Zoe Saldaña’s mother is Asalia Nazario. Her father is identified as Aridio Saldaña in a Television Academy profile and a 2025 New York State Senate resolution, but reports published in December 2025 attribute a different name, Dámaso Saldaña, to a later interview with the actor. Those accounts also differ on her parents’ origins, so the details are best presented with their sources and dates rather than treated as settled.
Who are Zoe Saldaña’s parents?
Asalia Nazario is Saldaña’s mother. The Television Academy calls Saldaña the middle daughter of Nazario and Aridio Saldaña in its 2022 profile, and New York State Senate Resolution No. 315, issued in 2025, also names Nazario and Aridio Saldana. The Television Academy profile and the Senate resolution support that identification.
However, two Dominican news outlets reported on December 15, 2025, that Saldaña said in an interview with journalist Tony Dandrades that her father was Dámaso Saldaña. The outlets also reported that both parents were born in the Dominican Republic. The original interview recording is not established by those reports, so the newer attribution should not be silently combined with the older accounts.
What is known about Saldaña’s childhood and her father?
Her father’s death and the family’s move
The Television Academy’s 2022 profile says Saldaña’s father played several musical instruments and loved dancing with her mother. It reports that he died in a car accident in 1987, when Saldaña was nine. Recalling how her grandmother spoke to the sisters after the loss, Saldaña said: “We’re going to get through this. Papa wants us to get through this. But please understand this part of life: death came knocking and took one of us.” This is Saldaña’s recollection of her grandmother’s words, as published by the Television Academy.
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The profile says the sisters later went to live with their grandparents in the Dominican Republic. Saldaña described the change as difficult because daily life there was unfamiliar. She began studying ballet in the Dominican Republic, a foundation the profile connects to the physical performance skills she later brought to acting.
The family’s interest in science fiction
The same profile says Saldaña’s sisters credit their mother with fostering the family’s interest in science fiction. Their mother read Frank Herbert’s Dune to them as a bedtime story, and the sisters also enjoyed books by Octavia E. Butler.
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What has Asalia Nazario said about raising her daughters?
In a first-person interview published by Diario Libre on May 25, 2014, Nazario spoke about becoming a widow while raising three young daughters. Asked about that period, she said: “Fueron tiempos muy difíciles para mí y para mis niñas. Sin embargo, viéndolo tiempo después, no puedo más que dar gracias a Dios por todo lo aprendido durante el trayecto.” She credited her mother and grandmother with helping the family through it.
Nazario also described supporting Saldaña’s ambitions and the mutual support among the women in the family. She recalled weekends with prepared food, library books and rented films, and said she would travel to be with her daughters when they missed her. These are details from Nazario’s own account in her 2014 interview with Diario Libre.
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Why do reports differ about the parents’ names and origins?
The name Aridio Saldaña and a split in the parents’ origins appear in earlier published accounts. The Television Academy profile uses Aridio Saldaña, while the 2025 New York State Senate resolution names Aridio Saldana and Asalia Nazario and describes the parents as having Dominican and Puerto Rican origins, respectively. The resolution is a formal congratulatory document, not a first-person family interview.
In contrast, Diario Libre and Listín Diario reported on December 15, 2025, that Saldaña said in the Tony Dandrades interview that both parents were born in the Dominican Republic and that her father was Dámaso Saldaña. Those reports say the Puerto Rican connection came through her maternal grandfather. They are secondary accounts of the interview, rather than the recording itself. As a result, the exact paternal name and the details of each parent’s birthplace remain unresolved across these published sources; Nazario’s birthplace should not be stated as settled fact.
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The December 2025 reports are available from Diario Libre and Listín Diario.
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