Shalita Grant (born August 28, 1988) is an American actress best known for portraying NCIS Special Agent Sonja Percy on '' NCIS: New Orleans.'' She is also known from her roles on ''

Mercy Street "Mercy Street" is a song written by English musician Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album '' So''. Background and recording The song was inspired by the personal and confessional works of the American poet Anne Sexton, who wrote a play titled '' ...

You In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from the Proto- ...

Santa Clarita Diet ''Santa Clarita Diet'' is an American horror-comedy streaming television series created by Victor Fresco for the streaming service Netflix, starring Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant. Fresco serves as the showrunner, and is an executive pr ...

,'' and '' Search Party.''

Early life and education

Grant was born in

Petersburg, Virginia Petersburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Econ ...

. She attended

Appomattox Regional Governor's School For the Arts and Technology The Appomattox Regional Governor's School for the Arts And Technology (locally and colloquially sometimes known as ARGS, Appomattox, or the Governor's School) is a public regional magnet high school in downtown Petersburg, Virginia, United State ...

for a year before transferring to the

Baltimore School for the Arts The Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) is a public performing arts high school located in Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Maryland, United States and is part of the Baltimore City Public Schools system. Established in 1979, The Baltimore School for the ...

in Maryland, where she was a YoungArts Winner in Theater and Presidential Scholar in the Arts. At 17, she received a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

to attend the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

. In 2010, she graduated from Juilliard with a B.F.A. in Drama.

Career

Stage

Grant's earlier theater work includes The Public Theater's 2010 productions of '' Measure for Measure'', ''

The Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some crit ...

'', and ''

The Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Although classified as ...

.'' Grant originated the role of Cassandra in

Christopher Durang Christopher Ferdinand Durang (born January 2, 1949) is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in the late 1990s. ...

's comedy ''

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike ''Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike'' is a comedy play written by Christopher Durang. The story revolves around the relationships of three middle-aged single siblings, two of whom live together, and takes place during a visit by the third, ...

'' since the beginning of the show's development as a one-act play. She performed alongside

Sigourney Weaver Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gramm ...

David Hyde Pierce David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor and director of stage, film and television. He starred as psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Frasier'' from 1993 to 2004, and won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Scree ...

Kristine Nielsen Kristine E. Nielsen (born May 28, 1955) is an American actress known for her work on Broadway and Off-Broadway. Nielsen was nominated for the 2013 Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for her performance as Sonia in ''Vanya and Sonia and Ma ...

Genevieve Angelson Genevieve Rose Angelson is an American actress, best-known for playing Indigo on '' The Afterparty'', Patti Robinson on ''Good Girls Revolt'', and Ruth on '' Flack''. Early life and education Angelson was born in New York City to lawyer and busin ...

, and

Billy Magnussen William Gregory Magnussen (born April 20, 1985) is an American actor. He has been featured in the films ''Into the Woods'' (2014), ''Birth of the Dragon'' (2016), '' Game Night'' (2018), and ''Aladdin'' (2019), and has had supporting television r ...

in the world-premiere at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ from September to October 2012 before moving to the

Lincoln Center Theatre The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a Broadway theater in the Lincoln Center complex at 150 West 65th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Operated by the nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater (LCT), the Beaumont is the only Broad ...

in an off-Broadway run October 2012 to January 2013. The show's success continued with a Broadway run and Grant's Broadway debut March through August 2013. In 2012, she appeared in '' The Philanderer'' for the off-Broadway Pearl Theatre Company and the world-premiere of Kirsten Greenidge's play ''Luck of the Irish'' at the

Huntington Theatre Company The Huntington Theatre Company is a professional theatre located in Boston, Massachusetts and the recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, under the direction of Managing Director Michael Maso. It is notable for its longstanding artist ...

. Grant was nominated for a

Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play The Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actresses for quality supporting roles in a Broadway play. Th ...

in 2013 for her performance as Cassandra in the comedy ''

''. The play won the

Tony Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

for Best Play as well as the

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions. The award was initially introduced in 1955 as the Ver ...

. She also won the 2013 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. She returned to The Public Theater in 2017 for the

Shakespeare in the Park Shakespeare in the Park is a term for outdoor festivals featuring productions of William Shakespeare's plays. The term originated with the New York Shakespeare Festival in New York City's Central Park, originally created by Joseph Papp. This c ...

production of '' A Midsummer Night's Dream''.

Film

Her film credits include shorts ''Empire Corner'' (2010), ''Invisible'' (2010), and the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

-nominated short documentary, '' Rehearsing a Dream'' (2006).

Television

Following her Tony Award nomination, Grant moved to Los Angeles to pursue television where she fondly recalls her struggles in auditioning 54 times within one year for various roles and, at one point, while running out of savings, briefly turned to bartending before landing a series regular role on '' NCIS: New Orleans'' in 2015. After she departed ''NCIS: New Orleans'' in 2018, she was cast in the recurring role of FBI Agent Tess Rogers on the third season of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

horror-comedy series ''

''. In 2020, Grant recurred on the third season of

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

's ''Search Party'' in the role of first-time, in over-her-head attorney Cassidy. In October 2020, it was announced that Grant had been cast in the main role of Sherry Conrad on the third season of the Netflix thriller series ''

''.

Personal life

On August 8, 2018, Grant married commercial director Sabrina Skau in San Francisco, CA. They later divorced. Since 2020, she has been in a relationship with MMA fighter

Jessica Aguilar Jessica Aguilar (born May 8, 1982) is a Mexican-American mixed martial artist who competes in RIZIN. At the time of her voluntary departure from World Series of Fighting, she was the reigning WSOF Women's Strawweight Champion. Aguilar previously ...

Awards and nominations

* 2013 - Tony Award, Best Featured Actress in a Play (Nomination), ''

'' * 2013 -

Theatre World Award The Theatre World Award is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or Off-Broadway. It was first awarded for the 1945–1946 theatre se ...

, Outstanding Broadway Debut

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Shalita 1988 births 21st-century American actresses African-American actresses American lesbian actresses American television actresses Living people Place of birth missing (living people) People from Petersburg, Virginia Actresses from Virginia Juilliard School alumni LGBT African Americans LGBT people from Virginia Theatre World Award winners 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women