Leah Sava Jeffries

The Leap from Detroit

Leah Sava Jeffries joined the cast of Empire at just five years old. She didn't need to attend prestigious acting schools because she learned the craft right under the spotlights of Fox in 2015. Her family managed her first steps in Michigan advertising, but her leap to national television was immediate.

That first role as Lola Lyon gave her the chance to work with veteran actors. It was a blunt, direct introduction to the entertainment industry. But Jeffries didn't get stuck in musical drama; she explored other styles in TV comedy.

The talent was there.

In 2018, she joined the cast of the series Rel, playing Brittany. There, she showed she could handle the rhythm of sitcom comedy in front of a live audience. That shoot taught her that the camera calls for a different kind of energy depending on the genre of the project.

Surviving the Savanna

The real trial by fire came in 2022 with the feature film Beast. Jeffries traveled to South Africa to shoot a pure survival story alongside Idris Elba. The production was demanding, and the climate of the Limpopo region pushed the physical endurance of the entire crew to the limit.

In this movie, she played Norah Samuels. She had to shoot real action scenes and face complex visual effects, where the enemy was a computer-generated lion. The film grossed 59 million dollars at the global box office and helped casting directors at major platforms take notice of her name.

That same year she appeared in the romantic comedy Something from Tiffany’s for Amazon Prime Video. It was a supporting role, but an important one that kept her presence in the industry while she waited for a bigger opportunity. And that opportunity came with a call from Disney.

It was a risky bet.

Annabeth Chase's Storm

In May 2022, Rick Riordan announced that Jeffries would play Annabeth Chase in the adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The decision sparked a deafening uproar on social media over the physical change compared with the descriptions in the original books. But the author of the novels defended the choice based solely on Leah's acting ability.

Filming for the first season stretched over nearly a year in Vancouver. Jeffries had to learn sword combat choreography and work with high-tech LED screens (StageCraft technology). Her performance earned critical praise following the December 2023 premiere.

The series racked up millions of viewing hours in its first weeks. Audience data confirmed that young viewers embraced the characters' new look. As a result, the production of the second season automatically received the green light to adapt the book The Sea of Monsters.

Filming for these new episodes began in August 2024, with a budget exceeding 12 million dollars per episode.