GreasyGuide.com

Saba,Ink: You have an NAACP Award. Is there any pressure to choose movie roles carefully and the kinds of things you do?

Keke: With doing Akeelah and The Bee it makes me want to do more roles like that where I can be a positive role model to young girls.

Saba,Ink: Speaking of role models, do you have one you look up to?

Keke: Oh yeah. Brandy.

Saba,Ink: Brandy? What is it about her that inspires you?

Keke: I mean she is just great! She is amazing with her singing, the albums she sold as well as being a big person on TV with Moesha.

Saba,Ink: For young people that might be thinking that it’s easy doing what you do, what would you say to them?

Keke: If it is something you really want to do, and feel it in your heart, GO FOR IT!

Saba,Ink: Is there something interesting about you that we don’t know and you’’d care to share?

Keke: I am extremely an goofy person.

Saba,Ink: (laughing) Okay, describe goofy.

Keke: I love to have fun and crack jokes all the time.

Saba,Ink: So if we took you to Chuck E. Cheese or something, you’d be the one to jump into the balls or something?

Keke: Absolutely! Class Clown.

Saba,Ink: That’s good to know that you’re having fun while you’re working.

Saba,Ink: Now are any of your siblings going into the business?

Keke: My little brothers are doing commercials. They have a car commercial out right now-I’m really excited for them

Saba,Ink: Akeelah and the Bee was so powerful. Was there something you learned from the movie?

Keke: Be myself always, never change to fit what other people think I should be.

By Avis Thomas-Lester
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 25, 2007; Page B02

NEW YORK At 11, NicKayla Tucker knows she’ll be a big star someday.

As an actress who has amassed a respectful resume, the Laurel girl is preparing to make her debut tomorrow as the young lioness Nala in “The Lion King” on Broadway, just after Julian Ivey, 12, of Cheverly, ends his run playing Simba.

The role of Nala follows several other notable performances for NicKayla, who attended Lake Arbor Elementary School in Mitchellville from first through fourth grade. She performed at Madison Square Garden in the national touring company of the musical “Annie.” She has auditioned several times for TV series in Los Angeles.

“I have always wanted to be an actress,” the sixth-grader says. “I was watching ‘Showtime at the Apollo’ with my grandmother when I was, like, 3. I said, ‘Mom-Mom, I want to do that!’ She said, ‘One day, baby girl.’ ”

As she rehearsed for Nala about five hours a day during the past month, NicKayla also waited as her agent and manager shopped her to TV production companies in Los Angeles, hoping to secure her a part in a TV pilot.

Singing since age 2 and acting since 3, NicKayla debuted at the Apollo when she was 4, performing a gospel song. She won first place in three competitions, then finished second in the final contest. She has won first place in two pageants for talented children and is waiting until she turns 13 to enter a third.

For her stint on Broadway, she and her grandmother, Phyllis Tucker-Saunders, have settled into an apartment near Times Square and the theater where she will work for several months. Next week, she’ll begin going to a local Catholic school, missing class on matinées days. She’ll perform four times a week.

“New York is not really new to me, because I come up here to audition all the time,” she says, smoothing her jeans. “What I love is the fast pace. I really love the vibe of the city. I think I’m already a total New Yorker.”

After her run on Broadway, she and Tucker-Saunders will move to Los Angeles to be near TV studios. Her mother, Ardia Tucker, a real estate agent, visits frequently when her daughter is out of town.

Although she has definite plans to be an actress, NicKayla has other ambitions as well.

“I want to be an alternative medication doctor, a doctor who treats people with herbs and things like that,” she said. “And I want to be an actress, a singer and a dancer. And I’m also hoping to be the first black president of the United States.”

By: JordanakaBabyJ

If you are familiar with the Nick @ Nite animated show “Father Hood” then maybe you are familiar with the voice of little Katherine Bindlebeep. Get to know the girl behind the voice, Jamai Fisher.

1. When did you realize u wanted to become an actress?
In the beginning (when I was 3 years old) It wasn’t me, it was my parents putting me on camera and I use to like being on camera. When I booked my first commercial at age 4 I new I wanted to be an actress.

2. When did you get your first commercial, and what was it for?
I was 4 years old when I got my first commercial. It was a GE commercial and I was the little girl at the bus stop.

3. What do you like better? On-screen or voice over acting.
I think I like to do voice-overs more than on screen.

4. Who inspired you to start acting?
My Mom inspired me to get into acting when she went on the Leza show. While on the show, Leza interviewed me and my brother (I was age 3 & my brother age 2).

5. What was your best experience since becoming an actress?
So far my best experience has been when a limo came to my house to pick me up to go do the Steve Harvey Show. That was so cool. Then the following day, it brought us back and dropped us off at school.

