Who is Shahadi Wright Joseph? Meet the horror warrior in Jordan Peele’s Us
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- She has been in show business since the age of two, and will reprise her role in the upcoming new Lion King
Shahadi Wright Joseph is usually seen singing, but in director Jordan Peele’s new horror film Us, it’s her silence that’s golden – and freaky, too.
The teenage actress, singer and dancer plays Zora Wilson, part of a family whose holiday is ruined by the appearance of their evil jumpsuit-wearing doppelgängers. But she also plays Umbrae, the resident daughter of the malevolent clan called “The Tethered,” whose murderous goal is for the Wilsons to meet the business end of their golden scissors. And while the eerie Umbrae doesn’t say anything, her frightening grin is all the talking she needs to do.
It’s a breakthrough performance for Wright Joseph, who turns 14 next month and played little dance machine Inez Stubbs opposite Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande in NBC’s Hairspray Live! in 2016.
Here’s what else you need to know about the up and coming youngster:
She’s wicked with a putter.
Her Zora is a girl who’s more interested in her iPhone than family time until the Tethered show up, and then she turns into a warrior, first taking on a pursuing Umbrae and later picking up a golf club to attack lookalike versions of the Wilsons’ close friends. “Both Jordan and I were so excited for that,” Wright Joseph says. “There was a lot of pressure because I had to make sure not to hurt anybody.”