Yara Sayeh Shahidi is an American actress, model, and activist. She gained recognition for her starring role as the oldest daughter Zoey Johnson on the sitcomBlack-ish and its spin-off series Grown-ish. Her film credits include Imagine That, Smallfoot, and the lead role in The Sun Is Also a Star. Time included her on "The 30 Most Influential Teens of 2016" list.
Early life
Yara Sayeh Shahidi was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Keri Salter Shahidi and Afshin Shahidi, a photographer. Her father is Iranian, and her mother is African-American. The family moved to California for Afshin's work when Yara was 4 years old. She is the older sister of child actor and model Sayeed Shahidi and they have a younger brother, Ehsan. Keri Shahidi states the name Yara means in Persian "Someone who is close to your heart", the name Sayeed means "Blessing", and Ehsan means "To act as though God is watching". The rapper Nas is their once-removed cousin.
Career
She began her career when she was 6 years old, appearing in television commercials and print advertisements for companies such as McDonald's, Ralph Lauren, Target, GapKids, Disney, Guess Kids and The Children's Place. She frequently worked with her mother and younger brother in various print and broadcast campaigns. Shahidi made her cinematic debut in 2009, starring opposite Eddie Murphy in Paramount Pictures' Imagine That, for which she received a Young Artist Award nomination for the best performance in a feature film category. She also appeared in the Angelina Jolie action filmSalt in 2010 as a next door neighbor. In 2012, she played Chloe Johnson, the daughter of President William Johnson, in the TV series The First Family. In September 2014, Shahidi starred in ABC's prime-time comedy Black-ish as 14-year-old Zoey Johnson. In December 2014 she won an NAACP Image Award in the category of 'Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy'. In 2016, she signed to model with New York'sWomen Managementmodeling agency, in hopes of providing a platform to see morewomen of color in diverse roles. ABC announced in 2017 that Shahidi would be headlining a Black-ish spinoff, titled Grown-ish, on its sister network Freeform. The series premiered on January 3, 2018. She was ranked one of the best dressed women in 2018 by fashion website Net-a-Porter. She was one of fifteen women selected to appear on the cover of the September 2019 issue of British Vogue, by guest editor Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. In 2020 Shahidi and her business partner launched their production company 7th Sun and signed a deal with ABC Studios to produce shows.
