Keke Palmer has grown up in the public eye, making an indelible mark on the silver screen, small screen and computer screen.
Fans have followed her through many progressions:
From the “Akeelah and the Bee” breakout to box office hit “Nope.”
From “True Jackson, VP” to talk show host.
From “Scream Queens” to “sorry to this man” meme queen.
Now, the Emmy-winning multi-hyphenate has added another title to her resume: chief brand officer for Creme of Nature.
Palmer celebrated the nearly 50-year-old, Chicago-based hair care company on Tuesday at a special event at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center. It was a homecoming for Palmer, 31, who grew up nearby in Robbins. And she has also been taking advantage of some of the Windy City’s gems, citing Harold’s Chicken, Portillo’s, Alinea and Shedd Aquarium as some favorite spots.
Palmer’s position with Creme of Nature is just one part of a heavy workload. In addition to starring alongside SZA in the hit movie “One of Them Days,” she recently released her second book, “Master of Me.” She will return to Broadway as Muhammad Ali’s first wife, Sonji Roi, in a production directed by Debbie Allen. And her forthcoming films include projects directed by Aziz Ansari, Tim Story and Boots Riley.
Through it all, Palmer said her objective is to spread happiness through laughter.
“If I am responding to society right now, I feel like my entry point would be comedy because everything is so heavy in the world right now,” Palmer said. “And so I’m trying to bring joy — obviously not without acknowledgment of what’s happening. But, to me, joy is the way through.”
Palmer will bring the laughs in “The Pickup,” Tim Story’s upcoming heist comedy starring Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson.
“It was absolutely remarkable to see Eddie Murphy work up close,” she said. “I do think that experience of watching him informed a lot of the choices I made and things I did on ‘One of Them Days.’ Just working with him and seeing his situational comedy and the honesty of that was like a masterclass.”
Unfortunately, Palmer had to do more observing than acting alongside Murphy; she said they had limited time onscreen together.
“It’s truly a buddy movie between him and Pete, so I feel like Pete got all the time that I wanted with Eddie,” she said, laughing.
Palmer’s entrée into the film industry happened through another comedy: “Barbershop 2.” The then-11-year-old got the audition through a Chicago agency. Prior to that, she tried out in Schaumburg for “American Juniors,” the “American Idol” spinoff, and competed on the show in California.
Her rise to fame was rapid; besides “Akeelah and the Bee,” she played a memorable role in Tyler Perry’s “Madea’s Family Reunion” before landing the lead role on “True Jackson, VP” on Nickelodeon. She also released her first album, “So Uncool,” in 2007.
By 21, she was starring on Broadway, portraying Ella in “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.”
Reflecting on her career, Palmer cites her role in “Nope” in 2022 as a turning point, but its popularity was only part of the reason.
“Wearing my natural hair and being empowered by that experience and putting that Black American iconography out there with someone like Jordan Peele was huge for me,” she said.
She said her work in that film, and her role in the movie “Hustlers” a few years earlier, allowed audiences to view her in a different way.
“I became more empowered in comedy,” she said. “And then ‘Nope’ was the cementing of my work as an adult.”
Today, Palmer is not only navigating the entertainment industry, but motherhood. She also has dealt with a public breakup that generated a ton of attention and commentary from fans on social media.
She said she is working to establish boundaries between her personal and professional lives.
“I’ve been doing it with myself for years to understand, where do I begin and where does performing for the world end?” she said. “The Keke Palmer brand exists in a way that the real me is never going to exist [in public]. And I think sometimes that’s difficult for people to understand with artists or entertainers, but that’s something that I really want to make clear.”
Palmer also said she has limited her time on social media.
“It happened naturally for me,” she said. “I’m not on it in the way that I was before. If I am on it, I’m looking at cooking videos.”
But Palmer has opened up to her fans in her book, addressing personal matters, including childhood trauma, and offering advice.
She said she wanted to encourage young people who are facing some of the challenges she experienced, such as anxiety and depression.
“Just keep living, giving yourself a second chance every day, trying something different and new and never letting that hope die,” she said. “Because the truth is that there is a rainbow on the other side. And the gifts that you get, the realizations that you get about your life, are worth that wait.”