North Texas actress Sarah Shahi to play Nancy Drew

CBS has found its Nancy Drew, and it will be Euless actress Sarah Shahi, according to a report in Deadline.com.

The Persian actress, who was born and raised in North Texas and was a member of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in the 1999-2000 NFL season, has been a regular on the CBS series Person of Interest since 2013. She has also appeared on Showtime’s The L Word, USA’s Fairly Legal and the NBC dramas Life and Chicago Fire.

Shahi, 36, attended Euless Trinity High School and later SMU, and was also Miss Fort Worth USA 1997.

Written by Joan Rater and Tony Phelan (Grey’s Anatomy) and directed by James Strong, Drew will be an updated take on the character from the classic Carolyn Keene novels and will feature Nancy Drew in her 30s and working as a detective for the NYPD. Shahi joins previously cast Vanessa Ferlito (Graceland) as an NYPD homicide detective and Anthony Edwards (ER), who will play Nancy’s dad.

CBS president Glenn Geller told TVLine in January the network was seeking a “diverse” actress to take on the role of Nancy. “I’d be open to any ethnicity,” he said. “We’re not casting color-blind, we’re casting color-conscious. … It really is about being conscious of what America looks like.”

Nancy Drew was most recently played by Emma Roberts in the 2007 feature film.

In the late 1970s, ABC ran The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries for three seasons and featured Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy with Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson as Frank and Joe Hardy.

This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 5:26 PM with the headline "North Texas actress Sarah Shahi to play Nancy Drew."