Vin Diesel was born in New York City as Mark Sinclair or Mark Vincent. His mother, Delora Sherleen (Sinclair) Vincent, is an astrologer. Vin Diesel has stated that he is "of ambiguous ethnicity". His mother's background includes Scottish, English, and German. Vin Diesel has never met his biological father, and has stated that "all I know from my mother is that I have connections to many different cultures". Diesel has self-identified as "definitely a person of colour". He once stated that he is "Italian and a lot of other stuff".
