‘Beautifully flawed’: Tati Gabrielle, Kaleidoscope actress of Korean and African-American descent, is proud of her heritage
- Gabrielle, whose Korean mother was adopted by an African-American family, talks about her pride at representing African-American Koreans in her work
- She decided to speak Korean in her starring role in Kaleidoscope playing a triple agent, and plans to become fluent in the language
By Dong Sun-hwa
Born to a mother of Korean descent and an African-American father, Tati Gabrielle grew up eating kimchi and doing the Korean martial art taekwondo.
Although her environment was predominantly African-American, Gabrielle and her siblings could still get a taste of Korean culture in their everyday lives thanks to their mother.
At the age of four, her mother was adopted by an African-American family in Virginia, who was neither able to speak Korean nor familiar with the East Asian country’s culture. But she still embraced her roots and instilled pride in her children about their Korean heritage.
“My mom was not able to give us Korean-specific culture and language herself, but she strongly urged us to seek and explore more of our Korean heritage throughout our lives,” says Gabrielle, the star of the popular Netflix series Kaleidoscope (2023).
“And that’s exactly what we did. I remember being very proud even as a child to be, not just Asian, but Korean.