Hollywood has always pulled talent from every corner of the world, but some of the industry’s biggest names carry more than one country in their passports. Dual or multiple nationalities happen for all kinds of reasons. Some stars were born abroad to American parents.
Others naturalized after decades of living and working in the United States. A few hold citizenship through ancestry or marriage, and in some cases, a country simply doesn’t allow renunciation, so the second passport sticks around whether the person uses it or not. What makes this list genuinely interesting is how differently each of these stars arrived at their situation.
1. Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron was born in Benoni, South Africa, in 1975, and became an American citizen in 2007 after living in the United States for over a decade. She holds both South African and American citizenship. South Africa permits dual nationality, so there was no conflict in keeping both.
Theron has spoken openly about her pride in her South African roots, and she has remained involved in African humanitarian causes through the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, which focuses on HIV/AIDS awareness among youth on the continent.
2. Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling was born in London, Ontario, Canada, in 1980. He is a Canadian citizen and has spent much of his professional career working in the United States.
Between his time on The Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990s and the film career that followed, he became one of the most successful Canadian actors in Hollywood. While he has long lived and worked in the United States, there is no public evidence that he has become an American citizen.
3. Olivia Wilde
Olivia Wilde was born in New York City in 1984 and holds both American and Irish citizenship. Her family connection to Ireland runs deep through her ancestry, and she has spoken about a genuine attachment to the country rather than treating the passport as a novelty.
She has lived in Ireland at various points in her life, and Ireland’s citizenship-by-descent rules made her eligibility possible.
4. Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem in 1981 and moved to the United States as a child. She holds both Israeli and American citizenship. Her connection to Israel has been complicated and public at times.
In 2018, she declined to accept the Genesis Prize in Israel, citing concerns over political events there, which generated significant attention in both countries. Her dual status is one of the more publicly examined cases on this list.
5. Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster has long-standing ties to France and is known for speaking French with remarkable fluency. Foster studied French from an early age and has given interviews entirely in French.
She has filmed several productions in France and maintained strong professional and personal connections to the country over the decades. However, there is no publicly confirmed evidence that she holds French citizenship in addition to her American citizenship.
6. Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1964, to a British father and American mother. He grew up primarily in Canada and holds Canadian citizenship. His multinational background reflects a life shaped by several countries and cultures.
Whether he has any claim to additional citizenships through birth or parentage has been the subject of speculation, but his Canadian citizenship is the one that is publicly documented.
7. Sofia Vergara
Sofia Vergara was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, in 1972, and became an American citizen in 2014 after years of working in the United States. Colombia allows dual citizenship, so she retained her Colombian passport.
Vergara has consistently kept her Colombian identity central to her public persona, and her visibility as one of the highest-paid actresses on American television for years made her naturalization a widely covered story. The dual status reflects both her professional roots in Colombia, where she began her career, and her long-established life in the United States.
8. Tom Hooper
Tom Hooper is the British-Australian director behind films like “The King’s Speech” and “Les Misérables.” He was born in London in 1972 to an Australian mother and a British father, which gave him citizenship in both countries from birth. Hooper spent portions of his childhood in Australia and has worked across both countries.
His inclusion here reflects the fact that dual nationality in Hollywood extends well beyond performers. Directors, producers, and writers who shape major studio projects often carry the same kind of multinational backgrounds.
9. Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o was born in Mexico City in 1983 to Kenyan parents, which gave her both Kenyan and Mexican citizenship by birth. She later moved to Kenya, then to the United States for her education and career, including her MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Her 2014 Academy Award win for “12 Years a Slave” brought enormous attention to her background, and she has been candid about navigating multiple cultural identities throughout her life. Kenya and Mexico both permit dual nationality, so she has never faced pressure to choose between them.
