Who are Antonia Gentry's parents? How Sandra and Tony raised a Netflix star
Antonia Gentry's parents, Sandra and Tony Gentry, raised her in Atlanta. Her father, Tony, is American, born and raised in the United States. Her mom, Sandra, is from Jamaica.
Source: Instagram
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key takeaways
- The actress's dad, Tony, is a small-town firefighter while her mother, Sandra, is a poet and artist.
- Antonia Gentry's real parents and her fictional family in Ginny & Georgia reflect her experiences as a biracial Black woman.
- Her mother wrote some of the plays she performed during her childhood.
Who are Antonia Gentry's biological parents?
Antonia Gentry's dad, Tony Gentry, is an American, born and raised in the United States. Her mom, Sandra, is from Jamaica.
Tony is a professional firefighter and IT personnel at the Beech Island Fire Rescue. In December 2018, he was honoured with the Chief's Award for his extraordinary service.
Antonia has an older brother who works as a music producer.
Source: UGC
How Antonia Gentry's parents supported her passion for acting
The Ginny & Georgia star knew she wanted to become an actress when she was only five years old. While describing the moment she made up her mind, she told People StyleWatch in a May 2025 interview:
My parents found an old video of me when I was a kid, monologuing into the camera and coming up with some character. I wanted to see if I could cry on command for the first time. One tear came down my face, and then I just sort of snapped out of it, and I was like, 'I want to be an actor.'
Antonia Gentry's mother, Sandra, has always loved art and poetry. She wrote the first play that the actress performed in at the community theatre.
Her parents enrolled her at the John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School in Augusta, Georgia, for middle school and high school. She moved back to Atlanta in 2015 to pursue a degree in drama at Emory University, where she was active in the school's Rathskellar Comedy Improv troupe.
Sandra and Tony are happy with their daughter's acting success. Antonia told the late tWitch during her March 2021 appearance on The Ellen Show that they were "over the moon" and have watched her hit Netflix series, Ginny & Georgia, multiple times. She auditioned for the show during her final week at Emory in 2019.
Source: Getty Images
Antonia Gentry's ethnic background led to racist treatment
The Atlanta native has been open about facing racism because of her biracial identity. In a since-deleted May 2020 Instagram post, she revealed the microaggressions and stereotypical comments people made about her and her parents, intentionally and non-intentionally.
I could write a book filled with real quotes from White people and people of colour that I have been subjected to... I recognise my own privilege, despite the racism I've experienced. Recognising the overt problem is not enough. Racism is a disease that has infected us all. Be the cure.
Antonia Gentry credits her mom and dad for ensuring she understood her reality while remaining confident in her skin. She said in a March 2021 Elle interview:
My mom knew how to do my hair. She sheltered me a lot—or tried to keep me from walking out the door wearing my skin on my sleeve. She tried to instil in me, 'You are not what other people prescribe you to be. You are who you are, and you need to accept yourself.'
Source: Instagram
Antonia got closure from her biracial character in Ginny & Georgia
Ginny & Georgia, which is often compared to Gilmore Girls, is Antonia's first big project. Her character, Ginny, has a Black father, Zion Miller (Nathan Mitchell) and a White mother, Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey). She told W Magazine in February 2021 that it felt relatable to portray her.
She's in a mostly white town. Her friends are mostly white, and they mean well, but they don't often say the right things. I immediately connected to that and the experiences I had as a teenager in high school. It was cathartic, and I got some sort of closure from playing her.
Some of the things that Antonia went through growing up in Georgia were included in the show. She also shared in her February 2021 Teen Vogue interview that her real-life biracial experiences are different compared to Ginny's because of how her real Black and fictional White mother handles identity hurdles.
My mom was someone who I could confide in if I ever felt a certain way about my identity, because she understood, her being a Black woman. Ginny doesn't really have that with her mom. Georgia tries her best, of course, but there's always going to be that racial divide.
The actress has also had roles on the Netflix slasher film Time Cut as Summer Lucy Field and the coming-of-age Hulu comedy Prom Dates as Jess. Antonia is set to star in the upcoming Oran Zegman-directed film 'The Upside of Falling Down'.
Source: Getty Images
Conclusion
Antonia Gentry's parents are proud of her achievements but continue to maintain private lives amid their daughter's rising fame. Since her race and ethnicity are topics that often come up, the actress has spoken multiple times about representing people like her on the screen with simple actions like wearing her natural curly hair.
READ MORE: Lauren London's parents: Who are they and what do they do?
Briefly.co.za published a post about Lauren London's parents, Terry Lynn Conner and Gary Paul London. Her mother is an African American, while her father is an Ashkenazi Jew.
Lauren was primarily raised by her mother after her parents divorced when she was three. The You People actress has opened up about struggling with her mixed-race identity for not being Black or White enough on either side.
Source: Briefly News
