Keke Palmer

Born Lauren Keyana Palmer on August 26, 1993 in Harvey, Illinois, Keke Palmer is an award-winning R&B vocalist and actress/entertainer. As an actress, she appeared in Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), Madea’s Family Reunion (2006), Akeelah and the Bee (2006), and more. She entered the musical arena with her 2007 debut self-titled EP and the album, So Uncool, which featured the singles “Footwurkin’” and “Keep It Movin’”. Palmer’s busy acting career kept her occupied with starring roles and guest appearances on TV shows like ER, Cold Case, Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit, Degrassi: The Next Generation, 90210, Key & Peele, and more. For her acting roles, she received numerous NAACP Image Awards, BET Awards, and a Daytime Emmy Award nomination. Palmer returned to the world of music with the 2011 mixtapes Awaken and Awaken Reloaded. She appeared on the Top 20 soundtrack to the 2012 motion picture Joyful Noise, a film in which she also starred. Palmer provided the voice of Peaches in several installments of the Ice Age motion picture series. For the 2012 movie, Ice Age: Continental Drift, she sang the film’s second theme, “We Are (Family)”. That same year, she released the well-received mixtape Keke Palmer. After a short recording break due to her own talk show Just Keke in 2014, she released the Lauren EP in 2016, which landed at Number 18 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart. In 2020, Keke Palmer released the Virgo Tendencies, Pt. 1 EP featuring the singles “Sticky”, “Thick”, and “Snack”, followed by Virgo Tendencies, Pt. 2 later that year. Included in The Time's list of most influential people in the world, Keke Palmer starred in other roles and hosted the talk show Strahan, Sara and Keke (2019-2020), before returning to the studio for the albums Big Boss (2023), and Just Keke (2025).