Carla Jeffery

Carla Jaran Jeffery was born on 10 July 1993 in Houston, Texas. She was a twin; her brother Carlon Jeffery also became an actor and later played Cameron Parks on Disney Channel's A.N.T. Farm. The family spent time in Cincinnati, Ohio, before moving to Los Angeles in 2005 so both siblings could pursue entertainment careers. According to later profiles, Carlon's interest in music and entertainment helped inspire the move, and Carla began taking acting classes as a child, initially alongside her twin, as a way to become more comfortable performing despite being naturally shy. She joined Alexanders Talent Management at age 12 and remained with the agency for more than 20 years, until her death.

Jeffery's formal path into the industry ran through talent management and set work rather than a publicly documented conservatory degree. From age 12 she trained and auditioned under Alexanders Talent Management, building comfort on camera through classes and early roles. Managers later described watching her grow from a talented young girl into a professional they called family. Those early years gave her recurring television experience before she was out of her teens, including network and cable guest spots that taught her the craft of short-form scene work.

Her first screen role was in the 2006 film Phat Girlz, playing a 10-year-old version of Mo'Nique's character Jazmin. From 2007 to 2009 she had a recurring role as Keysha Black in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, appearing across two seasons as part of the Black family who move in with Larry David after Hurricane Katrina in the show's storyline. She also appeared in Nickelodeon's iCarly (2008), Disney Channel's Good Luck Charlie (2011) and Shake It Up (2012-2013), and later guest roles on Southland, Suburgatory, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Scream Queens, Uncle Buck, Best Friends Whenever, and Netflix's American Vandal. Feature and indie credits included Teacher of the Year (2014), Girl on the Edge (2015), and Exchange (2016), a short film rooted in Haitian culture. In 2020 she voiced Mania in an episode of Marvel's Spider-Man: Maximum Venom.

In 2018 Jeffery was cast as Bree, an aspiring Seabrook High cheerleader and best friend to Addison (Meg Donnelly), in Disney Channel's original musical film Zombies. Disney reported that the February 2018 debut drew 2.57 million viewers for its premiere telecast, with eight telecasts over the opening holiday weekend reaching 10.3 million total viewers. She reprised Bree in Zombies 2 (2020) and Zombies 3 (2022), and voiced the character in Zombies: The Re-Animated Series (2024) and related shorts. She also appeared in cast music videos for songs including Fired Up, Flesh and Bone, and One for All. Co-stars later said the brightness she brought to Bree matched who she was off camera. Milo Manheim called her Carlaboo and the sweetest, kindest, most loving person. Chandler Kinney wrote that she was a bubbly, vivacious heart-of-gold cheerleader who loved nothing more than to uplift those around her. Meg Donnelly remembered her contagious laugh and signed off Addi and Bree forever.

Jeffery began having seizures at eighteen. For years she kept the diagnosis quiet, worried casting directors would see epilepsy before they saw an actor. She later said she was even scared to tell her manager for fear of lost auditions; once she did, she was encouraged not to let it hold her back. While filming the first Zombies movie she had a seizure on set and woke up in an ambulance, which forced the conversation with Disney; by her account the studio was supportive. In 2022, during Disability Pride Month, she appeared in a Disney Channel PSA and spoke with the Epilepsy Foundation about no longer hiding her disability. I want everyone to know not to be scared of who you are, she said. I've had this for years, and it's not going anywhere. I just have to work around it. After her death the Cameron Boyce Foundation called her an incredible advocate for the epilepsy community. Her management did not announce a cause of death, and nothing in the public record should be read as connecting her death to epilepsy.

Jeffery kept much of her private life out of headlines. Public reporting after her death centered on her twin brother Carlon, her long relationship with Alexanders Talent Management, and the Zombies cast who called her family. In an August 2025 interview she spoke about what it meant to see young Black girls dress as Bree. I want to cry because I guess I never thought I'd see myself as somebody's inspiration, she said. But young Black girls looking up to you? That's what I want to keep doing. Friends remembered her signature splits on any dance floor, her infectious positivity, and texts of care exchanged with peers from Disney and beyond. Relationship status was not a focus of her public biography; after her death, outlets reported that details beyond her family's request for privacy were not made public.

Jeffery's public advocacy framed disability as something to work around rather than erase. She argued that hiding epilepsy had cost her peace, and that visibility could help others. She also spoke about representation for young Black girls inside a Disney franchise that rarely centered them as cheerleaders and best friends. Her comments after Zombies costumes reached fans emphasized inspiration as an ongoing responsibility, not a one-time moment. Colleagues' tributes after her death repeatedly returned to kindness, joy, and uplift as values she practiced off camera as much as on it.

Alongside acting, Jeffery performed on Zombies soundtrack releases. Credits include Fired Up with the Zombies cast (2018), Flesh and Bone and One for All with the Zombies 2 ensemble (2020), and Brighter With You for Zombies: The Re-Animated Series (2024). She appeared in cast music videos and in Meg Donnelly's Impress video. In 2025 she appeared as herself in Jubilee's Spectrum episode They Were Child Stars Here's What Happened Next. Podcast and interview appearances, including The Tokens Podcast conversation about being a Black actor on a Disney set, extended her public voice beyond scripted roles.

Jeffery died at her California home on 1 September 2026, at the age of 33. Alexanders Talent Management announced her death the following day on her Instagram account and the agency's channels, without disclosing a cause. Our hearts are broken as we mourn the loss of our beloved Carla Jeffery, the agency wrote, asking that her family's privacy be respected. Her twin brother Carlon reposted the statement with a message he had sent her earlier, telling her that her light was special and must be protected, and that he had her back in this life and the next. Castmates including Milo Manheim, Chandler Kinney, Meg Donnelly, Trevor Tordjman, Pearce Joza, Ariel Martin (Baby Ariel), Kylee Russell, and others posted tributes across Instagram.

Jeffery's legacy sits in two places: the Disney musical franchise that made Bree familiar to a generation of viewers, and the quieter decision, in her late twenties, to stop hiding a neurological condition the industry often treats as a liability. She left a completed arc inside a popular franchise, a body of work that started in childhood, and a public record of refusing to let a diagnosis define the edge of what she was allowed to want. Fans and co-stars remembered her smile, her splits, and her insistence that joy could be a craft. For many young viewers, especially young Black girls who dressed as Bree, she was proof that the cheerleader in the pink could look like them.