Biography

Yaya DaCosta was born and raised in New York City along with her sister and two brothers. She got her first acting gig at the age of eleven when her junior high school drama teacher, Ann Willis Ratray, encouraged her to audition for educational films. She continued to perform in school shows throughout high school and college and in 2005, She was the runner-up in Cycle 3 of America's Next Top Model made her feature film debut in Take the Lead. In 2008, she made her Off-Broadway debut in "The First Breeze of Summer" at The Signature Theater, for which she garnered rave reviews and won the Vivian Robinson/AUDELCO Recognition Award for Excellence in Black Theater. She has portrayed a range of characters, from Danny Glover's frail teenage daughter in John Sayles' Honeydripper, to Mark Ruffalo's voluptuous lover in Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right. She has been tagged one of Hollywood's new "it girls" by many, including Lynn Hirschberg who featured her on the cover of W Magazine in September, 2010.
- IMDb mini biography by: Beth Rosner Management

Happiness is the bomb cosmetic! When I'm smiling, sometimes I'm giving thanks for all the things I have rather than worrying about the things I don't.

I try to make my mood uplifting and peaceful, then watch the world around me reflect that mood.

I feel at home in a lot of places, but I am truly an African-American.

We had already planned my wedding when my brother passed away in 2012. When you're grieving, you don't necessarily want to think about something like that, but my brother told me that he wanted me to, so we went ahead and did it.

My parents were very active in the Civil Rights Movement. My father was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) worker; my mother was a secretary with the Panthers.