The name Geffri Maya is familiar to everyone who’s watched the hit TV show “All American” and its spin-off “Homecoming”. Nonetheless, most people don’t know that Geffri has been in many other projects, including TV series and movies since the mid-2000s.
With almost two decades on the road and counting, Geffri’s career is as vast as it’s varied, with appearances in movies such as “Blaq Gold”, “Loco” and “With(out) You”, turning her into quite a promising star, who we undoubtedly love to see every time she’s on the screen.
So what are Geffri’s most outstanding roles so far? Did she abandon acting at some point? What about her personal life, family, and education? Keep reading to discover all!
Early Life
Geffri Maya Hightower was born on 25 February 1995, in Los Angeles, California USA. In her childhood, Geffri worked on Broadway and made a couple of TV appearances, debuting as a TV actress in the series “Jericho” in 2006.
A year later, she was cast in the medical drama “Private Practice”, playing the recurring role of Maya Davis/Bennet from 2007 to 2010. Also in 2008, Geffri appeared as Latrinda in an episode of “Everybody Hates Chris”.
Following “Private Practice”, Geffri took a prolonged break from her career to focus on her education. From 2010 to 2015 she attended the Georgia-based historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) Clark Atlanta University, from which she graduated with a Mass Communication and Media Studies Bachelor’s Degree. As Geffri recalled in an interview with 21Ninety, her time in Clark allowed her to gain experience and a sense of community, by meeting lots of Black people from ‘all walks of life’.
Next Steps
The mid-2010s saw Geffri Maya go back when she was a child actor. As she told 21Ninety, her mindset after leaving “Private Practice” was one of transition, as she used to define herself as the things ‘she was good at’.
geffri maya in private practice 3×13 pic.twitter.com/cXqP6euoE6
— k (@laylasolivia) June 22, 2021
Geffri’s time in university had her finding her love for the arts, writing, and production, on top of experiencing jobs that were quite different from acting. As Geffri described it, those years away from home were deeply formative for her as an actress, as it gave her a deeper insight into how to give life to the characters.
Her first credits after her return home were in the short films “Q & A” and “Southern Lights Over-Exposed: The Visual Album”, the latter released in 2015 by the artists Alex Faith and Dre Murray. Also in that year, Geffri appeared in the movies “Finding Carter” and “Blaq Gold”, followed by the short film “Defending Daddy” in 2016.
The same year, she appeared as Kristin Masterantonio in an episode of the police drama “The Inspectors”, which was the last role in which she was credited with her full name.
Rise To Fame
In 2017, Geffri Maya had small roles in several series, including “Cream X Coffee”, “Shots Fired” and “Nasty Habits”. A year later, she starred alongside Taylor Polidore in “The Pre-Quarter Life Crisis”, a comedy series focused on the life experiences of people in their early adulthood.
Next, Geffri was Aisha in the short-lived series “East Of La Brea”, and Delphine in the short film “With(out) You”, on top of appearing in the series “WTF, Baron Davis” and “Black-ish”. It was in 2019 that Geffri was cast in the second season of “All American”, as Simone Hicks, a high school student with dreams of becoming a tennis player.
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Although her role as Simone was a recurring one, it was a huge step forward in Geffri’s career. As Geffri confessed in an interview with BlackFilmandTV, she hadn’t initially expected a lot from the job, and took the opportunity for the sake of gaining more experience. Little did she know that following her exit from “All American”, she would star in the series spin-off “All American: Homecoming”, which follows Simone’s adventures as she faces complex adult situations, while pursuing her tennis-playing dreams and attends an HBCU in Atlanta.
This new chapter of Geffri’s career isn’t only important to make her known in the industry, but it also makes her proud to have the opportunity to portray a young Black woman, as she travels adulthood and motherhood while still pursuing her dreams, as Geffri told Entertainment Weekly.
Other Roles & Social Media
Although Gefrri’s career has been defined in recent years by her ongoing role in the “All American” franchise, in the meantime she keeps working on other projects.
In 2020, she starred in the movie “Loco”, which explores the dangerous world of drug trafficking. The next year she was cast in the series “Snowfall”, a crime drama series which aired from 2017 to 2023. Her character Khadijah Brown was a challenge to perform due to her vulnerability, comparing it to “All American’s” character Simone Hicks, as both go through similar experiences, as Geffri told 21Ninety.
Geffri’s on-the-rise career as an actress had a notable effect on her popularity, as she’s been featured on platforms such as Entertainment Weekly, Deadline, Forbes, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).
On top of that, Geffri’s social media reach is impressive, having to this day over 330,000 followers just on Instagram. Her account on the platform serves her to promote her projects, including her involvement with the youth support organization Get Lit Words Ignite, of which she became a board member in 2023.
Personal Life & Style
Unfortunately, not much is known about Geffri Maya’s personal life, including details such as her romantic partners. Though not much is known about her family either, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Geffri revealed that her mother didn’t allow her to face certain problems other teens had while growing up.
Geffri is a dedicated Christian, as shown in the several posts in which she expresses her gratitude and faith.
Regarding her style, Geffri is a big fan of fashion, and isn’t afraid of showing a wide variety of looks on her social media pics. As she told the CFDA website in 2022, her style could be described as ‘evolving’, given how she dresses based on her moods, changing from laid back to ‘head-turning’ whenever she wants to. Her sense of fashion doesn’t follow trends and is consistent, while still trying to look nothing similar to anybody else, as she said.
Appearance & Net Worth
Geffri Maya Hightower is a gorgeous Afro-American woman. She’s 5ft 6ins (1.67m) tall, but her weight is unknown.
Geffri’s net worth is estimated at $700,000, which has resulted from her career as an actress.
