"liberal arts", the 23rd episode of season 3 of "black-ish," functioned as a backdoor pilot for this spin-off, featuring yara shahidi's character, zoey johnson, as she goes to college. shahidi stars in the series, with chris parnell, mallory sparks, matt walsh, and trevor jackson guest starring in the backdoor pilot. the series was later titled "college-ish", with parnell and jackson reprising their roles from the backdoor pilot, and emily arlook replacing mallory sparks in the role of miriam. in august 2017, francia raisa joined the cast as ana along with jordan buhat as vivek. music duo chloe and halle would also star as twin sisters sky and jazz.