The single-camera comedy follows the Johnson family's children as they go to college and begin their journeys to adulthood, only to quickly discover that not everything goes their way once they leave the nest.

The first four seasons follow eldest daughter Zoey (Yara Shahidi), with Deon Cole, Trevor Jackson, Francia Raisa, Emily Arlook, Jordan Buhat, Chloe Bailey, Halle Bailey, Luka Sabbat and Chris Parnell also starring, while the fifth season onward follows eldest son and Zoey's younger brother Andre Junior (Marcus Scribner) as he attends college after Zoey's graduation, with Diggy Simmons and Daniella Perkins also starring.

As she attends the fictional California University of Liberal Arts (Cal U for short)[16] while befriending some people, she discovers that her journey to adulthood and her departure from the family does not go the way she hoped.

"Liberal Arts", the 23rd episode of season 3 of Black-ish, functioned as a backdoor pilot for this spin-off, featuring Yara Shahidi's character, Zoey Johnson, as she goes to college.

[32] On May 19, 2017, Freeform (ABC's sister network) officially ordered 13 episodes of the spin-off under the final title, Grown-ish.

[8] On March 7, 2022, Freeform renewed the series for a fifth season with Marcus Scribner joining the cast, replacing Shahidi as lead character of the series, as Junior Johnson, Zoey's younger brother from black-ish, with Zakiyyah Alexander and Courtney Lilly showrunning the season, which follows Junior as he finally decides to attend college.

The website's critical consensus reads, "grown-ish quickly works through its growing pains to establish itself as its own socially aware show with a fresh perspective on the college experience, driven by the charming and capable Yara Shahidi.

"[39] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 71 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".