{"id":46004,"date":"2025-12-27T07:23:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T07:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=46004"},"modified":"2025-12-27T07:23:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T07:23:46","slug":"lion-king-broadway-star-imani-dia-smith-stabbed-to-death-boyfriend-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/12\/27\/lion-king-broadway-star-imani-dia-smith-stabbed-to-death-boyfriend-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Lion King&#8217; Broadway star Imani Dia Smith killed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Imani Dia Smith, the woman who starred as young Nala in Broadway\u2019s <em>The Lion King<\/em> as a child, was stabbed and killed this past weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Edison, New Jersey, police officers were called to a home on Sunday morning in response to a report of a stabbing and discovered the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>According to NBC News, Smith was taken to a hospital where she was later pronounced dead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImani had her whole life ahead of her,\u201d her aunt wrote. \u201cShe was a vivacious, loving and fiercely talented person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is alleged that the Broadway star was killed by her boyfriend and the father of her child, who was subsequently arrested by police.<\/p>\n<p>People reports that 35-year-old Jordan D. Jackson-Small was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. <\/p>\n<p>He was also charged with third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lion King Child Star Imani Dia Smith Killed in Home Stabbing | E! News\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NMiwwQR7S9Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Smith portrayed Young Nala in Broadway\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Lion King<\/em>\u00a0from 2011 to 2012.<\/p>\n<p>She is survived by her 3-year-old son, <span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">her parents, Moniq<\/span>ue Rance-Helper and Rawni Helper, and her two siblings,\u00a0according to E! Online.<\/p>\n<p>BET reports that there is a\u00a0GoFundMe\u00a0to cover funeral costs, legal needs, and support for Smith\u2019s son.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Lion #King #Broadway #star #Imani #Dia #Smith #killed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imani Dia Smith, the woman who starred as young Nala in Broadway\u2019s The Lion King as a child, was stabbed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46007,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46004\/revisions\/46007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}