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Although music was her passion, Keke's first big break came via her 2004 screen acting debut in Barbershop 2: Back in Business, playing the part of Queen Latifah's niece. It was immediately apparent that Keke had star potential, so the Palmer family decided to give her the best chance to pursue her career and relocate to California.
The move proved to be inspired. Within six weeks, Keke had booked an episode of the critically acclaimed CBS series Cold Case and was chosen from a nationwide search to play opposite William H. Macy in a TNT Original movie. Palmer's performance in Wool Cap was so outstanding that it earned her a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination. To date, she is the youngest actress (then age ten) to ever receive a nomination in a Lead Actress category. Pretty good for a kid who has never taken acting lessons.
In 2006, Keke appeared as the lead character, Akeelah Anderson, in the critically acclaimed, award-winning film Akeelah and the Bee. Shortly thereafter, Keke appeared in Tyler Perry's Medea’s Family Reunion, which was number #1 at the box office for two consecutive weeks. She next lit up the small screen with her starring role in the Disney Channel hit movie, Jump In!
Palmer won the 2007 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for her role in Akeelah and the Bee, as well as receiving a ShoWest Award for Most Promising Actress.
Palmer contributed her first recording, “All My Girlz,” to the Akeelah and the Bee soundtrack, and followed that up with "My Turn Now" on the Jump In! soundtrack. She was also asked to sing "Tonight," the end title song from the smash Ben Stiller movie, Night at the Museum.
Keke's debut album, “SO UNCOOL,” is jammed with the kind of music that Keke loves. Bottom line, Keke Palmer is a unique talent who lives her life to the fullest without regard to worrying about what is cool and what is not. In fact, Keke thinks that being uncool is very cool indeed. Palmer and her sister, Loreal, also wrote songs together for “SO UNCOOL.” "I don't want to be considered a fake singer-actress that folks think just happened to do an album. Instead, I hope when people listen to my music, they feel my passion for singing and songwriting. I want them to walk away feeling something."
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