6. Who did you always want to meet and had the chance to?
I wanted to meet Khelo Thomas and I met him when we did a project called “Time Out” (which also starred Paige Hurd)

7. Who did you always want to meet and haven’t had the chance to?
I’ve always wanted to meet Bill Cosby. The cast of Fatherhood is scheduled to meet him on May 1st at one of his comedy concerts. I’ll keep you posted.

8. Do you have any friends who also act?
There are so many friends in the acting business that I can’t name them all.

9.What projects are you working on now?
My latest project is Host of Kids-N-Comedy with my brother Jaishon. I also did a puppet show at my local library. We record our final episode of the 2nd season for Fatherhood on Friday April 15th.

10. What auditions have you been to lately?
This week I’ve had several commercial auditions (Walgreen’s, Everybody Moves.com, GMC and a callback for Everybody Moves.com)

June 27, 2007 By Erin Chan Original Link

In a seminal moment in the movie “Akeelah and the Bee,” sunlight illuminates the face of Keke Palmer, who plays Akeelah, as Laurence Fishburne commands her to read from a framed quote posted in his study.

Enunciating everything, she speaks:

Advertisement

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

“We ask ourselves: ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?”

That eloquence might have given Akeelah some confidence, but Keke Palmer needs no such pep talk.

Not when Fishburne, who plays Akeelah’s mentor, Dr. Larabee, says this about her on the movie’s DVD: “Keke Palmer is amazing. Keke Palmer is just so free and so talented and so intelligent.”

At 13 years old, Keke, who will give a free performance at Rhythm and Rhymes from the Hart, a show at Hart Plaza tonight before the 49th Annual Target Fireworks, vaulted to national recognition and won a 2007 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for the 2006 “Akeelah.”

In a performance filled with emotion and humor without overdosing on pathos, Keke showed off her brilliance, gorgeousness, talent and fabulousness, though she actually describes herself as “outgoing, funny, nice, sentimental.”

“Outgoing,” by the way, is an enormous understatement.

At 11:30 a.m. one day last week, Keke was riding to a voice lesson, a bit stuck in L.A. traffic, but unwaveringly enthusiastic.

“Oh my gosh, it’s so busy all the time,” she says of life after “Akeelah,” in which she plays a truant, hard-luck, 11-year-old from South Los Angeles who winds up in the National Spelling Bee. “I’ve been traveling a lot lately and working a lot and doing a lot of singing.”

Yes, Keke not only acts, she sings.

Singing, actually, was her first love, and her first album, “So Uncool” (Atlantic), a compilation of peppy, optimistic pop and R&B tunes, drops in September.

Amid the traffic slowdown, Keke belts a few measures of Brandy’s “Sittin’ Up in My Room” over the phone, showing that 1.) She really can sing. 2.) Her voice has started maturing in the way of some of her favorite artists, who aside from Brandy, include TLC and Detroit’s Aaliyah.

Even as she shot serious spelling bee scenes for “Akeelah,” Keke couldn’t resist a little singing and dancing on the set.

On the special features section of the DVD, Keke’s costar, Angela Bassett, who plays Akeelah’s mother, describes her as “entertaining us on the microphone, she’s singing a little bit, dancing, and Laurence looks at me and says, ‘She’s not just a ham, she’s a honey-roasted ham.’ I mean, she really loves it, she’s not shy at all.”

Keke erupts with laughter when told about the “honey-roasted ham” remark but then adds: “I can’t believe they said that. I’m so excited and happy to know that they like my work. It’s just an honor.”

Yet amid the obsession surrounding Lindsay Lohan’s stints in rehab and Paris Hilton’s jail time, one can worry about a young celebrity.

How detrimental will all this attention be someday?

But Keke, the second of four children who grew up in Robbins, Ill., just outside of Chicago, says her folks raised her right.

“I just keep listening to my parents,” she says. “I try not to think about what everyone says and try not to let people’s perception of me be my perception of myself.”

She eventually wants to go to Howard University in Washington to study fine arts and “one day win an Oscar and one day win a Grammy.” Of college, she says, “There is no not going. My mom, she won’t take it. She’ll sign up with me or something like that.”

Though she has been in other movies, like “Madea’s Family Reunion” and the Disney Channel’s “Jump In!” and has grown more than half a foot to 5-feet-6-inches since filming “Akeelah,” people will always tie Keke to the role of the heartwarming speller.

Keke doesn’t mind, though, because “the determination part, I’m like her in that way,” she says. “I’m like that sassy part of her, too.”

But can she still spell words like “pulchritude” and “prestidigitation”?

