Shenae Grimes-Beech Talks '90210' Reboot, Still Close With CW Cast (EXCLUSIVE)

Actor Shenae Grimes-Beech fully mastered the art of the pivot. After spending her early career as one of TV’s teen dreams on Degrassi: The Next Generation and later 90210, the Canadian star decided to remain onscreen on her own terms as an influencer.

Though she’s created a new lane for herself, thanks to streaming, the shows that most of her audience met her on, Degrassi and 90210, are readily available on a nearby streaming service.

Shenae hasn’t shied away from her teen TV past. However, in an exclusive interview with Distractify, she shared why one of her iconic shows is her favorite to discuss when it comes to reboots.

Shenae told us that, while she still gets recognized for her roles as Annie Wilson in 90210 and as Darcy Edwards in Degrassi, noting her North American fans discuss her work on Degrassi and UK fans are more nostalgic about 90210, the CW show is one Shenae said feels like a more realistic reboot.

“Personally, if I were to, like, ever come back and do anything like that, which I feel like is very far-fetched, but if I would, I would say 90210 all day long,” she said.

Shenae’s willingness to reunite with her 90210 co-stars comes from her real-life bonds with some of the cast. In June 2024, she told People she and her 90210 co-star, Matt Lanter, were seeing each other more frequently once their daughters started attending the same school.

Shenae also said her bonds with many former co-stars, including AnnaLynne McCord, would make returning to her famous old stomping grounds a special treat.

“I'm still quite close with a lot of my castmates from that show. It was more recent,” Shenae added. “So I think it would just be so fun for us. Like, I think if you had asked us two years after 90210 ended, everybody would be like, ‘Never. I would never.’ And now that we're all way older, we would totally jump at the chance to just get the gang back together and, like, be the moms and dads that most of us are, and just be there together.”

Shenae may be open to rebooting at least one of her shows, but for now, she’s focusing on the present, which includes staying in front of the camera on her own terms.

While discussing her opportunity to teach content creation 101 to the masses in a course, LinkTree’s initiative to help creators make a sustainable income with a suite of new monetization features.

After years of auditioning, Shenae created a YouTube channel where fans can keep up with her and her family, which includes her husband, Josh Beech, and their two children, Kingsley Taylor and Bowie Scarlett.

“It's something that I found incredibly liberating,” she said of being an influencer versus an actor. “I think a lot of actors struggle with the thought of content creation mentally, because it's kind of this hurdle we have the security of living and existing behind fictional characters in the public's eye, and so to show up as yourself is definitely a transition, but it's always been something that I've been really passionate about doing.”

Although Shenae found her footing in content creation, she continued acting in traditional media, starring in Hallmark’s holiday movie, Love of the Irish. Still, she felt true freedom by taking ownership of her creativity.

“It's so fun for me to have this outlet now with social media, where you can really be your own boss,” Shenae said. “You can take charge and talk about whatever you want to talk about, create, whatever you want to create, and you have all of these different avenues that you can go down to connect with an audience.”