Study finds few TV roles for minority actors

Minority actors, with the exception of Native Americans, saw their share of television and film roles continue to decline last year, mirroring the overall trend of actors losing jobs to reality TV and runaway production, according to statistics released by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).The roles going to black actors fell 3% last year. That left them with a 15.3% share of all TV and film roles while representing 12.8% of the U.S. population. Lead roles increased to 64 male leads and 14 female leads, while total film roles fell 23% over the previous year primarily because of fewer males in lead roles. Roles for Latinos fell 10.5% last year, leaving them with a 5.4% share of overall roles compared with a 13.7% share of the U.S. population. The 31% decline in Latino male leads was concentrated in episodic TV. At the same time, there was a 2.4% increase in supporting roles for Latinos. [more ]