Cree Summer

This picture is so cool I had to do a post on her

Cree Summer Francks (1969- ), better known as just Cree Summer, played Freddie Brooks on the American television show “A Different World” (1988-1993) and has played the voices of over a hundred cartoon characters, among them Susie Carmichael on “Rugrats” (1992-2004) and Foxxy Brown on “Drawn Together” (2004-2007). But most of all she has wanted to be a singer in a rock-and-roll band, something she has done off and on since age 13, but with limited success.

Growing up: She was born in Hollywood to two Canadian actors, Don Francks (white German) and Lili Red Eagle (black and Cree Indian). Soon after she was born, they left for Canada to live on the Red Pheasant Cree Indian reservation in Saskatchewan, Canada.  There her father built a house made of mud. She lived there for the first six years of her life: no running water, no power, no school. Off the grid. They grew most of their own food and took part in pow-wows and so on. The music she heard there growing up has affected her own.

At age six they left, moving from place to place. They lived in a school bus, a commune, a horse stable and a friend’s basement. At age eight she saw her first television. By age nine they had settled down in Toronto, where she went to school till 16.

Voice acting: At 14 her father, then working as a voice actor, helped her to get a part playing the voice of Penny in “Inspector Gadget”. Voice acting has been her mainstay ever since.

Among her better known characters:

1983: Penny, “Inspector Gadget

1990-1993: Elmyra Duff, “Tiny Toon Adventures”

1992-2004: Susie Carmichael, “Rugrats”

2000-2003: Cleo, “Clifford the Big Red Dog”

2004-2007: Foxxy Love, “Drawn Together”

The voices are those she used for her toys when she was little.

Part of why she likes voice acting is that it allows her to be anything – a white girl, a black girl, even an inanimate object. She says that as a black actress the best she could ever hope for is to play some white woman’s Black Best Friend.

Television: Despite all her cartoon characters, she is best known for playing hippie-dippy Freddie Brooks in “A Different World”, a spin-off of “The Cosby Show”. She appeared in all but the first season, from 1988 to 1993. Her persona on that show is not too far from her own. I loved her!

For a number of years she went with Kadeem Hardison, who played Dwayne Wayne on the show. She became fast friends with Lisa Bonet.

Music: Despite her television success, her chief passion has been music. It is just something she has to do. Even if it means following Fishbone in a van to open for them or playing up and down Sunset Strip for two years to get a record deal. Her only released album to date has been “Street Faerie” (1999), produced by Lenny Kravitz, Bonet’s ex-husband. She later went on the road with Kravitz and opened for him, but shortly after was dropped by her record company.

See also:

• Lisa Bonet
• black actresses