Netta Walker

Walker was born in Jacksonville, Florida to a Filipino mother and African-American father. They met in the Philippines when her father was serving in the navy. She has three older brothers. She attended two historically black institutions, James Weldon Johnson Middle School and Stanton College Preparatory School. She was inspired to become to an actress thanks to her high school theatre teacher Shirley Sacks Kirby who saw her potential.^[1]

While studying in Roosevelt University in Chicago before dropping out, she went on to perform in numerous plays such as portraying Ophelia in Hamlet with The Gift Theatre, Continuity by Bess Wohl at The Goodman Theatre, Great Expectations at Remy Bumppo and many more. In 2019 she received a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Supporting Actor for her performance in the Raven Theater's production of Yen.^[2] Her first big TV role came playing Keisha McCalla in the sports series All American.^[3] Her biggest role so far has been playing the same character in the spinoff series All American: Homecoming.^[4][5] As a writer her play keerah premiers at Defintion Theater Company June 2026, and her play Hayward premiers with The Gift Theatre Company at Steppenwolf Theatre in October 2026. She hopes in the future to act in a romance film as well as to have an opportunity to play a villain that audiences will find hard to dislike.^[6]

She is very passionate about her Philippine roots and she visited the country for the first time when she was 16 to celebrate her deceased grandmother's birthday.^[7]