80 Yara Shahidi Facts: How Much Money Does The Actress Make? Net Worth, Age, Parents, Ig, Bio, Wiki, Boyfriend

Biography facts about Yara Shahidi, the popular Black-ish, and Grown-ish star – her real name, parents, net worth, mvoie roles, nationality, ethinicity, zodiac sign, boyfriend, and more.

Yara Shahidi is an Iranian-American actress, producer, model, and activist who is famously known for her movie roles in Salt (2010), and as Zoey Johnson in ABC’s Emmy® and Golden Globe®-nominated comedy series Black-ish (2014) and its spin-off Grown-ish (2018).

She is an activist and the principal of 7th Sun Productions, a production company she founded with her mother. Yara Shahidi has a net worth of $1 million.

Yara Sayeh Shahidi, her film credits include Imagine That, Smallfoot, and the lead role in The Sun Is Also a Star in 2019. In 2009, she starred alongside Eddie Murphy in “Imagine That” and, in 2010, she played a role in the Angelina Jolie film “Salt”.

She was cast as the president’s daughter, Chloe Johnson, on the TV series The First Family. She was in an episode of the children’s show Wizards of Waverly Place, starring Jennifer Stone. Yara Shahidi comes from a family of creators and actors. She said she has a black belt in karate and she got into every college she applied to. Shahidi is a big fan of the Marvel Universe.

Shahidi graduated with honors from The Dwight School in New York and was accepted to Harvard University where she plans to double major in sociology and African-American studies.

Shahidi described the meaning of her name, Yara Sayeh Shahidi: “the literal translation is: Yara means ‘somebody close to your heart’; Sayeh means ‘shadow’; and my last name, Shahidi, means ‘witness.’ My name means ‘somebody close to your heart shadow witness.'”.

Yara Shahidi was born on February 10, 2000, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She is 21 years old in 2022. Her father, Afshin Shahidi, is a cinematographer but is quite possibly most noted as a photographer for Prince. And her mother Keri Shahidi is also an actress, appearing on “American Dad!,” “In the Motherhood,” and more.

Yara’s half Iranian and maybe part Viking. Her families are Choctaw Native American and African-American, her family originated in Ghana, and then there’s a portion of our family that’s the descendants of Vikings.” The younger brothers of the actress are Sayeed Shahidi and Ehsan Shahidi.

She’s related to a famous rapper. Rapper Nas is her first cousin. Yara’s maternal great-grandparents, Ella Mae and Charles Rufus Jones, were Nas’s maternal grandparents. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her mother, father, her two younger brothers, and her fish, Cleophus.

Her childhood dream was to be a criminal consultant for the FBI.

How is Nas and Yara related? Did Yara graduate from Harvard? How much is Yara worth? Is Yara Shahidi black? Where did Yara Shahidi attend school? How much does Yara make? What did Yara do for a living? Who is Yara Shahidi in a relationship with? Is Yara Shahidi married? Who is Yara Shahida dating now? Read till the end of this article for answers to these search queries and more.

Yara Shahidi Profile Summary

Who is Yara Shahidi? About Yara Shahidi

#1. Yara Shahidi is an actress, producer, model, and activist who is famously known for her movie roles in Salt (2010), and as Zoey Johnson in ABC’s Emmy® and Golden Globe®-nominated comedy series Black-ish (2014) and its spin-off Grown-ish (2018).

#2. She is an activist and the principal of 7th Sun Productions, a production company she founded with her mother.

#3. She’s a big fan of the Marvel universe. “I track what Marvel’s doing all day every day. I love the X-Men trilogy, Thor, and Thor 2. It all started when I was in Cleveland and the Avengers cast was staying at the same hotel as I was. They were shooting it in Cleveland, so Chris Hemsworth just came in and went swimming when I was in the hot tub.”

#4. Kerry Washington is her style icon. “I frequently wear things that are far too conservative for a teenager. I’ll roll up with saddle pants and blazers and button-down shirts and oxfords. [Washington] taught me that, as a young actress, not to change you who are or your values or morals for a role, because what’s really authentic is when someone is true to who they are.”

