Juliana Jay Harkavy (born January 1, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for portraying Rebecca in ''

Dolphin Tale ''Dolphin Tale'' is a 2011 American 3D family drama film directed by Charles Martin Smith, from a screenplay by Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi and a book of the same name. It stars Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Nathan Gamble, Kris Kristofferson, ...

'', Jessie in ''

To Write Love on her Arms To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is an American nonprofit organization that aims to present hope for people struggling with addiction, depression, self-injury and thoughts of suicide, while also investing in treatment and recovery. Based in M ...

'', and Alisha in the television series '' The Walking Dead''. Her roles include a starring role in the horror film '' Last Shift'', and a reprise of her role as Rebecca in ''

Dolphin Tale 2 ''Dolphin Tale 2'' is a 2014 American family film written and directed by Charles Martin Smith as the sequel to his 2011 film ''Dolphin Tale'' which in-turn was based on the true story about a rescued bottlenose dolphin named Winter who made her f ...

''. She was a series regular on

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

superhero series ''

Arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

'', portraying Dinah Drake / Black Canary.

Early life

Harkavy was born in New York City. She is the daughter of Berta Carela, an immigrant from the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

and Michael Harkavy, who is the former Senior Vice president of

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Entertainment Worldwide Publishing,

Kids' WB Kids' WB (stylized as Kids' WB!) was an American children's programming service and brand of The WB that aired on the network from September 9, 1995, to September 16, 2006. The block moved to The CW (a result of the merger of Time Warner's The W ...

Music, and

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE; also known as Warner Bros. Games or WB Games) is an American video game publisher based in Burbank, California, and part of the newly-formed Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment unit of ...

. Her professional acting career began when she was 10 years old. Harkavy has described herself as "a Dominican

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

". Harkavy trained at the

Young Actors Space Young Actors Space (YAS) was established in 1979 by Diane Hill Hardin and Nora Eckstein in Los Angeles. This team was the first in the entertainment industry to establish a performing arts academy for young, working and aspiring actors. It is well ...

Sherman Oaks, California Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...

, for nine years. She attended her first year of high school at Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles, where she became fluent in French, and did part of her schooling in the South of France. She earned her high school diploma from the

Milken Community High School Milken Community School (originally Milken Community Schools, colloquially Milken) is a private Jewish high school and middle school. It is located on Mulholland Drive in the Bel Air area of Los Angeles, California. It is one of the largest ...

in Los Angeles, California.After high school, Harkavy attended The

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, where she majored in Theater in the Sanford Meisner studio.

Career

Harkavy's first acting job was at age 10 in a commercial for the

Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's block programming, programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channel ...

series ''

Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror fiction novels by American author R. L. Stine, published by Scholastic Publishing. The protagonists in these stories are tweens or young teens who find themselves in scary circumstances usually i ...

'', based on the popular horror-book series. Her first role in a major motion picture was an uncredited role in the 1995 version of ''

A Little Princess ''A Little Princess'' is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published as a book in 1905. It is an expanded version of the short story "Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's", which was serialized in ''St. Nicholas Ma ...

'', directed by

Alfonso Cuarón Alfonso Cuarón Orozco ( , ; born 28 November 1961) is a Mexican filmmaker. He is known for directing films in a variety of genres including the family drama ''A Little Princess (1995 film), A Little Princess'' (1995), the romantic drama ''Gre ...

. Harkavy starred in the 2011 film ''If You Only Knew'' about early-onset

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

. She stars as Jessica Loren in the

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

'' Last Shift''. Harkavy starred in the 2010 short film ''

Whatever Lola Wants "Whatever Lola Wants" is a popular song, sometimes rendered as "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets". The music and words were written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross for the 1955 musical play ''Damn Yankees''. The song is sung to Joe Hardy by Lola, ...

''. Nominated for a Best Actress Award at the 2011

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

Canes Film Festival Harkavy is the star in the short film ''The Lost Doll'' directed by James Walhberg. Harkavy plays Alisha, a survivor involved with the Governor on '' The Walking Dead''. She appeared in two episodes: "Dead Weight" and "Too Far Gone". In 2016 she was cast in the fifth season of the CW show ''

'', in the recurring role of Detective Tina Boland, whose true name is revealed to be

Dinah Drake Black Canary (Dinah Drake) is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by the writer-artist team of Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, the character debuted in ''Flash Comics'' #86 (August 1947) as ...

, acting as the new

Black Canary The Black Canary is the name of two superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics: Dinah Drake and her daughter Dinah Laurel Lance. The original version was created by the writer-artist team of Robert Kanigher and ...

. She was promoted to series regular for the show's sixth season, which began airing in the fall of 2017.

Personal life

She has lived in New York, New Mexico, New Jersey, California, Florida, and France. On June 13, 2020, Harkavy announced that she was engaged to professional

Setar A setar ( fa, سه‌تار, ) is a stringed instrument, a type of lute used in Persian traditional music, played solo or accompanying voice. It is a member of the tanbur family of long-necked lutes with a range of more than two and a half octa ...

player Alexander Meimand. They married on October 10, 2021.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harkavy, Juliana 1985 births 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Actresses from New York City American child actresses American film actresses American television actresses American people of African descent American actresses of Chinese descent American people of Dominican Republic descent American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American Ashkenazi Jews Living people Tisch School of the Arts alumni