Leah Sava Jeffries is an American actress and former child model who became a household name among fantasy fans when Disney+ cast her as Annabeth Chase in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Born in Detroit in 2009, she debuted on screen at five on Fox’s Empire, held her own opposite Idris Elba in Beast (2022), and has since collected three NAACP Image Awards as the daughter of Athena. Her casting as Annabeth also put her at the centre of one of the most talked-about casting debates in modern fantasy television — a debate the books’ own author, Rick Riordan, shut down in her defence.
This Leah Sava Jeffries biography covers the full, fact-checked picture: her age and birthday, her parents and brother, how a five-year-old from Michigan landed a Fox drama, the true story behind the Annabeth casting backlash, her awards, her films beyond Camp Half-Blood, and — honestly — what is and is not known about her net worth. A detailed account of her filmography is maintained on Wikipedia.
Who Is Leah Sava Jeffries?
Leah Sava Jeffries (pronounced “sah-VAY”) is an American actress and model on an upward curve since she was five. She is best known for playing Annabeth Chase — the brave daughter of Athena and Percy Jackson’s ally — in Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the adaptation of Rick Riordan’s bestselling fantasy novels. Before that, she played Lola Lyon on Empire, Brandi on the sitcom Rel, and Idris Elba’s daughter Norah Samuels in Beast.
| Full name | Leah Sava Jeffries |
| Born | 25 September 2009, Detroit, Michigan, USA |
| Age | 17 (as of October 2026) |
| Parents | Leah Jeffries and Floyd S. Jeffries Jr. |
| Siblings | Older brother Floyd Jeffries (actor and model) |
| Occupation | Actress and model |
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Famous for | Annabeth Chase in Percy Jackson and the Olympians |
How Old Is Leah Sava Jeffries?
Leah Sava Jeffries was born on 25 September 2009, making her 17 years old in 2026. Consider what that means: she booked her first television role at five, was announced as Annabeth Chase at twelve, and carried a major Disney+ fantasy series through her mid-teens — winning three NAACP Image Awards before she could legally vote. Her zodiac sign is Libra.
Early Life and Childhood in Detroit
Jeffries was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and attended school in the Novi Community School District in the city’s suburbs. Theirs was a creative household, and by the time Leah was four she was already working in front of a camera — as a children’s product model for the beauty brand Carol’s Daughter, appearing in advertising aimed at kids. Those early jobs taught her to take direction and stay comfortable on shoots — an ease casting directors noticed.
Leah Sava Jeffries’ Parents
Leah is the daughter of Leah Jeffries and Floyd S. Jeffries Jr. Her mother is an entrepreneur and producer who founded LeeJeff Production in 2017, and a known radio personality in Detroit, where she hosted shows on the 910AM Superstation. Her father, Floyd S. Jeffries Jr., works as a production manager at a nationwide manufacturer. Her parents have supported her career from the start, travelling with her to auditions and sets — support that clearly mattered when she faced online hostility at twelve.
Her Older Brother, Floyd Jeffries
Leah has one sibling: an older brother, Floyd Jeffries, who is also an actor and model. Floyd has pursued his own creative path as an actor, songwriter and creative director, and often joins his sister at industry events and red carpets. The two remain close — entertainment, with their mother’s production background, is very much a family business.
Modelling Before Acting
Before she ever spoke scripted dialogue, Jeffries worked as a model for children’s products. A 2015 Detroit Free Press profile reported that she began modelling before her fifth birthday, appearing in advertisements for Carol’s Daughter. The work put her in front of professional photographers and directors while she was still in nursery school. It was a short hop from stills to screen: at five, she auditioned for Empire — and got it.
Acting Debut on Empire (2015)
Jeffries made her acting debut at age five as Lola Lyon on Fox’s hit musical drama Empire, appearing in six episodes across the 2015–2016 seasons. Empire was a genuine cultural phenomenon, and a five-year-old holding her own in its high-drama world turned heads. The role proved she could do more than model — she could act. Casting directors remembered, and the jobs kept coming.
Feature Film Debut: Beast (2022)
Jeffries made her feature film debut in August 2022 in Beast, the survival thriller starring Idris Elba as a widowed father protecting his two daughters from a rogue lion in South Africa. Jeffries played Norah Samuels, the younger daughter, in a performance that required long stretches of genuine terror opposite one of the industry’s most commanding screen presences. Then twelve, she won praise for holding her own — and returned to Metro Detroit that August to host a hometown screening. Sharing the screen with Elba gave her exactly the big-studio credibility that makes casting directors take a young actor seriously for franchise work.
