Alisha Boe made history after she became the first actress of Somali origin since Iman to hold a leading role in an American film.
Prior to this, many had assumed Boe to be an American actress. But since then, people have been curious about Boe’s personal life, especially her parents, nationality, and ethnicity.
Here is all we know about the 13 Reasons Why star’s parents and ethnicity.
Alisha Boe’s parents and ethnicity
Boe’s ethnicity is mixed. She was born in Oslo, Norway, making her nationality Norwegian.
Her mother is Norwegian, and her father is Somali — making Boe of mixed ethnicity. It seems like her parents got separated when she was young.
This is because her mother married an American man, which led to Boe moving to Los Angeles with her mother in 2004 when the actress was seven years old. Since then, she has been living and working in the USA.
Boe has been interested in performing since she was a child. But moving to the USA fueled her passion for performing and acting.
She joined dance classes as well as drama programs in schools she attended. Boe went to Woodlake Elementary School as well as George Ellery Hale Middle School and Ivy Academia.
She eventually graduated from Hale Middle School. She attended El Camino Real High School in the Woodland Hills section of the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, where she participated in the drama department.
Alisha Boe belongs to mixed ethnicity because of her parents. (Source: Twitter)
In order to manage her education and employment, she attended Olin Virtual Academy between her junior and senior years of high school. Right after high school, she pursued a career in acting.
Boe made her acting debut in 2008, playing a young Lisa Swan in the horror thriller, Amusement. She then starred in the film He’s On My Mind a year later, as well as the 2012 horror picture Paranormal Activity 4.
She appeared in two episodes of Extant and two episodes of Modern Family in 2014. In November 2014, she was cast in the recurring role of Daphne on NBC’s Days of Our Lives.
She is best known for her role as Jessica Davis in the Netflix original drama series 13 Reasons Why from 2017 to 2020. Boe recently joined the cast of Jesse Eisenberg’s film directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World, in 2022.
Similarly, she portrayed Tara in the Netflix movie, Do Revenge the same year.
Alisha Boe’s struggle with her ethnicity
Throughout her life and career, Boe has struggled with her ethnicity. When she moved to the USA with her parents — mother and her new husband — Boe denied her Norwegian culture.
She told W Magazine how she did not want to have an accent and wanted to forget her heritage. In fact, her mother would try to talk to her in Norwegian, but Boe would talk back in English.
This eventually led the 13 Reasons Why star to forget about her first language. As said before, Boe wanted to be a performer when she was a child.
However, her desire to become an actress was sparked when she portrayed Michelle in a Full House reenactment. She returned home after the play and informed her mother that she had decided to pursue a career as an actor.
However, it was easier said than done. She had a difficult time landing a position. She auditioned frequently, but she only appeared in advertisements.
Boe believed that she had difficulty finding an acting job because of her ethnicity. She said, “Honestly, it was hard for me to book roles as an early teen, because it wasn’t inclusive then for mixed or ethically ambiguous or black people, in general.”
“I would be sent out for Hispanic roles, but I don’t look Hispanic. I’d be sent for black roles, but I’m too white, and I’m too white to be black. They’d even send me on Asian roles,” she added.
Regardless, she never gave up and has established herself in the entertainment industry.
