Black Cinema Celebrates: Cree Summer

As African Americans we often talk about the importance of celebrating Black voices. If you come from the 80’s, 90’s, or even the early 2000’s there is no way that Cree Summer was not one of your most memorable voices of Black entertainment culture.

Cree Summer was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in Toronto, Canada. Anyone could say it was in her blood to be an entertainer being that both her mother and father were already famous actors. She has a brother named Rainbow who is also a famous actor as well. Catching the attention of the world of entertainment with her distinctly raspy, yet beautiful voice. Cree’s first big break came when she landed the voice acting role of Penny on the animated series Inspector Gadget in 1983 for the first season.

After Penny, Cree became a reoccurring voice actress in roles like The Care Bears Movie in 1985 and the Star Wars spin-off Ewoks. Cree’s biggest break of the decade came in 1988 when she was casted in the live action role of Freddie in the Cosby Show spinoff, A Different World.

After Cree hit it big with her first live action role, she still continued her voice acting which was only growing along with her live action appearances by the turn of the 90’s. If someone were to ask me what was my introduction to Cree Summer, without hesitation I would tell them the smash hit Nickelodeon cartoon series, Rugrats.

In the late 90’s golden-era Nickelodeon was pure life for me and Rugrats was of course one of my regular favorites to watch. The character Susie Carmichael was of course one of my favorite characters with her big personality and vibrant spirit. As an African American child I identified with her so much and I know so many other Black children felt the same way. After Rugrats the voice of Cree Summer was most familiar to me watching other cartoons I was a fan of like Clifford The Big Red Dog where she voices the dog named Cleo and the Nickelodeon’s hit young adult animated series As Told By Ginger where she voiced the character Miranda Killgallen.

I will never forget the first time I ever saw Cree Summer’s face. It was when Nickelodeon hosted their highly anticipated All Grown Up special from the Rugrats series in July of 2001. After the show Nickelodeon premiered a behind the scenes special giving fans a look at who were all the voices behind the Rugrats characters and as I watched it I was mind blown. I couldn’t believe that everyone doing the voices of our favorite characters were all adults and they were all women. I was like wow they really had me thinking it was a bunch of kids and when I saw Cree Summer’s face I was fixated on her like “so that’s the lady who does the voice of Susie? She’s really cute”.

After seeing what Cree Summer looked like behind her voice I began noticing her from so many other shows and movies I loved. I was always a fan of A Different World and when I noticed she was one of the main characters I liked the show even more. Of course there were so many other animated series that I recognized her voice from, but I was even more intrigued that she was doing the voices of characters of other ethnic groups like when she played Penny on Inspector Gadget as well as the character Elmyra Duff on Tiny Toon Adventures.

Cree Summer is a legendary voice of Black artistry and an amazing woman who has inspired me. She has broken down so many barriers for Black artist and inspire so many of us with the memorable characters who she has given a voice to in the countless works of entertainment of which she has been a part. I sincerely appreciate this amazing artist known as Cree Summer for all the memories she has given me and for all the ways in which she has inspired me by showing me I can break norms, cross boundaries and really be a voice for my community.

~~For Cree.