Sydney Tamiia Poitier was born in Los Angeles, California to actor Sidney Poitier and former actress Joanna Shimkus. Poitier was a recurring character in season one of Joan of Arcadia, where she played Rebecca Askew, the love interest of Joan's older brother, Kevin, and was briefly a regular on Veronica Mars before the show opted to focus on different characters and she was dropped from the cast. Her role in both series was related to journalism - on Joan of Arcadia she worked at the same newspaper as Kevin, and on Veronica Mars she was Veronica's journalism teacher.