What is Ian Ousley’s ethnicity? The ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ casting controversy, explained

Avatar: The Last Airbender was easily one of the most diverse Nickelodeon and/or western animated series of the 2000s, which is why it hurt so much when M. Night Shyamalan’s sham of a live-action adaptation whitewashed so many of its characters come its release in 2010. 14 years later, Netflix has decided to try again, this time thankfully doing a much better job on the representation front. Series lead Gordon Cormier is Filipino-American, Dallas Liu (Prince Zuko) is Chinese-Indonesian, Daniel Dae Kim (Fire Lord Ozai) is Korean-American… The list of wonderful, ethnically appropriate talent goes on.

The people of the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, who dwell in the North and South Poles of the world of Avatar, presented an interesting challenge to Netflix, as there are simply not many Inuit actors out there. Instead, the Water Tribes were reimagined as being played by First Nations performers. For instance, the series’ female lead, Kiawentiio (Katara), is of Mohawk ancestry. Perhaps the character casting that’s come under the most scrutiny, however, is Kiawentiio’s on-screen brother, Ian Ousley, who portrays everyone’s favorite sexist, Sokka. So, what exactly is Ousley’s ethnicity?

Ian Ousley’s casting controversy, explained

In August 2021, Netflix proudly announced the cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender, taking the rather novel approach of outlining each actor’s ethnic background in order to showcase how the series was doing better than the much-maligned movie. Unfortunately, in one case the practise massively backfired. Initially, Ian Ousley seemed like the perfect pick for Sokka, as he resembles the animated character so closely we might’ve wondered if he was actually an AI-generated image.

In the cast announcement, Ousley was stated as being of “mixed-race, Native American,” and a “Cherokee tribe member.” It did not take long for people (mostly tireless TikTok detectives) to dig deeper, though, and discover that the description of Ousley wasn’t entirely accurate. As @7genvoices uncovered, all three federally recognized branches of the Cherokee Nation — that’s the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians — deny that Ousley is a citizen. He does, however, have a membership with the Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky.

The problem is that the Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky is not a federally recognized branch of the Cherokee Nation — in fact, the above three have outright decreed it to be a false tribe. The Southern Cherokee Nation has a reputation for being, as X user @EagleElatis put it, “a profitable business venture” rather than a “cultural group.” @FrancesMFDanger additionally argued that “The Southern Cherokee of Kentucky will enroll anyone regardless of tribal affiliation or not, like if you rent a room from a member or if the chief willy nilly decides.” Finally, the CNFO (Cherokee Nation Film Office) has confirmed Ousley is not on their books.

In short, then, Ian Ousley’s ethnicity can be classified as Caucasian. The actor, in his early 20s, was born and raised in College Station, Texas, and is a third-degree black belt in taekwondo. You may have already seen him in guest and recurring roles in the likes of Young Sheldon and 13 Reasons Why, but playing Sokka in Avatar: The Last Airbender is his first leading role. He’s yet to speak openly about all the discussion surrounding his claimed Native American heritage.