sydney tamiia poitier (born november 15, 1973) is an american actress. in 2007, she starred in "death proof", director quentin tarantino's segment of the movie "grindhouse", as radio dj jungle julia. she also acted in movies such as "free of eden" (1998), "true crime" (1999), "the devil cats" (2004), "nine lives" (2005) and "the list" (2007). she starred as lead role abby walker in the upn sitcom "abby" in 2003. in 2018, she began starring as sam shaw in the canadian series "carter". she has also appeared in episodes of "joan of arcadia", "veronica mars", "grey's anatomy", "private practice" and "hawaii five-0".