Cree Summer

American actress and voice actressTemplate:SHORTDESC:American actress and voice actress[[Category:**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Pagetype/config' not found.**s with short description]]

Template:BLP sources

* Subject to Change
* Lenny Kravitz
* Jasmine Guy

**Cree Summer Francks** (born July 7, 1969) is an American-Canadian actress, voice actress, comedian, and singer.

She is known for playing Winifred "Freddie" Brooks on the NBC sitcom *A Different World*. In animation, Summer was the original voice of Penny in the 1983 cartoon *Inspector Gadget*. Her other voice roles include Princess Kneesaa in *Ewoks*, Elmyra Duff in *Tiny Toon Adventures* and *Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain*, Susie Carmichael in *Rugrats* and *All Grown Up!*, Numbuh 5 and Cree Lincoln in *Codename: Kids Next Door*, and Cleo the Poodle in *Clifford the Big Red Dog.* *S*he is also the voice of Princess Kida in the franchise of *Atlantis: The Lost Empire*, Valerie Gray in *Danny Phantom*, Penelope in Barbie as Rapunzel, Blackarachnia in *Transformers Animated*, Rayna Cartflight in *The Buzz on Maggie*, Beast Girl in *Teen Titans Go!*, Priscilla Skunk in *Sheriff Callie's Wild West*, Maxine "Max" Gibson in *Batman Beyond*, Foxxy Love in *Drawn Together*, Magma in *X-Men Legends*, Yvonne and Gordon in *Mrs. Munger's Class*, Nebula in *Guardians of the Galaxy,* and Witch Haggar in *Voltron: Legendary Defender*. She also voiced the character Mo in the *Horrible Histories*, as well as Kermit's Mom, Star and Pilgrim in *Kermit's Swamp Years*.

## 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 freespirited 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*, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together, Dulcy the Dragon in *Sonic the Hedgehog*, Princess 'Kida' Kidagakash for the franchise of Disney's *Atlantis: The Lost Empire*, Valerie Gray in Nickelodeon's *Danny Phantom*, Numbuh 5 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*.

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 actor Tara Strong; the two are childhood friends, both having grown up in Toronto, Ontario.

#### Video game voice acting

She performed voice over for the games *Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance* and *BLACK*. She voiced Auriel in *Diablo 3*, and reprised the role for *Heroes of the Storm.* *S*he was also the voice of Tandi in *Fallout* and First Citizen Lynette in *Fallout 2,* Tatjana in *Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits,* Lady Belgemine, Young Tidus and additional voice-overs in *Final Fantasy X,* Lenne/Calli in Final Fantasy X-2, Storm in *Marvel Super Hero Squad,* Cynder in *The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning,* Magma in *X-Men Legends*, and the Inca Princess Micay in *Pitfall: The Lost Expedition*. She voices Medusa in the game *Kid Icarus: Uprising* for the Nintendo 3DS. She voiced Catalina Thorn, the leader of the Cell in *Crackdown 2.* She had a small role in *Mass Effect*. She also did miscellaneous voices in *World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria*. She reprised her voice of She-Hulk in *Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet*. She also voiced Kit Brinny in the introduction video for the MMORPG *Wildstar*. She provides the voice of vampire skater Roller Brawl in the *Skylanders* series. She has also voiced Professor Penelope Young, a minor character original in *Batman: Arkham Asylum*.

### Music career

Summer has sung since an early age and joined her first band at 13. In 1985, she recorded the theme song for OWL/TV. In 1990, she sang background vocals on two tracks for fellow *A Different World* cast member Jasmine Guy's self-titled LP. In 1993 she released an album (as lead singer) with her band Subject to Change. Capitol Records did not officially release the album because of creative differences; the records that were produced were distributed as promotions and are considered a rarity. The band, with an aggressive political message and rock-soul fusion sound, remained popular as a co-headlining act with other performers. In 1999, Summer released her solo album *Street Faërie* produced by and featuring guest artist (and friend) Lenny Kravitz, with the album a moderate success. Although Summer toured as Kravitz's opening act, her label dropped her and a planned spot with Lilith Fair was canceled. The label continued to promote the album, however, sending out a four-track sampler to radio and issuing remix singles of the track "Revelation Sunshine" in Europe, with a special single specifically for Austria.

Summer recorded a song titled "Savior Self" for which she directed a music video co-starring Zoë Kravitz, daughter of actor Lisa Bonet and rocker Lenny Kravitz. The video was screened online, but the track was never made available commercially, nor was it distributed to the radio.

