Niech żyje Polska! Famous faces with Polish roots as Poland marks 107 years of independence
From makeup mogul Maksymilian Faktorowicz, better known as Max Factor, to model and actress Emily Ratajkowski, countless stars proudly trace their roots back to Poland.
Niech żyje Polska! Famous faces with Polish roots as Poland marks 107 years of independence
Today (11.11.25) marks Poland’s 107th Independence Day, a celebration of freedom after 123 years of partitions. The Polish diaspora is one of the largest in the world, with around 20 million people of Polish ancestry living outside Poland, many displaced by the upheavals of World War II. From makeup mogul Maksymilian Faktorowicz, better known as Max Factor, to model and actress Emily Ratajkowski, countless stars proudly trace their roots back to Poland.
Gwyneth Paltrow
The ‘Iron Man’ actress is proud of her Slavic roots.
Paltrow’s great-great-grandfather was a Rabbi in Nowogród, Poland, who descended from the Paltrowicz family in Kraków.
Gwyneth recently funded a historical signboard at her ancestors cemetery in Poland which chronicles the history of the Polish Jews.
Scarlett Johansson
The highest grossing box office star comes from a Slavic and Danish background. Whilst her father, Karsten Johansson is a Danish-born architect from Copenhagen, her mother Melanie Sloan is an Ashkenazi Jew from Poland and Russia.
In 2017, the ‘Black Widow’ star was brought to tears whilst appearing on PBS’s ‘Finding Your Roots’ after discovering that her maternal great-grandfather’s family died during the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Natalie Portman
Before she became an Oscar winning actress, Natalie Portman was born Neta-Lee Hershlag in Jerusalem. Natalie’s parents are both Jewish with ancestral links to Austria, Russia and Poland. Natalie’s father Avner Hershlag, was the son of Polish Jews who perished during the Holocaust whilst he survived by escaping to Israel.
Paul Wesley
He’s known professionally as Paul Wesley, but before becoming the ‘Vampire Diaries’ heartthrob Paul Wesley was born Pawel Tomasz Wasilewski. Born in New Jersey to Polish parents, the ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ star speaks the Slavic language fluently having spent four months a year in Poland until he was 16.
Zac Efron
The ‘High School Musical’ star maybe one of the most handsome American actors in Hollywood but it turns out Californian born Zac has a Polish background.
Efron, which is a Hebrew surname, came from Zac’s paternal grandfather who was a Polish Jew.
