FOX’s comedy-drama “Best Medicine” will feature a young Harford County resident when it premieres next month.
Sakai Scott, 9, of Bel Air, will be starring in her first role in the new TV series, playing the cute but quirky Mallory.
“Best Medicine” is a U.S. remake of the British show “Doc Martin.” Josh Charles, who attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, will lead the series as Martin Best, a Boston surgeon with a secret phobia who moves to a quaint fishing town.
“Best Medicine” launches Jan. 6 on FOX at 8 p.m., with some episodes on Hulu.
It all started with TikTok
Sakai got her first taste of acting roughly two years ago. Her dad, Mario Scott, was playing around on TikTok when he came across a video encouraging viewers to act out a script in three different ways.
With the small TikTok role, Sakai allowed her personality to shine through.
“I wasn’t nervous,” she said. “I was just doing it for fun.”
From there, Sakai shared her interest in acting with her parents. Mario Scott said he was shocked, as he’s more of a “sports dad,” but discussed things with her mom, Safiyyah Scott, and they both vowed to stand beside Sakai through the endeavor.
Daryl Washington, Sakai’s personal manager from Global Management 101, has known her since she was in kindergarten, as she is best friends with his daughter.
“I saw something in her that was very natural,” he said. “Watching her grow over the few years that I’ve known her, I saw this spark, and I said, ‘She is a little actress.'”
After analyzing the short acting clips Sakai and her family produced, Washington put them in contact with Kia Riddick-Taylor, the former casting director for Nickelodeon. Riddick-Taylor starting coaching Sakai in November 2023 and said she was impressed with the young actress’s “genuine desire to learn and expand.”
Sakai didn’t rush into auditioning, Riddick-Taylor said, but rather she waited until she felt ready.
“Sakai fell in love with the craft and the process itself, which offers far greater internal reward than any external validation,” Riddick-Taylor said. “To me, that mindset is a true recipe for success, not only in this industry, but in life.”
Landing the role
Landing the role on “Best Medicine” was a whirlwind experience, Sakai’s parents and manager recall.
This summer, she auditioned for the role. A week after submitting the audition footage, she received a callback.
Sakai was eating lunch at basketball camp when her dad came, unannounced, to pick her up to meet with the casting director and producers through Zoom. Washington was tasked with ensuring everything went smoothly, as her parents were both working.
“She was still in her sports gear,” Washington said. “Everything happened so quickly.”
Four days later, Sakai and her family received the confirmation that she had secured the role. Her parents picked her up from her friend’s house, where she was playing, to reveal the news. She began jumping with excitement and hugged her mom.
“I was really excited,” Sakai said. “I wasn’t really thinking about the whole process of it, I was just really excited about the role.”
Filming began shortly thereafter in New York. As she walked on set, Sakai remembered everyone being kind. Her presence lit up the space, her mom said. Following the conclusion of her first full day, she received a standing ovation.
Sakai aspires to land larger roles in movies like “Moana,” “Princess and the Frog,” “Secret Life of Pets” or “Inside Out,” and inspire other young actresses, as Quvenzhané Wallis, the young girl who played in the 2014 classic movie, “Annie,” did for her.
“I wanted to be like her,” she said. “I wanted to inspire other people to be young actors.”
‘This is so her life’
Sakai’s parents say that before Sakai crawled, she walked. Her parents never had to teach her how to ride a bike. When she was ready to tackle it, she did. So, Sakai securing her first acting role on a large television network didn’t seem out of the ordinary for her parents.
“I feel like in a weird kind of universal kind way, this is so her life,” her dad said.
Remaining a kid is something Safiyyah Scott wants for Sakai, adding she was nervous when her daughter started in the industry.
“I just want to make sure that she can continue to be a kid and that we don’t age her too quickly,” her mom said. “Life is hard, and she has many years to be an adult.”
Sakai is in the fourth grade and a straight-A student. She juggles multiple extracurricular activities in addition to acting, playing basketball and soccer, and sometimes swimming.
No matter whether her acting career skyrockets, her dad hopes she holds on to lessons like hard work, dedication and sacrifice that this experience brings.
“Regardless of where she ends up, it’s already a win,” he said.
Have a news tip? Contact Shaela Foster at sfoster@baltsun.com or 443-826-5894.
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