Yara Sayeh Shahidi (Persian pronunciation: ) (born February 10, 2000) is an Iranian-American and African-American actress and model, best known for playing Zoey on the sitcom Black-ish.
Shahidi was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to a mixed African-American and Native Choctaw mother, Keri Salter Shahidi, and an Iranian-American father, Afshin Shahidi. Her father is a photographer. The family moved to California for Afshin's work, when Yara was 4. She is the older sister of child actor and model Sayeed Shahidi and a second cousin to rapper Nas. Keri Shahidi in a 2016 interview with Star Tribune claimed that the name Yara translates to "someone who is close to your heart" in Persian.