiga -

Vera is not the only talented one in the Farmiga family. Her younger sister, Taissa Farmiga, is an up-and-coming actress who has starred in the hit TV series 'American Horror Story' and the 2018 horror 'The Nun.'

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Leonard Nimoy -

Leonard Nimoy, best known for playing Spock in the 'Star Trek' TV series and films, is the son of two Jewish-Ukrainian immigrants. They left the town of Iziaslav in the early 1900s to escape Soviet oppression.

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Natalie Wood -

Natalie Wood was born Natalia Zakharenko, the daughter of two Ukrainian immigrants who came to the US from the town of Kharkiv. She was advised to change her name when she started acting as a child.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg -

The late great Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served as Supreme Court justice for almost 30 years, was the daughter of a Ukrainian immigrant. Her father grew up in Odesa and moved to New York when he was 13.

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Alex Trebek -

The late 'Jeopardy' host was the son of George Edward Trebek (born Terebeychuk), a Ukrainian chef from Volynska who moved to Canada when he was a child.

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David Copperfield - Famed magician David Copperfield was actually born David Seth Kotkin. His parents were Jewish immigrants who left the Ukraine while it was part of the Soviet Union.

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Olga Kurylenko - Model and actress Olga Kurylenko is best known as the Bond girl from the 2008 movie 'Quantum of Solace.' She was born in the city of Berdyansk, but left Ukraine for Russia when she was 15 to pursue a career in modeling. She appeared in magazines like Elle and Vogue and has acted in more than 30 films.

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Katheryn Winnick -

Canadian actress Katheryn Winnick played the starring role of Lagertha in the hit series 'Vikings.' Both of her parents are Ukrainian and raised her to speak their native tongue. She even attended a Ukrainian school in Toronto. Winnick has declared herself a "proud Ukrainian-Canadian."

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Lee Strasberg -

The famous method-acting coach Lee Strasberg was born in Budaniv, a town that used to be part of Austria-Hungary but is now part of Ukraine. He moved to New York in 1909 when he was eight years old.

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Karina Smirnoff -

Karina Smirnoff is a Ukrainian professional ballroom dancer, known for being a fixture on the hit US reality show 'Dancing with the Stars.' She was born in the town of Kharkiv.

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Maksim and Val Chmerkovskiy -

Two more familiar faces for fans of 'Dancing with the Stars' are Ukrainian brothers Maksim and Val Chmerkovskiy. The dancing pair are from Odesa and made it big as professional dancers in the US.

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Alex Len - Alex Len is one of the most famous Ukrainian pro athletes currently active in the US. Len started out playing for one of the best teams in Ukraine's basketball league before being drafted by the Sacramento Kings to play in the NBA.

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Wladimir Klitschko -

Another famous Ukrainian sportsman, Wladimir Klitschko is a two-time heavy-weight boxing world champion. His brother Vitali Klitschko, also a former champion boxer, is the current mayor of Kyiv.

Sources: (Kyiv Post) (Nicki Swift) 

See also: Celebrities who have dual citizenship

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