The nearly unprecedented move pulled off, earning Zendaya a Kids Choice Award for Favorite TV Actress in 2017 and other nominations for the series, which ran from 2015-2018, at the Emmys and NAACP Image Awards.
When Shake It Up ended after three years on Disney Channel, Zendaya, then 16, was offered by the kid-friendly network to lead a new series, which would be known as K.C. Undercover, but not until after she made the suggestion to change its “whack” original title, Super Awesome Katy.
In fact, as Zendaya recalled to Vogue, this was one of multiple demands the actress made before agreeing to star as teenage secret agent K.C. Cooper, including taking a role as a producer, making her character a martial arts-trained “brainiac,” and doing away with any of the artistic talents every other girl on Disney Channel had.