Yara Shahidi

Child star Yara Shahidi accrued over a dozen screen credits to her name before she had even reached her teens. Born in Minneapolis, MN in 2000 to an African-American mother and Iranian father, Shahidi first appeared in front of the camera when she was just 6 weeks old. After moving to California with her family, she landed her first on-screen role, aged 7, in an episode of "Entourage" (HBO, 2004-11). Two years later, Shahidi was cast in the leading role of Olivia Danielson, the daughter of Eddie Murphy's high-flying executive who takes her father into an imaginary world, in family-friendly comedy "Imagine That" (2009). Following a five-episode stint as Jessica St. Clair's daughter Esther in short-lived sitcom "In The Motherhood" (ABC, 2009)--the first of several projects in which she appeared alongside her younger brother Shaheed--Shahidi played the daughter of Samuel L. Jackson's black-ops officer in the suspense thriller "Unthinkable" (2010) and Angelina Jolie's young neighbor in the spy movie "Salt" (2011). Shahidi then played the key role of champion butter sculptor Destiny in the satirical ensemble comedy "Butter" (2011) and Tyler Perry's daughter in the much maligned big-screen adaptation of "Alex Cross" (2012), before landing a recurring role as the President's daughter, Chloe Johnson, in the hit black sitcom "The First Family" (Syndication, 2012-15). In 2013, Shahidi played the younger version of Kerry Washington's character, Olivia Pope, in several flashback scenes on the hit political thriller "Scandal" (ABC, 2012-). In 2014, she landed her first co-starring role in a television sitcom as the mercurial teenager Zoey Johnson in the Kenya Barris sitcom "black-ish" (ABC, 2014-).