10 Celebrities with Greek Ancestry

Greece isn’t just responsible for launching Western Civilization, it’s also the ancestral home of many Hollywood celebrities. While the stars who’ve kept their difficult-to-pronounce, polysyllabic last names (we’re looking at you Zach Galifianakis) are pretty obviously Greek, there are other actors and performers whose Greek ancestry might surprise you. Check out which 10 celebrities could dance the syrtaki together. Cue the “Zorba” soundtrack. Opa!

1. Tina Fey

Former “SNL” head writer and the creator-star of “30 Rock,” Elizabeth Stamatina Fey has been described as “the sex symbol for every man who reads without moving his lips.” Raised in a predominantly Greek suburb of Philadelphia by her Greek-American mother and father of mixed German-Scotch heritage, Fey has frequently mined her Hellenic heritage for comedy fodder, and, according to a Vanity Fair interview, her “acerbity comes from her mother (the Greek side), who has what [husband] Richmond calls ‘…that bitter, extremely caustic kind of stab-you-in-the-heart humor.’”

2. Jennifer Aniston

Not only is Aniston Greek, but she’s literally the goddaughter of the godfather of Greek-American television actors, Kojak’s Telly Savales. Her father, also an actor, was born in Crete as Yannis Anastassakis before changing his name to John Aniston and joining “Days of Our Lives” in 1985. Aniston has said she speaks only “a little bit” of Greek but still has memories of living in Greece when she was a child. “We lived in Athens for six months, then we lived in Crete. My family has a beautiful farm.”

3. Theo James

“Downton Abbey” devotees know him as Mr. Pamuk, the handsome (and doomed) Turkish diplomat who seduced Lady Mary in season one. Young adult dystopia fans know him as Four, the gorgeous Dauntless warrior in “Divergent,” but to his family, Theo is actually Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis. If his last name isn’t a tip off to the British actor’s Greek ancestry, James explained to the Greek press that his grandfather, who moved from Greece to New Zealand, “loved Greece,” but his father never learned the language. “I tried a bit but only know a few words,” he admitted.

4. Zach Galifianakis

Oddball comedian and star of the “Hangover” trilogy, Galifianakis recently made news when his “Between Two Ferns” mock-interview web show hosted President Obama to discuss health care reform. Pretty impressive for the son of a Greek immigrant who spent years on the stand-up circuit developing the skills he first learned at home. “I had a comfortable childhood in North Carolina, wonderful parents, a big Greek family that was always laughing. I think my sense of humor grew out of that — out of jokes with my big brother and my sister and my cousins.”

5. Kelly Clarkson

With her Texan twang and Hiberno-Saxon last name, it may surprise some of the pop star’s fans to learn that first “American Idol” winner is half Greek on her mother’s side (she’s Irish on her father’s side). The mother-to-be has frequently attributed her figure to her heritage: “I do love my figure, but I’m part Greek which means I’m curvy.” She told a Greek TV reporter that she doesn’t speak Greek: “That’s the only [Greek] I got. The curve of it all,” she joked.

6. Alexander Payne

The Oscar-winning writer-director of “The Descendants” and “Sideways” (born Constantine Alexander Payne) has explained that his surname was once Papadopoulos but that his grandfather Nicolas anglicized it in around 1915 to avoid anti-Greek sentiment in the Midwest. Payne’s grandfather (and later his father, George) is known for owning the legendary downtown Omaha restaurant the Virginia Cafe, which burned down in 1969. Payne, a Nebraska native, publicly displayed his Greek heritage when he thanked his mother Peggy during his acceptance speech at the 2012 Academy Awards. “Mom, this one’s for you. S ‘agapó̱ poly,” he told his mother (and date). In other words, “I love you very much.”

7. Nia Vardalos

The “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” star wrote the blockbuster comedy from personal experience. Vardalos adapted it from her one-woman show about her large Greek family’s response to her marrying a non-Greek man (actor Ian Gomez). Hailing from Winnepeg, Manitoba, Vardalos grew up with immigrant parents who were both “polite Canadians” and traditional — i.e., loud — Greeks. The author of a new adoption memoir “Instant Mom,” Vardalos frequently references her Greek roots. “I was raised in a family where … everyone ate together, laughed together, and knew everyone’s business.”

8. Tracy Spiridakos

The beautiful young star of NBC’s dystopian drama “Revolution” is also Greek Canadian (no word on whether Spiridakos’ family knows fellow Greek Winnepegan Vardalos’ clan). Born in Winnipeg, she and her two brothers moved to the Greek village of Skala, just south of Sparta, when she was four. After her family returned to Winnipeg several years later, Spiridakos spent most of her school vacations and summers working in their Greek restaurant. Unlike many of the celebs on this list, Spiridakos is actually fluent and shows off her language skills whenever she’s interviewed by the Greek press, like MTV Greece host George Satsidis.

9. John Stamos

Still best known as Uncle Jesse Katsopolis in the ’90s sitcom “Full House,” Stamos, the son of a Greek restaurateur, grew up in Cypress, California. His grandfather shortened their family name from Stamotopoulos after immigrating to the States. Although he’s gone on to star in “ER” and in several plays, for the 2014 Superbowl, Stamos capitalized on his Greek and “Full House” backgrounds to star in an ad for Greek yogurt with two “Full House” castmates.

10. George Michael

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in North London, Michael is the son of a Cypriot restaurateur who immigrated to England in the 1950s. After changing his name to the more marketable George Michael, he gained worldwide fame as the frontman for the ’80s pop duo Wham! Since then, however, his fortunes have fallen. Drug arrests and a serious health scare plagued him through the 2000s. But this year, Michael has mounted a comeback, with his new album “Symphonica,” a compilation of 18 songs accompanied by a full orchestra, spending six consecutive weeks in the British Top 10 since its street date in March.

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