A number of Summer's portrayed characters (animated or otherwise) are singers or sing songs within the soundtrack of a show. The character of Susie in *All Grown Up!* was portrayed as a singer with real talent, allowing Summer to sing in the role. Summer also sings the opening theme song for *All Grown Up!*. The character of Foxxy Love in *Drawn Together* was a singer, with songs like "La-La-La-La-Labia" and "Crashy Smashy", Numbuh 5 from *Codename: Kids Next Door* sang a lullaby to lull babies to sleep. Elmyra Duff sang many times on *Tiny Toon Adventures*. She co-performed lead vocals in the song "Cool Kitty" with Tara Strong, which accompanied a cartoon called *Class of 3000*, directed and written for Cartoon Network by André 3000. She provided the voice of a recurring pomegranate singer in *The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange*, who usually sung during montage sequences. Her character Priscilla on *Sheriff Callie's Wild West* sings many times, as well.

In 2008, Summer appeared on *The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAA Birthday Bundle*, performing a cover of Zappa's song "Dirty Love" with Dweezil Zappa on guitar and backup vocals by Ahmet Zappa, produced by Linda Perry.

#### Musical influences

Summer's musical influences include Frank Zappa, Al Green and Dinah Washington.

## Personal Life

Summer is married to Angelo Pullen. The couple has two children, 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 music, a Canadian music video and variety television channel.

## Discography

### Albums

* Appeared on the Juno Award-nominated album *I Lost My Pet Lizard* (1979)
* Appeared as Debbie in the Canadian *Sesame Street* album *Big Bird & Oscar the Grouch: Camping in Canada* (1981)
* *Womb Amnesia* – (1993) (with her band Subject to Change)
* *Street Faërie* – (1999)

## References

1. ↑ "Cree Summer". *Hollywood.com*. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170810205926/http://www.hollywood.com/celebrities/cree-summer-57248488/. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
2. ↑ "Honey Brown/Freeda Bandita Articles II". *tripod.com*. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170810171836/http://rainyblackcrow.tripod.com/id11.html. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
3. ↑ "Off The Reservation, `Different World's` Cree Summer Is A Bundle Of Contradictions", *Chicago Tribune* (1990-04-12). Retrieved on 2 October 2010. Archived from the original on 17 August 2011.
4. ↑ "CBS Hits Bottom, Trails Even Fox", Sun-Sentinel (September 21, 1995).
5. ↑ Drawn Together "Hot Tub" DVD commentary
6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 6.17 6.18 6.19 6.20 6.21 6.22 6.23 6.24 6.25 6.26 6.27 6.28 6.29 6.30 6.31 6.32 6.33 6.34 6.35 6.36 6.37 6.38 6.39 6.40 6.41 6.42 6.43 6.44 6.45 6.46 6.47 6.48 6.49 6.50 6.51 6.52 6.53 6.54 6.55 6.56 6.57 6.58 6.59 6.60 6.61 6.62 6.63 6.64 6.65 6.66 6.67 6.68 6.69 6.70 6.71 6.72 6.73 6.74 6.75 6.76 6.77 6.78 "Behind The Voice Actors – Cree Summer". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160126085015/http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/cree-summer. Retrieved January 31, 2016.  – green check mark indicates roles that have been verified by BTVA through closing credits
7. ↑ "Inside The "All Grown Up" Series". Rugratonline.com. 2002-09-26. Archived from the original on 2012-02-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20120217223036/http://www.rugratonline.com/tweens2.htm. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
8. ↑ "Cree Summer". Archived from the original on 13 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180413043201/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-03-03/features/9101200190\_1\_range-rover-tofu-favorite-childhood-memory. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Cree Summer". Archived from the original on 13 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180413043520/http://www.mtv.com/news/515722/cree-summer/. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
10. ↑ Momodu, Samuel (2016-11-15). "Cree Summer Francks (1969– )" (in en-US). https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/francks-cree-summer-1969/.
11. ↑ Template:Cite episode
12. ↑ *Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero* Episode 4 Closing Credits
13. ↑ Vanessa Marshall (August 24, 2015). "@IAmCreeSummer Hey Nebula, GuuuRRRRLLLLL! You are amazing! xoxo". Twitter. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305172757/https://twitter.com/vanmarshall/status/635908363411259392. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
14. ↑ Template:Cite AV media
15. ↑ Blazenhoff, Rusty (2013-10-03). "I Know That Voice, A Documentary About the World of Voice Acting". *Laughing Squid*. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20141006124426/http://laughingsquid.com/i-know-that-voice-a-documentary-about-the-world-of-voice-acting/.
16. ↑ Template:Cite video game
17. ↑ Template:Cite video

## External links

* Template:IMDb name
* Template:Ann
* Cree Summer at Behind the Voice Actors

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