Keke Palmer

Palmer was seen as the title character in the Lions Gate Films/Starbucks Entertainment sleeper hit “Akeelah and the Bee,” opposite actor Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett. In the movie, Palmer plays Akeelah Anderson, an 11-year-old girl who participates in the National Spelling Bee. Her breakthrough performance received praise from many film critics and organizations. Among the list of nominations received, “Akeelah and the Bee” was listed as one of NBR’s 2006 Top Independent Films of the Year as well as four nominations from the NAACP Image Awards. Palmer alone won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture as well as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture by the Black Movie Awards. She has also received nominations for Most Promising Newcomer by the Chicago Film Critics, Best Actress by the Black Reel Awards, and Best Young Actress by the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

On the small screen, Palmer recently starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie “Jump In!” The premiere broke the network records for an original television movie premiere with 8.2 million viewers and stood as basic cable’s most-watched program for the entire day. Palmer is also featured on the movie’s soundtrack and is the only artist with two songs on the album. The soundtrack landed at the top of the charts as the third best selling album in its first week of release and is continuing to climb the charts.

Palmer is recently wrapped up a twelve-city tour with the WNBA where she performed songs from her debut album “So Uncool” as the half-time special entertainment. Her album officially dropped last September 18th for Atlantic Records.

Palmer’s upcoming feature “The Cleaner” in which she starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Mendes for Millennium Films was screened as a Gala Screening at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival where it received great reviews.

Palmer began her career with a small role in the feature film “Barbershop 2: Back In Business” at the age of nine, opposite Queen Latifah. That role led to a series of guest-starring roles on television shows like “Strong Medicine,” “Cold Case,” “ER,” and “Law & Order.” Palmer later went on to star in the Emmy-nominated made for TV movie, “The Wool Cap,” opposite William H. Macy. Her performance in “The Wool Cap” earned her a NAACP Image Award as well as a coveted Screen Actors Guild Nomination in the Best Leading Actress category, alongside Charlize Theron, Hilary Swank, Glenn Close and Patricia Heaton. This nomination put Palmer in the record books as the youngest actor to ever be nominated by the Guild in a Lead Actor Category.

Her other film & TV credits include co-starring in the made for television movie, “Knights of the South Bronx” with Ted Danson, a pilot for her own show on Disney Channel, “Keke & Jamal;” and the Lionsgate film “Madea’s Family Reunion” starring Tyler Perry, Cicely Tyson, and Dr. Maya Angelou.

The Weinstein Company