Rel, PawParazzi and Something from Tiffany’s
Between Empire and Beast, Jeffries built a steady résumé: Fiona in the 2018 television film Faith Under Fire, Brandi in 11 episodes of the Fox sitcom Rel (2018–2019), and Monique in the 2019 family film PawParazzi. Later in 2022 she added a very different credit: Daisy Greene in Amazon’s holiday romantic comedy Something from Tiffany’s. The role showed she could handle light, warm material as well as survival-thriller intensity — range that mattered when the biggest audition of her young life arrived.
Cast as Annabeth Chase in Percy Jackson and the Olympians
On 5 May 2022, Variety broke the news exclusively: Leah Sava Jeffries had been cast as Annabeth Chase in Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, joining Walker Scobell as Percy and Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood to complete the show’s central trio. She was twelve.
The Disney+ series — developed with Rick Riordan himself as a co-creator — was designed as the faithful adaptation fans had wanted for years. Jeffries won the role in a competitive audition process in which, Riordan later explained, the production sought the actors who could best embody the characters’ personalities, with physical appearance treated as secondary.
The Casting Backlash and Rick Riordan’s Defence
The announcement drew an immediate wave of online harassment. Because Jeffries is Black and Annabeth is described as white in the books, a vocal minority attacked the casting — and, inexcusably, a twelve-year-old child. The harassment was severe enough that her TikTok account was mass-reported and deactivated; TikTok later said the takedown was due to its minimum-age policy of 13, but the pile-on was widely documented.
Five days later, on 10 May 2022, Riordan published his now-famous blog post, “Leah Jeffries is Annabeth”, condemning the backlash unequivocally: critics were judging her “solely and exclusively on how she looks”, bullying a child online was “inexcusably wrong”, and anyone dismissing her was ignoring “years of hard work honing her craft, her talent, her tenacity, her focus, her screen presence.” As NPR reported at the time, he argued fans denouncing the casting had missed the series’ core message — that difference is strength.
Support poured in. Alexandra Daddario, who played Annabeth in the earlier film adaptations, posted in Jeffries’ defence, and fans rallied around #LeahIsOurAnnabeth. When the series premiered in December 2023, her performance settled the argument: her Annabeth was widely praised as the heart of the show.
Season 1 Success: A Breakout Fantasy Star
Percy Jackson and the Olympians premiered on Disney+ in December 2023 to strong reviews, adapting The Lightning Thief. Jeffries’ Annabeth — sharp, loyal, quietly fierce — quickly became a fan favourite, and her chemistry with Scobell and Simhadri delivered the trio dynamic the books are famous for. She went from promising child actor to the face of one of Disney+’s flagship fantasy franchises — the kind of franchise stardom that, as our Jeremy Renner net worth profile shows, can define an actor’s career for a decade. The role also carried cultural weight: a generation of young Black girls saw themselves in a heroine the books had never pictured that way — exactly as Riordan had predicted.
Season 2: The Sea of Monsters
The second season, adapting The Sea of Monsters, premiered on Disney+ on 10 December 2025, with episodes released weekly through January 2026. The quest for the Golden Fleece, the threat of Kronos and the arrival of Percy’s cyclops half-brother Tyson raised the stakes — and gave Annabeth an even more central role as the quest’s strategist. As Inverse noted, the season pushed the series into darker, more action-driven territory. In interviews, Jeffries spoke thoughtfully about Annabeth’s growth: braver, but more willing to lean on her friends — growth that mirrored her own as a young actor carrying a major production through her teens.
What’s Next: Season 3 and The Cheetah Girls: Next Gen
A third season, adapting The Titan’s Curse, is in production. Book readers will know Annabeth’s storyline is more limited in that instalment — Jeffries herself has acknowledged she has a smaller part this time — but the season is expected to be the series’ darkest chapter yet.
Beyond Camp Half-Blood, Jeffries has lined up her next Disney project: The Cheetah Girls: Next Gen, a television film set for 2027 in which she plays Faith, with Raven-Symoné and original cast members returning, as Variety reported in July 2026. A beloved Disney Channel property, a new character of her own, and a bridge from child stardom to the next phase of her career.
Awards and Nominations
Jeffries’ trophy shelf is already remarkable for a teenager. Her Annabeth has won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance by a Youth (Series, Special, Television Movie or Limited-Series) three years running — 2024, 2025 and 2026 — putting her among the most decorated young performers in the award’s history.
