Pete Davidson has come a long way from playing guest roles on television to being on Saturday Night Live to starring in movies. Although the comedian’s personal life is a subject of interest for the tabloids, his ‘racially ambiguous’ looks have also been scrutinized by the public, a recurring topic he even addressed in his stand-up routines.

Pete said in an interview that ‘75 percent of the people’ who meet him think that he is biracial, often joking that he is unsure of his race since he is ‘all miscellaneous in the face’.

Pete Davidson is of Irish descent with German, English, Scottish, and Italian roots; He is also half Jewish from his father’s side

Pete Davidson was born on November 16, 1993, to Amy Waters and Scott Matthew Davidson in Staten Island. Amy worked as a school nurse and Scott was a New York firefighter, who lost his life in the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center when Pete was only 7 years old.

From his mother’s side, Pete is chiefly of Irish descent with German, English, and Scottish roots. His grandparents (Amy’s parents) Rebecca and Peter Waters were both born to families with Irish ancestry. However, his grandmother had bits of German, English, and Scottish heritage from her maternal ancestors.   

Pete is also half Jewish as his father Scott came from Jewish ancestry, for the most part. Scott’s father (and Pete’s paternal grandfather) Stephen Davidson descended all the way from the Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Poland, Russia, and Romania.

As for Scott’s mother Carla Kaiser, she was predominantly of German-Dutch Jewish descent with some Italian roots. Her vast European ancestry also includes distant English, Scottish and Irish heritage.

Pete only found out that he was ‘48 percent Jewish’ when he took a DNA test in 2017. Apparently, his mother ‘never told him’ that his father was Jewish since both he and his sister Casey were raised in a Catholic household.

So, despite his convincing ambiguous facial features, Pete is – in his own words – ‘just a white dude’ with an assortment of European roots, mainly Irish. He joked:

“Oh yeah, I’m a straight white dude but for some reason, I look like every other race mixed together. I’m all Irish and Italian but for some reason I look like a Puerto Rican. I use it to my advantage. I feel like as soon as people find out I’m just a white dude, I’ll start losing work. They’ll be like, ‘Aw, he’s not special.’”