1.
Karen Finley
Performance artist, musician and poet born in
Chicago and raised in
Evanston, Illinois. She is a relative of the American humorist and writer
Finley Peter Dunne. Her father was of
Irish and
Scottish descent
[4] and her mother was of
Romani, and
Jewish ancestry.
[5]
She was notably one of the
NEA Four, four performance artists whose grants from the
National Endowment for the Arts were vetoed in 1990 by
John Frohnmayer after the process was condemned by Senator
Jesse Helms under "decency" issues. Following that piece came
The Return of the Chocolate-smeared Woman,
[7] her performance rebuttal to Helms and the NEA controversy. The U.S. Congress imposed restrictions on grants for indecent art. NEA head John Frohnmayer, took the side of the targeted artists, which included Finley.
[8] The case,
National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley (1998), argued in front of the
U.S. Supreme Court, was decided against Finley and the other artists.
[9]
2.
Gogol Bordello
Eugene Hütz, a singer, composer, disc jockey, actor, was born in
Boyarka, to a
Russian father, a butcher by profession, and a
Ukrainian mother who was of half
Servitka Roma ancestry.
[2][3] Hütz and his family fled their hometown after hearing of the
Chernobyl meltdown. In New York, he met the future members of Gogol Bordello including violinist
Sergey Ryabtsev, accordionist
Yuri Lemeshev, guitarist Oren Kaplan, drummer Eliot Ferguson and dancers
Pam Racine and
Elizabeth Sun. He first called the band "Hutz and the Bela Bartoks," but changed it after realizing that "nobody knows who the hell
Béla Bartók is in the United States." Hütz's Roma/Ukrainian background provides his central inspiration, influencing his lifestyle and the music of his band
Gogol Bordello.
3.
Tracey Ullman
British-American actress, comedian, singer, dancer, screenwriter, producer, director, author, and businesswoman. Her mother was British, with
Roma ancestry,
[9] and her father was a
Roman Catholic Pole.
[10]
The Tracey Ullman Show, from 1987 until 1990, which also featured the first appearances of the long-running animated
media franchise,
The Simpsons. Ullman is currently the richest British actress and female comedian and the third richest British comedian overall.
[4][5]
4.
Ian Hancock
Linguist, scholar in the field of linguistics, particularly in the area of pidgin and creole languages, and political advocate. His mother, Kitty, is
Romanichal; his father, Reginald (Redžo), was part
Romungro, the descendant of a Hungarian speaker of
North Central Romani named Imre Benczi.
He is director of the Program of Romani Studies and the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at
The University of Texas at Austin, where he has been a professor of English, linguistics and Asian studies since 1972. He has represented the
Romani people at the United Nations and served as a member of the
US Holocaust Memorial Council under President
Bill Clinton, who, Hancock claims, has Romani ancestry.
[1]
5.
Michael Costello
Fashion designer, reality television personality born on January 20, 1983, in
Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles.
[2] Costello's father is
Italian-
Hungarian and his mother is
Greek Romani and
Russian.
[3][2] Costello has two children from an
arranged marriage that ended in 2006.
[2]
Costello made headlines for designing a matching hat and dress for rapper
Cardi B for
Paris Fashion Week.
[4] Kylie Jenner wore one of his dress for her birthday magazine cover and Costello is good friends with
Lady Gaga.
[5] Costello's dresses were featured in
Nicki Minaj's game app Nicki Minaj: The Empire.
[6] On March 18, 2017, Costello received a star on the
Palm Springs Walk of Stars. The presentation was held by Mayor
Robert Moon, who also gave Costello the key to the City of Palm Springs and declared March 18 as the "Michael Costello Day".
[12]
6.
Caren Gussoff
Author of Romany and mixed heritages. She writes both literary fiction and speculative fiction novels and short stories.
7.
Jerry Mason
Singer, songwriter, guitar player, and entertainer during America’s rock and roll era. Mason is of
Romani (
Gypsy) heritage.
On June 25, 2019,
The New York Times Magazine listed Jerry Mason among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the
2008 Universal fire.
[1]
8.