#5. Her first screen test was with Eddie Murphy for 2009’s Imagine That—and she had never heard of him. “It was a ridiculously long audition process—they ended up seeing, like, 3,000 girls. It was the first time I ever met [Murphy] and I didn’t really know who he was—all I knew is that he looked like my uncle. It was nice being 7 years old and not having that pressure.”

#6. The “Grown-ish” star told Fuse’s “White Guy Talk Show” in 2015 that she’s a black belt in karate and even showed off a few of her moves, too.

#7. In the same “Fishing for Answers” series, the actress said that she admires Bassett’s career the most because she’s so multi-faceted.

#8. Prior to her “Black-ish” fame, the actress appeared on two episodes of the long-running show “Scandal” as the younger version of Kerry Washington’s character Olivia Pope. And although she’s definitely become an icon of her own generation, Shahidi told LA Times that Washington who is also one of her style icons reminded her of how important it was to just be herself.

#9. Following up, Shahidi told the reporter, “It’s something so beautiful about being authentically yourself in a world in which you are paid to be somebody else.”

#10. Life truly imitated art for Shahidi because when “Grown-ish” was in the process of being created, it was the exact same time that she had just wrapped up her college application season, according to Clevver News. Within a month of the call, she was shooting the pilot and the rest has been history.

#11. Her Black-ish character is based on someone she knows. “I went to school with [creator] Kenya Barris’s daughter for a year, and I didn’t know that my character was based on her going into it. It’s interesting to compare what I originally thought of Zoey with how she’s developed. All I knew is that she was sassy, technologically advanced, and went to some preppy private school.”

#12. She was accepted into every college she applied to, including Harvard. Although she’s deferred her first year at Harvard to continue her acting career, the Ivy League school isn’t the only school that she got accepted into. She hasn’t revealed all of the schools she considered attending, but she told Seventeen in 2017 that she got accepted into every single college she applied to.

#13. Back in 2016, the then 16-year-old revealed to W Magazine that one of her dream roles would be to play that of a superhero. And although many of today’s actors and actresses may feel the same way, Shahidi’s reasoning is because she’s a huge comic book fan.

#14. She’s a big fan of Marvel Universe. “I am obsessed with Marvel and as somebody who loves the comic books and what they have stood for throughout the years,” she told the publication.

#15. In The Hollywood Reporter’s “Fishing for Answers” digital series, the young activist said that her favorite subject in school was always math. She said AP Calculus, however, was”slightly torturous.”

Before Fame, Early Life, and Family Life

#16. Her full real name is Yara Sayeh Shahidi (Persian: یارا سایه شهیدی‎‎, Persian pronunciation: [jɑːɾɑː sɑːje ʃæhiːdiː]).

#17. On the NPR podcast “Code Switch,” Shahidi described the meaning of her name, Yara Sayeh Shahidi: “the literal translation is: Yara means ‘somebody close to your heart’; Sayeh means ‘shadow’; and my last name, Shahidi, means ‘witness.’ My name means ‘somebody close to your heart shadow witness.'”.

#18. Yara Shahidi was born on February 10, 2000, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

#19. She is 21 years old and will turn 22 years on February 10th, 2022.

#20. Her birth sign is Aquarius.

#21. She stands a height of 5′ 6″ (1.68 m) tall.

#22. She is friends with Rowan Blanchard.

#23. In her free time, Yara loves learning to cook with her Baba (father), baking with her mommy, learning to speak Farsi, traveling with her family, and conducting science experiments (she wants to build a laboratory in her garage one day).

#24. Her father, Afshin Shahidi, is a cinematographer but is quite possibly most noted as a photographer for Prince.

#25. And her mother Keri Shahidi is also an actress, appearing on “American Dad!,” “In the Motherhood,” and more.

#26. Her father is Iranian-American.

#27. Her mother is African-American.

#28. Yara’s half Iranian—and maybe part Viking. Back in 2017, the young actress took to her Instagram to explain how she was a product of her parent’s Black and Iranian love. “We’re Choctaw Native American and African-American—our family originated in Ghana, and then there’s a portion of our family that’s the descendants of Vikings.”

#29. The younger brothers of the actress are Sayeed Shahidi and Ehsan Shahidi.

