Leah Jeffries has been working as an actress since she was five years old.
With the launch of the series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” on Disney+, actress Leah Jeffries has risen to international stardom. She plays Annabeth Chase, one of the beloved characters from Rick Riordan’s books. She was hand-picked by the author, by the way.
Leah Jeffries is from Michigan and is 14 at the time of the series premiere – the same age as the protagonist Walker Scobbel. The younger sister of actor and model Floyd Jeffries, she grew up in this environment and worked as a model for children’s products from an early age.
Leah Jeffries’ first acting job came when she was just five years old – before she was literate. She played Lola in six episodes of the TV series “Empire” (2015-2026). She then played Fiona in the TV movie “In the Crosshairs of Faith” (2018) and three characters in the Fox TV series “Rel” (2018-2019).
Leah Jeffries in “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” (Photo: Disclosure / Disney+)
Big break with “Percy Jackson” vs. racist attacks
Leah Jeffries had a series of small characters in movies while growing up, appearing in the films “PupParazzi” (2019), “The Beast” (2022) and “A Gift from Tiffany” (2022). But “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is her first major role. Annabeth is one of the main characters in the story.
When she was cast, the teenager was 12 years old and had to deal with racist hate attacks on the Internet. Her casting was hotly contested because, in the books, Annabeth is white. In response, Lisa recorded a video and declared:
“For those of you who are hating, stop it. I know you think it’s going to hurt me. It won’t. You’re just wasting your time. I’m still confident. Everyone else is confident. Everyone else is happy for me. So don’t try to bring me down. It won’t work.