Cree Summer Francks (born July 7, 1969) is an American actress and singer. She provides the voice of Tessa and Vanessa James in Pepper Ann.
Early Life[]
Summer was born in Los Angeles, California, on July 7, 1969, and grew up on the Red Pheasant Reserve in Saskatchewan. She is the daughter of Don Francks, a Canadian actor and musician, and Lili Clark from North Richmond, California, an adopted member of the Plains Cree First Nations. She and her family also traveled and lived around British Columbia during her childhood, and she started public school at the age of nine in Toronto. Her brother, Rainbow Sun Francks, is an actor and a former MuchMusic VJ.
Career[]
Acting[]
Summer's acting career began in 1983 when she was cast as Penny in the first season of the original version of Inspector Gadget. Her unique, throaty voice was instantly recognizable to viewers, as well as casting agents, who began frequently casting her in animated programs. Many of these were part of cult franchises, like The Care Bears Movie (1985) and Ewoks (1985, part of the Star Wars franchise).
In 1988, Summer was cast as the free-spirited Winifred "Freddie" Brooks in The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World. She remained a regular cast member of the show from 1988 through its end in 1993.
During the run of A Different World, Summer continued working in voice acting. She was cast in the short-lived television series Sweet Justice in 1994 until its cancellation in 1995. In the fall of that same year, Summer and her A Different World co-star Jenifer Lewis starred in the primetime drama Courthouse, which was cancelled two months after it premiered. Apart from guest appearances on other live-action television shows such as Living Single and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Summer's professional work since has been limited to voice acting.
At the start of the third season of A Different World in 1988, the cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters episodes were expanded from their original half-hour format to an hour. The show was changed to be more youthful. Episodes had a lighter tone designed to be less serious and frightening. In these lighter episodes, Cree voiced the sweet and helpful Chilly Cooper, the neighborhood ice-cream woman and innocent love interest of Slimer.
Summer voiced over 101 animated characters between 1983 and 2006. These have spanned video games, cartoon television series, animated films and commercials. Among her most famous roles was in Inspector Gadget (Season 1) as Penny (a role she reprised in the Robot Chicken episode "Adoption's an Option"), WB's Tiny Toon Adventures (1990) as Elmyra Duff (which she reprised for Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain) and Mary Melody, Aka Pella in WB's Histeria!, Susie Carmichael in Nickelodeon's Rugrats and its spin-off All Grown Up!, Cleo the Poodle in PBS Kids' Clifford the Big Red Dog, Miranda from Nickelodeon's As Told by Ginger, twins Tessa and Vanessa in Disney's Pepper Ann, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together, Iris in Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, Nocturna in Disney's Eckhart, Dulcy the Dragon in Sonic the Hedgehog, Valerie Gray in Nickelodeon's Danny Phantom, Numbuh 5 and Cree Lincoln in Cartoon Network's Codename: Kids Next Door, Penelope in Barbie As Rapunzel, octogenarian villain Granny May on WordGirl, Tiff from Nickelodeon's My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Blackarachnia in Transformers: Animated. She also voiced Princess 'Kida' Kidagakash for the franchise of Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, who was the first Disney Princess of color. Summer has regarded the character of Kida as her favorite role and even considers the character among the official Disney Princess line. She also played a role in Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated as Lady Marmalad in the episode "The Haunting".
In December 2016, Summer reprised her role as Penny from Inspector Gadget in an episode of the web-series, Nostalgia Critic.
Summer is a frequent co-star of Canadian-American actress Tara Strong (who had a guest role on Pepper Ann as Brenda); the two are childhood friends, both having grown up in Toronto, Ontario.
Personal Life[]
Summer is married to Angelo Pullen. The couple have two daughters: Brave Littlewing, born in 2011, and Hero Peregrine, born in 2013. Summer also has a younger brother, Rainbow Sun Francks, a Canadian actor and songwriter who was also an on-air personality at Much, a Canadian music video and variety television channel.
External Links[]
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