(*If you’re not a straight white man.) 
Rest is at the link. format is kinda weird so its hard to copy and paste 
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/24/arts/hollywood-diversity-inclusion.html
School Years
Sam Esmail Creator, “Mr. Robot” - Growing up, I [thought] white male was the norm, the default character in every story. I never thought other possibilities could exist. And I remember thinking, when I would watch Woody Allen films or films that felt personal, I wonder what I’m going to do when I write my personal films, because I can’t cast an Egyptian-American; that would be weird. In film school, there was this need to talk about your ethnicity and to make essentially social-message films. But I resisted, because I felt that it changed the conversation of what the movie was about.
Wendell Pierce Actor, “The Wire,” “Grease: Live”, “Confirmation” (coming on HBO) - Juilliard was a great place to train and prepare for the politics of the business. You were given roles [based on] how you fit into the company. I didn’t get any roles that weren’t 20, 30 years my elder. We had a running joke, the black actors, “If you come here you better get your funny walks, because you’re going to be playing all the old guys.”
JIMMY SMITS Actor, “The Get Down” (coming on Netflix), co-founder, National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts - [After] Brooklyn College, somebody said, “You can probably go to L.A. now and be the crook of the week on ‘Hill Street Blues,’ but you should think about graduate school.” [At] Cornell — I got a scholarship — I got to do everything. I could handle verse, I could speak Shaw, I could do Pinter.
A professor [said]: “You’re a good actor, which is why I’m telling you, stay the hell out of L.A.” Ken Jeong
TEYONAH PARRIS Actress, “Chi-Raq,” “Survivor’s Remorse” - [At Juilliard], we got together with other black people in different classes, and we said, “Hey, we want to do an August Wilson play. There are enough black people to make this happen.” So we rehearsed on our free time and put on this showcase, and the faculty came, other students came, and I guess that was inspiring to them. [Later, they did an official school production.] That was the first time they put an August Wilson play on the main stage, in 2007.
KEN JEONG Creator and star, “Dr. Ken” - A U.C.L.A. acting professor gave me good marks in my performance and [said]: “You’re a good actor, which is why I’m telling you, stay the hell out of L.A. There’s not much of a future for you. Go to Asia.” I got an A. He was saying that out of respect.
JUSTIN LIN Director, forthcoming “Star Trek Beyond” - It was just as hard being working class. I had a roommate — parents write a $20,000 check, and boom, he [makes] his movie. There were people [whose] relatives were [in] Hollywood, and they get all the free equipment. You see, very quickly, that’s the world you’re about to enter.
Getting a Foot in the Door
AMERICA FERRERA Star, producer “Superstore” - I was 18 and putting myself on tape for a movie I really wanted. I got that phone call: They cast a Latino male in another role in the film; they’re not looking to cast [a Latina]. So I defiantly bleached my hair blond, painted my face white and made the audition tape. I never heard back. I just remember feeling so powerless. What do you do when someone says, “Your color skin is not what we’re looking for”? Let me tell you: Blond does not suit me. I try not to prove my point on audition tapes anymore.
WENDELL PIERCE - In 1985, I’m sitting in the casting office of a major studio. The head of casting said, “I couldn’t put you in a Shakespeare movie, because they didn’t have black people then.” He literally said that. I told that casting director: “You ever heard of Othello? Shakespeare couldn’t just make up black people. He saw them.” I started carrying around a postcard of Rubens’s “Studies of the Head of a Negro.” The casting director actually was very kind to me. He referred me to my first agent.
JOAN CHEN Actress, “Twin Peaks,” “Marco Polo” - I never saw people like me on television in the States [after working in Shanghai]. It was very difficult [to get representation in the 1980s]. Someone told me the Bessie Loo Agency represented all the Asians — James Hong was there, Beulah Quo. There were a couple of people playing butlers, maids. [The agent] probably thought I was telling fairy tales when I told him I won best actress in China.
EVA LONGOR Star, director, producer, “Telenovela” - I didn’t speak Spanish [growing up]. I’m ninth generation. I mean, I’m as American as apple pie. I’m very proud of my heritage. But I remember moving to L.A. and auditioning and not being Latin enough for certain roles. Some white male casting director was dictating what it meant to be Latin. He decided I needed an accent. He decided I should [have] darker-colored skin. The gatekeepers are not usually people of color, so they don’t understand you should be looking for way more colors of the rainbow within that one ethnicity.
Credit Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times
The teacher, a white man, would say, you’re talking ghetto, don’t talk ghetto. Teyonah Parris
AMERICA FERRERA - I had just won [a top award at Sundance], and [my manager] wanted me to audition for the Latina chubby girl in a pilot. She wasn’t even the lead; she was just the sidekick, with the same joke in every scene. I said, “I’m not going in for that.” When I ultimately left him, he [told] another of my reps, “Somebody should tell that girl that she has an unrealistic idea of what she can accomplish in this industry.” That was someone I was paying to represent me.
MINDY KALING Creator, star, “The Mindy Project” - When I got hired on “The Office,” at the same time I wrote a pilot with my best friend, called “Mindy and Brenda,” based on our experiences. They were trying to audition my part, which I wanted to play, and at first they [looked for] Indian-American actresses, and when they couldn’t find any, they opened up to more generically Middle Eastern actresses. Still couldn’t find any, until at the end, they’re like, “We’ll look for a white woman.” That was heartbreaking for so many reasons. I auditioned. I think they were looking for someone more traditionally beautiful, because I’d like to think I gave a good audition, to play the part I created. Now, they would work harder to find an Indian-American girl. There’s just too much scrutiny, which is good.
EFFIE BROWN Producer, “Dear White People”; co-star, “Project Greenlight” - When I was graduating [film school], I didn’t look like everybody else, and I didn’t have any connections. I actually called the Black Business Bureau — a random call. And I got this wonderful operator on the phone, who said that her cousin was working on “The Five Heartbeats,” with Robert Townsend, and that’s how I got my first internship.
KIMBERLY PEIRCE Director, “Carrie” - [Coming to Hollywood as an out person], it scared me. I thought if they don’t like this, I’m going to push their buttons and not mean to. I thought the gayness was what was going to freak people out, and in a lot of ways, it’s the femaleness that causes more problems in a straight, male world. That, I didn’t expect.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/24/arts/hollywood-diversity-inclusion.html
