All posts tagged: Keke

Keke Palmer and UCLA Create New Artist-in-Residence Collaboration

Keke Palmer and UCLA Create New Artist-in-Residence Collaboration

Published by Daniella Wilson

Starting this fall, UCLA students will have the opportunity to learn a thing or two from Professor Palmer. Actress and entrepreneur Keke Palmer is teaming with the university’s School of Theater Film and Television on a new 5-year artist-in-residence collaboration — one that will see the I Love Boosters star leading quarterly workshops on campus. Significant to the partnership is Palmer’s digital media platform, KeyTV. The enterprise, which she launched in 2022, has already produced 29 original projects from an exclusively BIPOC pool of creators.  “UCLA TFT is a place where artists learn to be in practice, to experience trial and error, to take projects off the page,” said Palmer. “That is also the mission of KeyTV. We know that education is key to democratizing opportunities and I am eager to both learn from and support UCLA TFT students. It is no small feat to pursue higher education, especially at a prestigious institution. I look forward to listening, encouraging and offering them more than one chance to succeed.” The initiative, “From Blocking to Broadcast,” aims …

Keke Palmer Says She Gets Recognized Most for Viral “Sorry to This Man” Meme

Keke Palmer Says She Gets Recognized Most for Viral “Sorry to This Man” Meme

Published by Sam Flores

Keke Palmer can still recall every word to a pivotal scene in Akeelah and the Bee, the 2006 film that put her on the map. Lip-synching the dialogue two decades later, Palmer tells Vanity Fair, “I love that little girl, you know? She was fighting for her life, okay?” Luckily, a young Palmer had costars Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne as mentors: “In so many ways, they were my first teachers in the industry.” While walking down memory lane for Vanity Fair’s Scene Selection, Palmer reflected on her three seasons as star of the Nickelodeon series True Jackson, VP, from 2008 to 2011. “I grew up watching Disney, Nickelodeon, always being like, Wow, it would be so cool to do something like that. We all did. And it actually happened,” says Palmer. “Like, I was just gagged beyond belief.” But headlining a TV show as a 15-year-old meant sacrificing parts of her childhood. “I had to grow up really fast,” says Palmer, “I had to not worry about having kid feelings because I was in …

Keke Palmer in Boots Riley’s Anti-Capitalist Comedy

Keke Palmer in Boots Riley’s Anti-Capitalist Comedy

Published by Daniella Wilson

Boots Riley, the punkish filmmaker behind Sorry to Bother You and Amazon’s I’m a Virgo, has a proven knack for creating surreal realities that feel truer, somehow, than the ones we can see outside our window. His latest feature, I Love Boosters, is set in a version of the Bay Area where the floors of an office are tilted at a 45-degree angle, where a demon sucks the souls out of people by going down on them, where a teleportation device shows great promise as a way for retailers to cut down shipping costs. But watching it feels less like being transported into a different universe than putting on X-ray goggles to look at our own — and finding, buried under all the frustration and despair, a joyful and unruly sense of hope. I Love Boosters The Bottom Line Wild, weird and delightfully unique. Venue: SXSW Film Festival (Headliner)Release date: Friday, May 22Cast: Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Demi MooreDirector-screenwriter: Boots Riley Rated R, 1 hour …

Demi Lovato, Keke Palmer on Inappropriate Age-Gap Relationships

Demi Lovato, Keke Palmer on Inappropriate Age-Gap Relationships

Published by Daniella Wilson

Demi Lovato and Keke Palmer are realizing just how much they have in common as fellow child stars, including some not-too-positive experiences. During a recent conversation on the Baby, It’s Keke Palmer podcast, the two stars reflected on the challenges of growing up in the entertainment industry at a young age. Palmer led the Nickelodeon sitcom True Jackson, VP as a teen, and Lovato starred in the Camp Rock movies on Disney Channel and the sitcom Sonny with a Chance. “I became the breadwinner of my family just by proxy. You know what I mean? It’s just what happened,” Palmer recalled. “They had to help with my career and we’re seeing money that we never had seen. That stress for me, especially not being able to process it, was a big triggering point. And then never wanting to be sad or make anybody feel bad about it because I don’t want them to be stressed. And then not having a lot of time to have fun and be a kid.” Lovato knew exactly where The ‘Burbs actress was coming from. “I actually …

Keke Palmer in Peacock’s Dark Comedy

Keke Palmer in Peacock’s Dark Comedy

Published by Daniella Wilson

It’s a clever twist of The ’Burbs, Peacock’s new series-length spin on the 1989 cult classic, to set its story around not one but two new households on the cul-de-sac. Where Tom Hanks’ Ray was an established local casting a suspicious eye on his eccentric new neighbors, Samira (Keke Palmer) and Rob Fisher (Jack Whitehall) are the new neighbors — at least for a little while, until even fresher meat arrives in the form of Gary (Justin Kirk), a sour-faced recluse. The shift allows the show to take on a more expansive view of American suburbia: its allure and its hidden dangers, the push-pull it represents between individuality and conformity. But if its ambitions are admirable, the execution is unwieldy. A lumpy, though not unpleasant, mélange of uneven tones, thin characters and less-than-airtight reveals, The ’Burbs may not send anyone running for the hills — but it’s unlikely to inspire anyone to put down stakes there, either. The ‘Burbs The Bottom Line Uneven, though not unpleasant. Airdate: Sunday, Feb. 8 (Peacock)Cast: Keke Palmer, Jack Whitehall, …

Keke Palmer in Boots Riley’s Anti-Capitalist Comedy

Keke Palmer, Demi Moore in Boots Riley Movie

Published by Daniella Wilson

Keke Palmer has a unique plan in mind for Demi Moore‘s cutting-edge apparel in the trailer for I Love Boosters. Neon is set to release writer-director Boots Riley‘s feature in theaters May 22 after its forthcoming premiere at the SXSW Film and Television Festival in Austin. Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter and Don Cheadle round out the cast. I Love Boosters centers on Corvette (Palmer), the leader of a group of women targeting a trendy fashion mogul (Moore) as they aim to shoplift from the designer’s stores and sell the high-end clothes at a discounted rate. “I shop here a lot, and I feel like I should have it all,” Palmer says in the trailer. “I just want to take it all home, heat it up and shoot it out my eyes. I just feel like, ‘Give it to me. It’s mine anyway.’” Later, Moore declares, “They take my shit and sell it because they’re low-class urban bitches — with all due respect to urban bitches.” Riley, known …