Keke laughs, saying that people always ask her that, and then, mimicking Akeelah’s attitude-filled staccato, she doesn’t hesitate:

“P-R-E-S-T-I-D-I-G-I-T-A-T-I-O-N.”

Hey Yall! I had the opportunity to have my very first interview for Black Girl Fame! It was done by Ms. Kimberly of SweetGyrl Inc., please check it out below then check out her websites which also supports young black females.

Interview by SweetGyrl Inc.

Tell me more about Black Girl Fame?
Black Girl Fame is a website which supports and promotes young, underrated and Black famous entertainers. The site currently features over 65 girls and we’re still growing.

What prompted you to start the company/site?
I wanted to see more support for young Black entertainers. I knew that if I wanted to see a change I had to do something to make it happen. So, I decided to start Black Girl Fame.

Is it only you or is there a partner?
Well, I’d like to say it’s a group effort. I have a team of administrators who work on the site with me and there are many members and parents who help out with the site by contributing news, articles, pictures etc. I am the founder and Super Administrator but the site couldn’t have achieved the success it has thus far without the help of all I’ve mentioned.

How long have you been doing this?
I started Black Girl Fame as a small message board in November 2004 then decided I wanted to go further with it and make it into a website. The site opened in April 2005 and I’ve been doing it since then.

What kinds of feedback have you been getting as far as the obstacles that Black girls encounter trying to be in the Entertainment business?
Well, it’s harder for young Black girls to get quality roles that represent them in a positive way. There aren’t many roles, especially lead roles written for them and when there are, the majority of them are built around stereotypes. There’s also a lot of competition as there are so many girls and so few jobs.

What kind of services do you offer?
My site helps to gain a lot of exposure for these girls. We introduce new talents and we post regular updates about them and their upcoming projects so that everyone can know what they’re doing. We have profiles on the girls which people use to learn more about what they have done and just who the girls are in general. We also provide things like banners that our visitors can use to promote the girls on other websites so that we can hopefully create a bigger fan base for these girls. We have a forum and a really great community among our members.

Have you been able to get famous actresses to support you in your endeavor on what your trying to do?
Actually, since a lot the girls featured on my website are really young they don’t directly help out but their parents offer a lot of support. They donate money to help keep the site up, they refer other talents to us and the girls themselves promote our site. It’s also the parents who help us keep the site going by contributing news, pictures and things like that; they are very supportive of the motives behind the site and are usually very pleased to learn that their daughters are part of it. I am blessed to have a lot of support!

If so who?
We’ve been very fortunate to have contact with so many of the girl we feature. They include; Keke Palmer, Tiffany Evans, Gerren Taylor, Rhyon Nicole Brown, Chelsea Tavares, McClain Sisters (“Daddy’s Little Girls”), Parker McKenna Posey, Ashley Monique Clark – and the list goes on.

What are your passions/dreams?
My passion is supporting my people! I have so many goals that I want to accomplish but my main focus at the moment is getting a better education for myself. One of my many dreams is to start a Non-Profit Organization geared towards helping young Black people do something more positive with their lives and become more successful. I’d like to teach them things about the entertainment business as well as teaching them to support one another along the way. Those are just a few of the things I want my organization to offer.

What do you hope to accomplish from this?
There are many things that I’d like to accomplish from the site. I want to encourage other Blacks to support Blacks. I feel that it’s the only way that we can really make a change. If we don’t support our own people, no one else will. I’ve seen firsthand that a lot of times, instead of supporting one another Blacks hate on and try to bring each other down. I feel like this is the main reason why our people aren’t making any progress. I think it’s time we stop blaming others and take a look at ourselves. It’s sad to say, but it’s true. Also, I’d love for my site to be used as a tool for casting agencies, where they can come to find out more about new Black talents and eventually I hope that by the girls getting more support and exposure there will be more jobs available to them.

What’s next for Black Girl Fame?
Well, I’ve already started branching out from Black Girl Fame, as we recently opened up our site for boys. It’s still fairly new but I hope that one day it will be as successful as Black Girl Fame. As for Black Girl Fame, I just want the site to continue to grow with new talents and become more popular with visitors around the world.

Any suggestions/advise for girls out there trying to enter the Entertainment industry?
KEEP GOD FIRST and NEVER GIVE UP! I’ve learned from many of our girls that you have to stay focused and really love what you’re doing to make it in the industry. It takes a lot of heart and hard work, but if you want it bad enough, you will make it. I would also say that when your work pays off and you are making your way, I will be here to support you on your journey in the best way I can with my two websites.

SweetGyrl Inc.
http://www.sweetgyrl.com
http://www.sweetgyrlnetwork.blogspot.com