Most actors would be thrilled to lead one major franchise. Leah Sava Jeffries is leading two — at 17.
Jeffries, born September 25, 2009, stars as Annabeth Chase in Disney+'s Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Season 2 is here, Season 3 is on the way, and Annabeth is not a side character. She's a hero in her own right: smart, brave, loyal, and central to every quest. Jeffries has won multiple NAACP Image Awards for the role, and it's easy to see why. She plays Annabeth with confidence, not as someone trying to live up to a beloved book character, but as someone who is that character on screen.
Then, in July 2026, Disney announced something that made the news even bigger: Jeffries was cast as Faith, Galleria's daughter, in Disney+'s The Cheetah Girls: Next Gen, now in production in South Africa alongside returning stars Raven-Symoné and Adrienne Bailon.
Think about that for a second. One franchise is fantasy, quests, and Greek gods. The other is music, friendship, and a legacy that a whole generation grew up singing along to. Jeffries is carrying both, at the same time, while she's still in her teens.
Her casting as Annabeth also comes with a story worth remembering. When she was first cast, author Rick Riordan publicly defended her casting — a reminder that representation isn't just a talking point, it's a choice that creators stand behind, and that young Black actresses deserve to be seen as heroes in stories this big. For ALREADY! readers, Jeffries is proof that you don't have to pick one lane. You can be the warrior and the singer, the returning hero and the next generation, all at once. She isn't waiting for her moment. She's living in two of them.
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