Sydney Tamiia Poitier

Determined not to fall under her famous father's intimidating shadow, actress Sydney Tamiia Poitier forged her own career path with a string of notable roles on film and television. Trained in theater at New York University, she eventually made her debut with father Sidney in a pair of his films, "Park Time" (1998) and "Free of Eden" (Showtime, 1998). From there, more work came in Clint Eastwood's "True Crime" (1999), as well as headlining roles on the short-lived series "First Years" (NBC, 2001-02) and "Abby" (UPN, 2002-03). Recurring roles on "Veronica Mars" (The CW, 2004-07) and "Joan of Arcadia" (CBS, 2003-05) kept Poitier in the public eye until her turn as brash radio DJ "Jungle" Julia in Quentin Tarantino's send-up of 1970s drive-in splatter-fests, "Grindhouse" (2007) gave the actress her broadest exposure up to that point. Unfortunately, another attempt at a regular character role on the reboot of the action-adventure "Knight Rider" (NBC, 2008-09) proved just as fruitless as her previous series endeavors. Talented, beautiful and charming, Poitier consistently demonstrated that the similarities between her and her legendary father went far beyond simply sharing the same last name.