Number of Latinos in Hollywood films drops in 2018

Latinos in front and behind the camera continue to be severely underrepresented in Hollywood, according to a new USC study released this week. But how bad is it?

Latino actors barely landed 4.5% of more than 47,000 speaking roles in the 100 top-grossing U.S. movies from each of the past 12 years and only 3% were leads or co-leads.

The numbers are just as bad behind the camera, where Latino directors constituted 4% and producers just 3%.

The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative conducted the study with input from the non-profit National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) and independent production studio Wise Entertainment, creator of the all Latino hit series East Los High.

But that’s not all. Despite an increase in the number of films over the past decade, reaching a peak in 2018, there was a drop in the number of Latino characters.

Check out the additional gloomy statistics and proposed solutions for change in an in-depth story on Forbes.