#30. She’s related to a famous rapper. During the same interview with “White Guy Talk Show,” Shahidi also mentioned that “If I Ruled the World” rapper Nas is her first cousin and how weird it was to realize that he was actually famous.

#31. Yara’s maternal great-grandparents, Ella Mae and Charles Rufus Jones, were Nas’s maternal grandparents. “My momma grew up with him. He got his genealogy done at Harvard and Henry Louis Gates Jr. did his entire family background. I was a flower girl at his wedding.”

#32. Her family members are pretty talented, too. Her younger brothers, Sayeed Shahidi and Ehsan Shahidi are also actors having taken on roles in shows such as “The First Family,” “Uncle Buck,” “Switched at Birth,” “Black-ish,” and “The People v. OJ Simpson: An American Crime Story.”

#33. Her family moved to California because of her father’s line of work.

#34. When she thinks back to what she misses most about Minnesota she will tell you, “the beautiful lakes, Joon Joon, Grampie and Snow”!

#35. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her mother, father, her two younger brothers, and her fish, Cleophus.

#36. Her childhood dream was to be a criminal consultant for the FBI. “That was 7-year-old Yara’s plan, and then I realized I actually liked acting, so I kept auditioning.”

Education

#37. Shahidi graduated with honors from The Dwight School in New York and was accepted to Harvard University where she plans to double major in sociology and African-American studies.

#38. Her favorite subject in school is history–she likes to start every day learning something new.

#39. A lover of Greek mythology, history, and public service, she spends her free time reading classic novels, rock climbing, and traveling with her family.

#40. Yara plans to become a historian, specializing in world history while continuing to pursue her love of acting.

#41. As a young scholar, Shahidi has combined her love for education and empowerment through the formation of “Yara’s Club”, a partnership with The Young Women’s Leadership Schools (TYWLS) in New York. “Yara’s Club” is a bimonthly digital meet-up comprised of high school students that discuss societal issues, self-improvement, and higher education.

#42. A STEM advocate and technology enthusiast, Shahidi served as a spokesperson for DoSomething.Org and 3M’s STEM campaign, which raised funds for classrooms in need of science and technology resources in St. Louis and Minnesota.

#43. Her love for STEM also led her to the Obama White House to participate in STEM initiatives, including the White House Science Fair where she co-hosted several integrations throughout the event.

#44. In addition to academics and service, she has been an advocate for women’s issues, diversity in media, girls’ education, and, most recently, worked with the United Nations Girl Up initiative.

Who is Yara Shahidi in a relationship with? Is Yara currently dating someone?

#45. It doesn’t look like Yara is currently seeing anyone right now and she seems totally cool with that. While she tends to be pretty private about her personal life, she did open up to Seventeen before about why she hasn’t seen anyone yet.

#46. “I haven’t dated anybody. My general outlook is if I don’t have time to take a bath on a regular basis, then I don’t have time for another human,” she told Seventeen. “I love being busy, and I enjoy where I am at right now.”

#47. Yara is 21-years-old, so it’s not surprising to hear that she hasn’t been linked with anyone recently. Even though she hasn’t been romantically linked with anyone, she still feels the love in a lot of other ways.

#48. “I have [been in love]. Platonically. With my family. With my homies, cause they’re the best. I mean, I honestly really do hate to brag, but I have some of the best friends and I think there’s a moment each week in which I remember that and just smile,” she told The Root.

#49. She also revealed that she has never asked out a stranger and she’s never had her heartbroken.

#50. While Yara might not be seeing someone right now, she has been pretty open about what she wants in a partner and a relationship.

#51. “Great taste in music, because I need music recommendations, always. Great taste in podcasts, cause I would also love some podcasts recommendations,” she told The Root. “I think the one that we agree on every time is a similar ethical reasoning and value criteria.”

Career, Movie Roles, Awards and Recognitions

#52. Yara was destined to be an actress since she was a baby. She started her career at just 6 weeks old in a print advertisement for life insurance.

#53. Yara can be seen in such campaigns as McDonald’s, Ralph Lauren, Target, Gap Kids, Disney, Guess Kids, Children’s Place, and Disney, just to name a few.