- NAACP Image Awards — Outstanding Performance by a Youth: won 2024, won 2025, won 2026
- Children’s & Family Emmy Awards — Outstanding Younger Performer: nominated 2025
- BET Awards — BET YoungStars Award: nominated 2024
- Séries em Cena Awards — Best Actress in an International Series: nominated 2024
Three NAACP wins before eighteen is the kind of record that follows an actor for life — and, as with other young award-season standouts covered in our Emmy Russell profile, it usually signals bigger roles ahead.
Leah Sava Jeffries Net Worth: The Honest Answer
Here is the honest answer: no credible, authoritative source has published a verified net worth figure for Leah Sava Jeffries. You will find numbers — typically in the high six figures — on low-authority biography aggregator sites, but none cite a source, and this site does not repeat unsourced guesses as fact.
What is verifiable is the shape of her earning career: working consistently since 2014, a recurring role on Empire, an 11-episode sitcom run on Rel, a studio feature opposite Idris Elba in Beast, an Amazon holiday film, and — most significantly — a lead role across multiple seasons of a flagship Disney+ series, plus award-season recognition that strengthens her negotiating power with every renewal. But until a reputable outlet publishes a sourced figure, any number attached to her name is speculation — and the title of this article promises a biography, not a fabricated fortune.
What’s Next for Leah Sava Jeffries
At seventeen, Jeffries is at the classic crossroads for a former child star — except she is navigating it with three NAACP Image Awards, a fiercely loyal fanbase, and the public backing of one of the world’s most successful children’s authors. The immediate future is Percy Jackson season 3 and The Cheetah Girls: Next Gen; the longer question is what she does with the dramatic range she showed in Beast.
If her trajectory so far is any guide — from a five-year-old scene-stealer on Empire to the moral centre of a Disney+ epic — the smart money is on Jeffries becoming one of the defining young actresses of her generation. Like other teenage breakouts chronicled in our Alabama Barker biography, she grew up in public; unlike most, she did it while carrying a franchise on her shoulders.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Leah Sava Jeffries’ full name?
Her full name is Leah Sava Jeffries. Her first name is pronounced “LAY-uh” and her middle name “sah-VAY”. She is professionally credited as Leah Jeffries or Leah Sava Jeffries.
How old is Leah Sava Jeffries?
Leah Sava Jeffries was born on 25 September 2009 in Detroit, Michigan, which makes her 17 years old as of October 2026.
Who are Leah Sava Jeffries’ parents?
Her parents are Leah Jeffries and Floyd S. Jeffries Jr. Her mother is an entrepreneur and producer who founded LeeJeff Production and worked as a Detroit radio host; her father is a production manager.
Where is Leah Sava Jeffries from?
She is from Detroit, Michigan, USA, and attended school in the Novi Community School District in the Detroit suburbs.
How did Leah Sava Jeffries get cast as Annabeth Chase?
She was announced as Annabeth Chase on 5 May 2022 after a competitive audition process for Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Author Rick Riordan, a co-creator of the series, said the production sought actors who best embodied the characters’ personalities, with physical appearance treated as secondary.
Why was Leah Sava Jeffries’ casting as Annabeth controversial?
Some fans objected because Annabeth is described as white in the books while Jeffries is Black, and the twelve-year-old actress faced online harassment. Author Rick Riordan publicly condemned the backlash in a 10 May 2022 blog post, calling the bullying of a child “inexcusably wrong”, and she received widespread support including from Alexandra Daddario and the #LeahIsOurAnnabeth campaign.
What movies and TV shows has Leah Sava Jeffries been in?
Her credits include Empire (Lola Lyon, 2015–2016), Faith Under Fire (2018), Rel (Brandi, 2018–2019), PawParazzi (2019), Beast (Norah Samuels, 2022), Something from Tiffany’s (Daisy Greene, 2022) and Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Annabeth Chase, 2023–present).
Has Leah Sava Jeffries won any awards?
Yes. She has won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance by a Youth three times (2024, 2025 and 2026) for Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and has been nominated for a Children’s & Family Emmy, a BET YoungStars Award and a Séries em Cena Award.
What is Leah Sava Jeffries’ net worth?
No credible, authoritative source has published a verified net worth figure for Leah Sava Jeffries. Figures quoted on low-authority biography sites are unsourced estimates, so this article does not repeat them as fact.
What is Leah Sava Jeffries doing next?
She is filming season 3 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which adapts The Titan’s Curse, and is set to play Faith in the Disney television film The Cheetah Girls: Next Gen, scheduled for 2027.
