History Main / RacialTransformation

* ''ComicBook/Cable'': during a short arc in the early-2000s, Cable's reporter friend, Irene Merryweather (white), had to use an image inducer to appear as an African-American women named Margaret Brundage.

* ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'': In "War Of The Fat Italians 2022", SMG4 and SMG3, who were originally doppelgangers of Mario, are changed from fat Italians to Asian Australians.

* ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'': In War Of The Fat Italians 2022, SMG4 and SMG3, who were originally doppelgangers of Mario, are changed from fat Italians to Asian Australians.

* ''WebAnimation / Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'': In War Of The Fat Italians 2022, SMG4 and SMG3, who were originally doppelgangers of Mario, are changed from fat Italians to Asian Australians.

* ''LightNovel/MyLadyJustWantsToRelax'': When the Japanese protagonist was {{reincarnat|ion}}ed into a MagicalLand, she became a blue-haired Caucasian woman. She found it strange at first but became accustomed to her new life.

* ''Literature/SixOfCrows'': At the end of ''Six of Crows'', [[spoiler: Wylan van Eck is tailored to look like Kuwei Yul-Bo, who is Shu (Grishaverse FantasyCounterpartCulture Asian)]]

*** [[spoiler:Arne Darvin]] is revealed to be a [[spoiler:Klingon]] disguised as a human ([[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness this was back when all Klingons looked human]]).
*** In "The Enterprise Incident", Kirk is surgically altered to appear Romulan for an undercover operation.
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': [[spoiler:the Klingon Voq]] undergoes extensive surgery to [[spoiler:be converted from a Klingon into a human]], one of the few cases of a permanent change.

*** Riker and Troi alter themselves to look like a race of Vulcan-like people in a bronze age stage of development.
*** William Riker undergoes cosmetic surgery to evaluate whether a planet is ready for first contact. He is injured in an accident/attack, leading to his hospitalization, and causing the aliens to discover his non-alien nature.
*** Picard and Data are altered to look like Romulans when they go looking for Spock.
*** Worf is altered to look like the inhabitants of a planet where his brother had gone missing.

*** Sisko, Odo and O'Brien are altered to look like Klingons for an infiltration mission.

*** Averted when Kira is abducted and told that she is in fact a Cardassian agent who went undercover and had her memories altered. It turned out that the agent was just Kira's IdenticalStranger.

*** When aliens were experimenting on the crew, Neelix was turned into a Mylean (he was actually one-eighth Mylean).
*** One episode had Neelix altered to look like a Ferengi. This was a bit of LeaningOnTheFourthWall since it wasn't the first (or last) time Ethan Philips played a Ferengi.
*** B'Elanna, upon discovering that her child would inherit her Klingon heritage, attempts to force the Doctor to [[DesignerBabies engineer the Klingon genetics out from her baby]].

** It was announced in 2022 that the following year's season, Series Fourteen, would feature Rwandan-Scottish actor Creator/NcutiGatwa as the Fourteenth Doctor.

Compare GenderBender. See RaceLift for the out-of-universe version when a character's ethnicity is changed in a {{Reboot}} or adaptation.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': At least one story has stated that putting a human being through [=SCP=]-914 on the 1:1 setting changes their race.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' franchise has the Time Lords, who "[[ResurrectiveImmortality regenerate]]" into a [[TheNthDoctor different physical appearance]] whenever they are mortally wounded. Several TV canon and Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse-continuity stories have made it clear that it is possible for them to change human-terms ethnicity in the process (in every case, from the initial default white of an "aristocratic" character in a British work):

** Series Twelve of the 21st-century TV show introduced a new incarnation of [[ArchEnemy the Master]] played by the British South Asian actor Creator/SachaDhawan, while the episode "Fugitive of the Judoon" introduced a mysterious, previously-unseen earlier incarnation of the Doctor played by black actress Creator/JoMartin. The season's final episode, "The Timeless Children", had early incarnations of the Timeless Child played by child extras of varying ethnicity, and had Tecteun go from a white female extra to a black male extra in her first regeneration; [[spoiler:Series Thirteen revealed Tecteun eventually returned to being a white woman]].

* ''Series/TheOrville'': [[spoiler:Teleya]] undergoes heavy cosmetic surgery to change her reptilian Krill features to human so she can infiltrate the ''Orville'' and spy on Mercer, then has the surgery reversed after she's been exposed and returns to her planet. Mercer himself and his shipmate Gordon had infiltrated the Krill in a similar manner before, but used a HolographicDisguise instead.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': [[spoiler:Arne Darvin]] is revealed to be a [[spoiler:Klingon]] disguised as a human ([[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness this was back when all Klingons looked human]]).

* ''ComicBook/AmericanBornChinese'': [[spoiler: Yeng transforms into a white boy named Danny after a metaphorical DealWithTheDevil. He later changes back into Yeng after punching Ching-Kee who reveals himself to be the Monkey King.]]

** In [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsThirdEdition 3rd Edition]], the spellscale are a humanoid offshoot race with a bit of DragonAncestry. There is also a magical rite by which a spellscale can permanently transform a willing humanoid into another spellscale, and there are unfounded conspiracy theories that the transformation can be forced.

* In an early episode of ''Series/NipTuck'', a caucasian male patient requests surgery on his eyes to make himself appear to be Chinese-American, as his fiancee's mother is Chinese and heavily prejudice against white people, and he wants her to accept him into the family. The Sean and Christian perform the surgery, but the mother-in-law isn't fooled for a moment, but accepts him because she is touched by the lengths he went to please the family.

** Series Twelve of the 21st-century TV show introduced a new incarnation of [[ArchEnemy the Master]] played by the British South Asian actor Creator/SachaDhawan, while the episode "Fugitive of the Judoon" introduced a mysterious, previously-unseen earlier incarnation of the Doctor played by black actor Creator/JoMartin. The season's final episode, "The Timeless Children", had early incarnations of the Timeless Child played by child extras of varying ethnicity.

* At the start of ''Film/TropicThunder'', Australian actor Kirk Lazarus, played by Creator/RobertDowneyJr (known for both his violent temper and extreme MethodActing), undergoes surgery and a change in skin pigmentation in order to convincingly play an African American character in an upcoming [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam War]] movie.

* ''Film/DownToEarth'': Creator/ChrisRock plays a guy who unexpectedly dies before his time is up, and is given another chance at life by Heaven, who transfer his soul into an old, wealthy, white guy. This results in a bunch of PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy moments since he still retains his old personality while he may look different to the outside world.

** Series Twelve of the 21st-century TV show introduced a new incarnation of [[ArchEnemy the Master]] played by the British South Asian actor Creator/SachaDhawan, while the episode "Fugitive of the Judoon" featured a mysterious, previously-unseen earlier incarnation of the Doctor played by black actor Creator/JoMartin. The season's final episode, "The Timeless Children", had early incarnations of the Timeless Child played by child extras of varying ethnicity.

** The unique version of the Master who provided the villainy in one Eighth Doctor arc of the ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic was black, in contrast to all the TV incarnations of the character at the time being white.

** The version of [[FounderOfTheKingdom Rassilon]] who appears in a few AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audio dramas is played by Don Warrington, a black actor, although given the medium it's unknown whether the character shares the actor's appearance.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TropicThunder https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/robertdowneyjr.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:To the left, Creator/RobertDowneyJr. On right, Kirk Lazarus.]]