Arica Himmel celebrated getting her first reoccurring television role onmixed-ishas if she’d won the World Series.
“The day after I found out, I went toDisneylandwith my dad,” Arica, 14, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.
Playing a younger version ofTracee Ellis Ross’sblack-ishcharacter in the show’s new spinoffmixed-ishmeant the newcomer had big — and funny — shoes to fill.
“This is my first opportunity to do something like this, so at first I was little nervous,” Arica says. “I had never been on a show where I’m staying for a long time and it was a little nerve-wracking.”
Amanda Edwards/FilmMagic
But getting to know her castmates — likeMark-Paul GosselaarandTika Sumpter, who play her parents on the series — helped the New York City native settle in at her new job.
“Everybody’s super sweet on set and we always crack jokes and have fun with one another,” Arica says.
As a prequel toblack-ish, mixed-ishwill continue to follow a 12-year-old Rainbow Johnson after she’s left a hippie commune with her family and enters a mainstream school in the suburbs in 1985. Bow and her two siblings face discrimination from their peers because they come from a mixed-race family, and they struggle with whether they want to fit in or stick to their roots.
Ross, 46, serves as a narrator onmixed-ish, so Arica got to meet the woman whose character inspired her own. “She’s just like her character in a way,” Arica says of Ross. “She’s got that comedic timing, she’s hilarious. She has this positive energy that you always want to be around. She’s like a mentor to me.”
Arica Himmel as Bow Johnson inmixed-ish.Richard Cartwright/ABC
The Golden Globe winner also passed along some lessons to the young actress.
“She showed me to work hard,” Arica says, “And even though I am playing the younger version of her, not to just focus on what she doesinblack-ish, but also add my own flavor to the character.”
Mixed-ishairs Tuesdays on ABC at 9 p.m. ET.
source: people.com