Richard "Dick" Marcinko
Navy SEAL. Born November 21, 1940, in Lansford, Pennsylvania and is of Slovak descent
[1] - his father and mother were both of Slovak origin. At a young age, his family moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey.
A former United States Navy officer. A retired U.S. Navy SEAL commander and Vietnam War veteran, he was the first commanding officer of SEAL Team Six and Red Cell. After retiring from the United States Navy, he became an author, radio talk show host, military consultant, and motivational speaker.
9.
Ladislas Lazaro
A Democratic U.S. Representative from Louisiana. Born near
Ville Platte, Evangeline (then St. Landry) Parish, Louisiana. He was the son of Marie Denise Ortego, a daughter of one of Ville Platte’s founding Hispanic families, and Alexandre Lazaro Biladinoviz, a Roma immigrant from the town of
Risan (in what is now
Montenegro), who came to America aboard a ship from Russia as a stowaway.
[1]
Lazaro was elected as a
Democrat to the Sixty-third and to the seven succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1913, until his death in
Washington, D.C. on March 30, 1927. He became the second Hispanic American ever to chair a standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives when he was named chairman of the Enrolled Bills Committee in 1915.
[1]
10.
Priscilla Kelly
Of
Romanichal descent.
[39] Professional wrestler,
professional wrestling valet,
[1] and former actress.
11.
Pamela Anderson
Canadian-born American actress, model and animal rights activist. Her great-grandfather, Juho Hyytiäinen, was
Finnish and partly of
Romani descent, a native of
Saarijärvi, and left the
Grand Duchy of Finland (which was a part of the
Russian Empire at the time) for Canada in 1908.
[11] He changed his name to Anderson when he arrived as an immigrant. Anderson also has
Russian ancestry on her mother's side.
[12]
12.
Marks family
The Marks family immigrated from Greece in the late 19th or early 20th century. Although adhering to Romani cultures and beliefs, like the payment of dowries and arranged marriages, they also worked to assimilate into American life. In an interview with McMahon, Rose Marks said her father was Steve "Boyo" Eli, a land owner and Romani judge. According to Marks, he mediated land, inheritance, divorce and dowry disputes in the Gypsy community near Newark, New Jersey. Marks attended public school until she dropped out in the third grade. She was married in an arranged marriage at 16 or 17 years old, living in Virginia until moving to Broward County in 1998. Marks and her late husband opened the store in Manhattan.
[11] The family was identified as relatives of the late Gypsy leader,
Jimmy Marks of
Spokane, Washington by the
New York Daily News.
[6]
According to Paula McMahon, staff writer for the
Sun-Sentinel newspaper, the family are Vlax Roma, the largest
Gypsy group in the US. McMahon states members of this group "traditionally drop out of school when they are 8 or 9 years old" and that "Mothers train daughters to develop what they call 'psychic' or 'intuitive' powers."
[2] This training was presented by both prosecutors and the defense during Rose Marks' trial.
[8] Schwarz said Marks began working at the age of 8 or 9.
[3]
The family claimed to communicate directly with
Michael the Archangel.
[10][17] The women of the family, including Rose Marks, sometimes used the alias Joyce Michael(s).
[17][18] Many of the victims had suffered a traumatic loss.
[17] Two victims identified by
The Palm Beach Post, author
Jude Deveraux and another woman were defrauded of $20 million and $1 million, respectively.
[5] Deveraux believed the money would be returned after it was "cleansed".
[5][17] The single victim of Vivian Marks identified by the
Sun-Sentinel was defrauded of $180,000 which he was told would go to charity work in Africa.
[2] Another victim was told that her money had burned in the
September 11 attacks.
[8] A victim who had been hearing voices in his head was told by Cynthia Miller that she would speak with Michael the Archangel who she said told her the victim needed to sacrifice gold coins. This victim turned $400,000 in gold coins over to Miller.
[17] A family curse that could be cured only by the "cleansing" of money and valuables was a scenario frequently employed by the Marks family.
[17] Victims included a female
US Naval Academy graduate, an English attorney and other highly educated men and women with executive positions.
[3]
Jimmy Marks
