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‘black-ish’ Star Yara Shahidi Dishes On Plans for Spin-Off Now Named ‘Grown-ish’

More details have come to light regarding the Yara Shahidi-led “black-ish” spin-off, including a new title for the Freeform series.

“It’s now called ‘Grown-ish,'” executive producer Kenya Barris tells BlackTree.TV at the “Girls Trip” premiere Thursday, July 13. “We start [in] the writer’s room Monday. Me and Yara have been in casting looking for the best and brightest and newest faces. We have some people we’re really excited about.”

“I’m excited, too,” Shahidi adds.

Initially announced in January with a pilot airing as an episode of its parent sitcom, Variety reported the 13-episode series will focus on Shahidi’s Zoey as she ventures to college and discovers not everything will go the way she wants. Set to premiere in 2018, “Grown-ish” will see Deon Cole as his “black-ish” character, Charlie, who moonlights as an adjunct professor. No other characters will be series regulars, but Zoey’s parents, played by Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, will make appearances, Shadow and Act reported.

Zoey’s college attendance coincides with Shahidi being accepted into Harvard but that’s where their similarities end.

“Zoey and I are very different people and so I’m respecting that,” Shahidi told Entertainment Tonight in June. “I hope that we just see growth from her. I know there are moments in which her inner Yara comes out and there are moments in which my inner Zoey comes out.”

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