Shalita Grant

Tony-nominated actress Shalita Grant's success on the New York stage was quickly followed by her rising star in television as a cast member of the procedural drama "NCIS: New Orleans" (CBS, 2014-). Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Grant made her screen debut in the Oscar-nominated documentary "Rehearsing for a Dream" (2006), which followed her and other aspiring high school-age performers at a weeklong acting camp sponsored by the American Foundation For Advancement in the Arts. She continued to pursue her dream of becoming an actress at Julliard, from which she graduated in 2010; the following year, she made her New York stage debut in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of "The Merchant of Venice" with Al Pacino. Grant worked primarily in Off-Broadway theater before earning her Broadway debut in playwright Christopher Durang's "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" (2013) with Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde-Pierce. Her turn as a clairvoyant cleaning woman earned her a Tony nomination, which was soon followed by guest roles on television series like "Bones" (Fox, 2005-). In 2015, she landed a recurring role on "NCIS: New Orleans" as Sonja Pearcy, a former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent who aided the team in their pursuit of the criminal Paul Jenks, known as "Baitfish." Grant's character was promoted to a series regular at the launch of the show's second season; while serving duty with "NCIS," Grant was also cast as a fomer slave in the historical miniseries "Mercy Street" (2016-17), produced by Ridley Scott for PBS.