Yara Shahidi

Yara Shahidi on the cover of Essence magazine, April 2018.

Yara Shahidi (2000- ) is a US actress best known for playing Zoey Johnson, the older daughter on the television show “black-ish” (2014- ) and the lead character of the spin-off, “grown-ish” (2018- ).

In 2018 Oprah told her:

“Baby, your future’s so bright it burns my eyes.”

which is what Quincy Jones told Oprah in 1985.

The Lisa Bonet of the 2010s: Like Lisa Bonet, Shahidi plays the pretty teenage daughter on a sitcom about an upper-middle-class Black family and then goes to university on a spin-off show. If she continues on Bonet’s path, she will appear in a racy film to shed her good-girl image, marry a rock star, and have a daughter who in turn will become famous, by which time there will be a Yara Shahidi of the 2040s. And so on.

The irony of “grown-ish” is that she is putting off going to university to play a character who goes to university.

Beauty and brains: She got into Harvard University. Michelle Obama wrote a letter of recommendation. Shahidi hopes to major in social studies and African American studies – which would fit her activist bent. She believes everyone should do what they can to make the world a better place, even famous Black people. She is not into being a Grateful Darky. She thinks Colin Kaepernick has it right, even though his activism got him fired and blacklisted.

Hair: She has gorgeously curly hair, but there was a time when she did not like her curls and would straighten them! She thought straight hair looked more “professional”.

Shahidi with her parents and two brothers.

Race: Her father is Persian (like her name), her mother is Black American. She considers herself to be both Black and Iranian American. She does not see it as an either/or thing. It gives her a broader, more global view of the world.

Shahidi (lower right-hand corner) at the wedding of Nas and Kelis, 2005. Click to enlarge.

Relatives: Nas, the rapper, is her cousin. In fact, you can see her as a flower girl when he married Kelis. Shahidi’s father is a photographer who left Iran just before the revolution. He became the personal photographer of Prince.

Acting: She has been in ads since she was a six-month-old baby, stuff like McDonald’s, Target, Gap Kids, Disney, and Ralph Lauren. In 2013 she appeared twice on “Scandal” as a young Olivia Pope, Kerry Washington’s character. She has been in other television shows and some films too, but did not hit the big time till “black-ish”.

She says she is more like her real self on “grown-ish” than on “black-ish”. But even there she is dumbed down to seem more like a stereotypical teenage girl. You would never guess, for example, that she would know what was going on in Iran or would use a Vonnegut reference in a tattoo.

Fandoms: She is huge fan of Marvel Comics and James Baldwin. She cried when she read “Giovanni’s Room” (1956), which she read while listening to Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” (2016) – a procedure which she recommends.

Robot dance: She does the robot dance to make sure her clothes fit properly.

– Abagond, 2018.

See also:

• Kenya Barris – creator of “black-ish” and “grown-ish”
• names dropped:
  • Oprah
  • Quincy Jones
  • Lisa Bonet
  • Michelle Obama
  • Colin Kaepernick
  • Nas
  • Kelis
  • Prince
  • Kerry Washington
  • James Baldwin
  • Frank Ocean
• darkies
• 2040s

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