After three years on K.C. Undercover, Zendaya says goodbye to the show and Disney Channel.
The end of an era. On to the next. Thank you for continuing to grow with me.💜 pic.twitter.com/HhftlKOkGx
— Zendaya (@Zendaya) February 3, 2018
Zendaya began her Disney career on the network’s show Shake It Up in 2010 and ended the show in 2013. K.C. Undercover had three seasons beginning in 2015 and starred Zendaya as a girl in high school who also happens to be a secret agent along with the rest of her family. She is also credited with producing the show.
K.C Undercover
In a 2017 interview with Yara Shahidi, Zendaya made it clear that a black family on Disney Chanel would be necessary in order to clearly represent minorities in the entertainment industry.
“I was like, ‘If I’m going to do this, this is how it has to be.’ There needs to be a black family on the Disney Channel. A lot of people who aren’t people of color can’t quite understand what it’s like to grow up and not see yourself in mainstream media. And you know, there is so much work left to be done. I’ve talked about this before, but can I honestly say I would be in the position I’m in if I weren’t a lighter-skinned black woman? No.” –Zendaya
Now, with the final episode of K.C. Undercover having been recorded on Feb. 2, Zendaya shows no plans of slowing down. She has already shown success with Spider-man: Homecoming and The Greatest Showman, both released in 2017, and will continue her successful streak in 2019 with her leading role in the historical thriller, A White Lie, which she will be co-producing along with Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter.
With Zendaya’s departure from Disney Channel, hopefully, this does not mean the end to black representation on the network. Even without watching K.C Undercover, it’s important to appreciate the accurate representation of a black family that does not play into the negative stereotypes, while also depicting a teenage girl who has many of the same struggles other teens, regardless of race, might share.
