Yara Shahidi will continue to grow and evolve with her ABC family. The “Grown-ish” star and exec producer has signed an overall deal with ABC Studios’ Disney Television Studios unit. The Hollywood Reporter confirms that she and Keri Shahidi, her mother and business partner, have launched production company 7th Sun to develop scripted and unscripted projects.
“I’m thrilled to be partnering with my home family, ABC Studios, in this exciting next chapter, alongside my family,” said Yara Shahidi. “It’s exciting to add our production company to the roster of my peers and mentors who are also actively committed to sharing meaningful stories.”
ABC Studios president Jonnie Davis added,”We can’t wait to extend and expand our relationship with the incredibly talented Yara Shahidi, who has been a member of the family since ‘Black-ish.’ When she’s not studying at Harvard and starring in our series ‘Grown-ish,’ she’s mentoring and inspiring other young people, which makes us all feel like underachievers but also very proud that she’s part of our studio.”
Shahidi starred as Zoey Johnson on the first three seasons of ABC’s “Black-ish” before leading spinoff “Grown-ish” on Freeform. The college-set sitcom, which THR notes “ranked as the top live-action cable comedy of 2019-20 among African American adults 18-34,” has been renewed for a fourth season with a premiere date TBA.
“The Sun Is Also a Star,” “The Fosters,” and “Scandal” are among Shahidi’s other credits. She made her directorial debut with 2018 short film “X.”
7th Sun will “seek out projects that touch on themes of history, heritage, culture, and joy, and that elevate underrepresented voices,” according to THR.
“This idea of consistently being of service to the world around you is a dialogue that we were raised with, starting with grandparents on both sides of my family and then into the conversations in our household. I’m beyond grateful that our house has been consistently a place of conversation and a place of action since I was young,” Shahidi recently told Elle.
She added, “I think when I stepped into the space of being a series regular on a show, I was already involved in a cast, but also in a larger Black entertainment community that was consistently reckoning with questions like, ‘What is our role on television? What are the obligations we need our networks to make? And what are the environments that we need to live in to consistently make sure that we are responsible with our media?’ I think about so many people that I’m grateful to be in a community with; we may not know at first glance, but I can attest to the fact that they’re doing the work 24/7, 100 percent of the time, with whatever their platform is.”
