Sankara Alafia – Son Of American Actress Yaya DaCosta And Famous Meditator

While many children nowadays dream about growing up and becoming wealthy and famous, some are born into it. For some celebrity children, prominence is something they are born with. Take Sankara Alafia for example. She is the daughter of Yaya DaCosta, an established American actress, and model.

With that in mind, how much do you know about Sankara Alafia and his famous mother? Let’s find out.

Who is His Mother?

Born Camara DaCosta Johnson in November 1982, Yaya DaCosta is an American actress and model. She was the runner-up in Cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model.

Eventually, she became famous for appearing in drama television series like All My Children, Ugly Betty, and Chicago Med.

Yaya also starred as singer Whitney Houston in the Lifetime television film Whitney in 2015.

Born in New York City, she is of Brazilian and Black-American descent. Yaya was raised in the Harlem neighborhood of New York.

Besides English, she also speaks Portuguese, French, Spanish, and conversational Japanese.

DaCosta attended the elite Northfield Mount Hermon School and then Brown University. She majored in Africana studies and international relations.

Yaya began her professional career thanks to America’s Next Top Model. She finished second on Cycle 3, and only appeared once in the bottom two during the competition.

Her career as a model flourished and the beautiful woman appeared in advertisements for Garnier Fructis, Lincoln Townhouse, Oil of Olay, Radioshack, Sephora, and more. She has also appeared on the covers of magazines like W, Hype Hair, Global Modeling, and more.

While working as a model, she also began her acting job. Her acting debut came in 2005 when she guest-starred in an episode of the sitcom Eve. Then, she starred in the dance movie Take the Lead, opposite Antonio Banderas and Alfre Woodard.

In 2008, Yaya got the role of Cassandra Foster in the ABC soap opera All My Children. She left it four months later, wanting to join the cast of The First Breeze of Summer.

In 2009, DaCosta landed a recurring role as Nico Slater, the daughter of Wilhelmina Slater in the fourth and final season of ABC comedy-drama television series Ugly Betty.

Her big break in a leading role came when she was cast as April Sexton, an ED nurse in the NBC medical drama Chicago Med. After six seasons, she left the TV show and joined Fox’s drama series Our Kind of People.

DaCosta has also appeared in three music videos, Roc Boys by Jay-Z, Pullin’ Me Back by Chingy, and Good Man by Raphael Saadiq.

Who Is His Father?

You might think Sankara Alafia is famous because of his mother. But her father is a celebrity as well. Joshua Bee Alafia came to the limelight thanks to his relationship with Chicago Med star. But he is a legend in the world of independent filmmaking.

He is a filmmaker, writer, and meditator. Over the years, he has worked as a director, writer, editor, and cinematographer.

But his biggest passion is meditation and helping others. He often speaks about the joy he gets from teaching meditative practices especially to severely traumatized people.

Joshua has worked with incarcerated kids, saying there is a significant challenge in working with young people who don’t really want to practice listening to themselves.

Joshua teaches meditation through a number of organizations, including his own, Liberation Center Worldwide. He has experimented with different styles over the years, but his devotion to Buddhism remains the same.

He says, “My Buddhist journey has been a beautiful one. I became interested in Buddhism since college. Back then, the second wave of Tibetan Buddhists was coming, and I was just really attracted to the Dalai Lama and his cause, as well as the clarity and the elegance”.

He rarely speaks about his personal life, and rarely talks about things outside of meditation. Speaking of his cinematography credits, he is known for Cubamor, The Seed, and Se Safando.

Sankara’s Parents’ Relationship

Sankara Alafia is the son of Joshua Bee Alafia and Yaya Dacosta. They met in June 2012 and have one child together.

Yaya gave birth to their son in September 2013. But in 2014, there were reports that they split. Contrary to popular reports, the two were never officially married.

In one interview, Yaya revealed that she never divorced or was in a marriage relationship with Joshua.

She says, “But no, I never got divorced because I was never married, first of all. But I did have a child with someone, which is more of a commitment than marriage nowadays. I broke up with him right after the birth because, as I said, it was an enlightening experience. But I make it a point to ensure that my son has a relationship with his father because everyone should”.

Quick Bio

Who is Sankara Alafia? How much do we know about his life? Well, famous as the son of American actress Yaya DaCosta and her partner Joshua Alafia, he is an American celebrity kid. His father is one of the best independent filmmakers and meditators in the United States of America.

As of February 2023, he is 9 years of age. Sankara belongs to the Afro-American ethnicity and is an American by nationality.

Born on September 23rd in 2013, his Zodiac sign is Virgo. Sankara is the only child of his parents.

There is not much info about his educational details. But looking at his age, he is probably in middle school.

The celebrity kid spends a lot of time with his meditator father. His father is teaching him mindfulness practice to incarceration.

In 2019, his father Joshua uploaded a video of how he teaches meditation to his son.

Is He On Social Media?

Sankara is a bit young to be on social media. For starters, he doesn’t meet the legal age requirements. But his father Joshua and his mother Yaya are active on social media platforms like Instagram.

His father is the one who regularly posts pictures with Sankara on social media. For example, he posted about their trip to Charleston, writing, “Charleston was good to us. Always great to see the fam and be nurtured by the ocean. There’s a strong vital energy there, lush jungle, moss hanging down off the oak trees. Beautiful. Can’t wait to come back! “

Net Worth

Because Sankara is too young to have social media and too young to work, we cannot talk about net worth, right? What we can do is talk about the net worth of his parents. With that in mind, his mother Yaya has a net worth of $1 million.

And his father is a filmmaker who also has a net worth of $1 million. Since Sankara does not have an active career, he depends on his parents for a living.