At the age of 22, a child actor Jonshel Alexander of the film "Beasts of the Southern Wild" was slain in a shooting.

Jonshel Alexander, who co-starred in the Oscar-nominated picture with Quvenzhané Wallis, was discovered shot inside a vehicle Saturday and declared dead at the scene.

Jonshel Alexander, a former child actor who appeared in the Oscar-nominated film "Beasts of the Southern Wild" in 2012, was slain in a shooting in her hometown of Louisiana over the weekend. She was 22 years old at the time.

Alexander and a man were shot inside a vehicle in New Orleans on Saturday, police said, and she was declared dead at the scene. The unidentified guy drove himself to a hospital for treatment.

Alexander portrayed Joy Strong in "Beasts of the Southern Wild," a drama produced in Houma about a destitute Louisiana bayou town struggling for survival when he was 12 years old. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture, and received the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Director Benh Zeitlin selected Louisiana residents in the major parts, auditioning almost 4,000 individuals before deciding on the final lineup.

Her mother recalls, "She was like, 'I'm going to be in this movie.'" "They were smitten by Jonshel."

Alexander was too old to portray Hushpuppy, the film's starring part, which went to Quvenzhané Wallis, who was just six years old at the time. Alexander, on the other hand, enthralled Zeitlin, who described her as an "absolute one-of-a-kind, memorable, force-of-nature human being" and put her in a supporting part.

"We included a scene in the film that was heavily influenced by her," Zeitlin remarked. "She wrote a lot of the lines, and so much of Jonshel's persona came out of who he was." Joy Strong is the name of her character in the film, which has always struck me as a wonderful description of Jonshel. She was a brilliant, blazing light."

Zeitlin said he was heartbroken when he learned of her passing and that he had been in contact with her family.

According to The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, Alexander was the youngest of three children. She worked as a hostess in restaurants after graduating from high school and committed herself to her 1-year-old daughter, De-vynne Robinson.

Shelly Alexander told the newspaper Tuesday, "She infused life to everything." "Jonshel was a brawny, jazzy, and spoilt brat. It was either her way or no way for her. 'It's going to be me,' Jonshel said.

In the meanwhile, detectives are looking for a person of interest in the incident and have appealed to the public for any information.