--- title: Yara Shahidi, Parents Keri and Afshin Shahidi Talk Family description: Watch Yara Shahidi and her parents, Keri and Afshin Shahidi, discuss growing up and raising a daughter in Hollywood. canonical: https://time.com/collections/the-influencers/5041021/yara-shahidi-afshin-shahidi-keri-shahidi/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-29T19:25:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:23:52.379Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Yara Shahidi and Her Parents on Growing Up in Hollywood and Yara's Hopes for Harvard og:description: In a video conversation for TIME Influencers og:url: https://time.com/collections/the-influencers/5041021/yara-shahidi-afshin-shahidi-keri-shahidi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b82e33a93a061d5/6988e74d4ee26249db30fefa/yara-shahidi-family.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Yara Shahidi and Her Parents on Growing Up in Hollywood and Yara's Hopes for Harvard og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Yara Shahidi and Her Parents on Growing Up in Hollywood and Yara's Hopes for Harvard twitter:description: In a video conversation for TIME Influencers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b82e33a93a061d5/6988e74d4ee26249db30fefa/yara-shahidi-family.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 29, 2017 # The Family Shahidi by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Steven Baffo for Time When actor [Yara Shahidi](http://time.com/5003930/most-influential-teens-2017/) turned 16, her parents were informed that they no longer had to supervise her on the set of the ABC sitcom [_Black-ish_](http://time.com/3534219/review-blackish-spanking/), on which she has starred since age 14\. Her mother Keri Shahidi wasn’t having it. “For us to provide you with a happy, healthy, well-rounded human being, this is what we do,” she remembers responding. The whole endeavor has been a family effort, and all three Shahidis—Yara, Keri and father Afshin Shahidi—sat down with TIME to talk about how they work as a team to support Yara in Hollywood, their response to sexual harassment within the industry and Yara’s forthcoming transition into a new role: [college student](http://motto.time.com/4736440/yara-shahidi-college-acceptances-michelle-obama/) at Harvard. “Our entire family made an investment in me joining the _Black-ish_ family,” says Yara, who plays Zoey Johnson on the sitcom. A new spinoff, _Grown-ish_, will follow her character to campus next year—the same year the actor will start her own college education. “While I’m hoping that when I get to Harvard I can be like, ‘episode three, scene 27, I’ve been through this,’ I also know there are a lot of moves Zoey has made that Yara’s not planning on making,” she jokes. “I’m only excited for what’s to come, because so much is happening in all of our lives right now.” —Lucy Feldman ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-influencers/5041021/yara-shahidi-afshin-shahidi-keri-shahidi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-influencers/5041021/yara-shahidi-afshin-shahidi-keri-shahidi/"},"headline":"Yara Shahidi and Her Parents on Growing Up in Hollywood and Yara's Hopes for Harvard","datePublished":"2017-11-29T19:25:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:23:52.379Z","description":"Watch Yara Shahidi and her parents, Keri and Afshin Shahidi, discuss growing up and raising a daughter in Hollywood.","url":"https://time.com/collections/the-influencers/5041021/yara-shahidi-afshin-shahidi-keri-shahidi/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b82e33a93a061d5/6988e74d4ee26249db30fefa/yara-shahidi-family.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b82e33a93a061d5/6988e74d4ee26249db30fefa/yara-shahidi-family.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-influencers/5041021/yara-shahidi-afshin-shahidi-keri-shahidi/","name":"Yara Shahidi and Her Parents on Growing Up in Hollywood and Yara's Hopes for Harvard"}}]}] ```