Are you sure Szohr's character on Gossip Girl is of Ukrainian descent? Her character's last name Abrams sounds like it's of English origin, not Slavic. Is her character of partial Ukrainian descent? If so, I don't remember that ever being mentioned or denoted, and I've watched every episode of Gossip Girl. The reason I also think her African ancestry is a giveaway is because of her very kinky curls, as well as her slightly broad nose, and the complexion added on top of that just made her look too ethnically ambiguous to pass for pure European in my opinion.

Yes, I am very familiar with the fact that Europeans can range in darker skin hues, especially Slavs and Mediterraneans. My mother is Brazilian, but her ancestral background is entirely Portuguese, and Portuguese folk are steoreopically viewed as being swarthy (think Nelly Furtado and James Franco), just like with Italians, Greeks, and Spaniards. My mother is pasty pale like a Northern European, and most people assume she is a Northern European foreigner when they come across her, her brother is even paler with baby blonde hair, so they definitely disprove the stereotype of all Mediterraneans being swarthy.

Guillermo del Toro is also prime example of a person of Mediterranean background with a pale complexion. Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican director, famous for directing the Hellboy films and Pan's Labyrinth to name a few:




You see, a person can't look Mexican, since Mexican is not a race, but merely a nationality, but I guess you mean Mila Kunis can pass for a Mexican in the sense she looks like the stereotypical image of one. Guillermo del Toro, is Mexican, and as anyone can see, he's white, and that's because he falls under the 9% of Mexicans that are of predominantly or entirely European background, in his case being of Spanish descent, hence the last name.

I concur with you on Olga Kurlyenko. When I found out both her parents were Slavs a while ago, I was really surpised. I expected her to be at the least ¼ East Asian.