#54. She frequently has had the opportunity to work with her mother and younger brother in various print and broadcast campaigns.

#55. They can currently be seen in the Tropicana “Squeeze” commercial and print campaigns together.

#56. By age 7, she was already getting offers to star in feature films.

#57. She made her acting debut as Olivia Danielson in the 2009 Eddie Murphy comedy Imagine That, for which she was nominated a Young Artist Award for best performance. She quickly took to the role of the creative and happy-go-lucky daughter to Murphy, bolstering her love of acting. Olivia takes her father, who is an overworked businessman, on a journey through her imaginary world and shows him valuable lessons along the way.

#58. Yara’s next film project is titled “Unthinkable” with Samuel L. Jackson where she and her real-life brother play the children of Samuel L. Jackson’s character.

#59. She later gained even more recognition for her role as Zoey Johnson in the ABC sitcom’s comedy series Black-ish.

#60. She has been awarded an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress and a Gracie Award for Female in a Breakthrough Role from her role in Black-ish.

#61. In 2017, Freeform announced the Black-ish spinoff, Grown-ish, which also stars Shahidi and explores Zoey’s transition into adulthood.

#62. Now, with a series regular part as the angsty daughter in ABC’s Black-ish, and a cameo as young Olivia Pope in Scandal, she’s poised for a plethora of more bookings. In two different series, she has played characters named Chloe Johnson and Zoey Johnson.

#63. Had her first starring role as an adult in The Sun Is Also a Star (2019), as Natasha Kingsley, opposite Charles Melton as Daniel Bae.

#64. Was considered for the role of Kayla in Tom and Jerry (2021).

#65. Received the “Generation Next Award” at the 10th annual Essence Black Women In Hollywood event, February 2017.

#66. For Disney, she voiced Malison in the Miles from Tomorrowland episode “Battle for the Zenith“.

#67. She also played Olive in the Wizards of Waverly Place episode “Doll House“, Maddie in The Fosters, and Young Olivia Pope in Scandal.

#68. She played Tinker Bell in Peter Pan & Wendy.

#69. She’s also appeared in several music videos, continues to top several best-dressed lists, and is constantly using her platform for activism.

#70. She went on to appear in television series such as ABC’s In the Motherhood with Cheryl Hines and Megan Mullally, CBS’ Cold Case, Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place, FOX’s Lie to Me, and The Finder, to name a few. Yara played the daughter of Jessica St. Clair in a new ABC comedy “In The Motherhood,” which debuted on March 26, 2009. She portrayed the sister to her real-life brother, who was also in the TV series as well.

#71. Shahidi also guest-starred on the hit series Scandal as the young Olivia Pope and as Maddie on Freeform’s The Fosters.

#72. Her extensive film roles include Sony Pictures’ Unthinkable, as the daughter of Samuel L. Jackson; Columbia Pictures’ Salt, opposite Angelina Jolie; Summit Entertainment’s Alex Cross, as the daughter of Tyler Perry; and The Weinstein Company film Butter, where she starred opposite Jennifer Garner.

#73. Shahidi has been spotlighted in The New York Times, Variety’s Youth Impact, and Next Big Thing issues, and was named No. 3 on the Celebs to Watch for DoSomething.Org’s 2016 Celebs Gone Good.

#74. Highlighted on TIME Magazine’s annual 30 Most Influential Teens list on behalf of her television contributions and humanitarianism, the standout teen was also awarded the Daily Point of Light Award from the Points of Light organization in Detroit, honored at Essence Magazine’s 10th anniversary Black Women in Hollywood Awards and honored with the BET’s Young Star Award at the 2017 BET Awards.

Personal Quotes

#75. Life is too long NOT to make mistakes!

What is Yara Shahidi’s net worth?

#76. Know Net Worth estimates Yara Shahidi’s net worth to be about $1 million. Keep in mind that Yara is only 19 and working and going to school at the same time. You can probably expect that number to get a lot higher in the next few years.

Yare Shahidi’s social media accounts

#77. Instagram: @yarashahidi

#78. Twitter: @yarashahidi

#79. Facebook: @YareShahidi

#80. Other media: TikTok: @yarashahidi

Website: www.yarashahidi.com