Akira Akbar
Akira Akbar is an actor, born 2006.
There is not much on the public record about Akbar yet, no Wikipedia article to draw on, so here is what the credits actually say. She was cast as the eleven-year-old Monica Rambeau in Captain Marvel, sharing the film's only real domestic scenes with Lashana Lynch's Maria. She played Brooke in the Netflix family sitcom Family Reunion, took the speedster Fast Forward in Robert Rodriguez's We Can Be Heroes, and then landed Ashley Banks in Bel-Air.
That last one is the most demanding job of the four. Bel-Air is Peacock's dramatic reworking of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, so the character name is inherited but the tone is not, and there are no jokes to hide behind. Four credits is a thin record to judge anyone on, and the honest summary is that the range has not been tested yet.
Movies (2)
TV (2)
Where to start with Akira Akbar
Most people meet her in Captain Marvel, and her scenes are the ones that give that film a pulse. Watch it for the Rambeau household rather than the space war, because the domestic half is where the emotional stakes actually sit.
Bel-Air is the better showcase. Playing Ashley straight, in a drama, means holding scenes against adults with nothing comic to fall back on, and she does it.
Family Reunion is broad kid-facing sitcom work and perfectly good at that, while We Can Be Heroes is a loud children's film with one solid gag at its centre about children being far more competent than their parents.