As someone who has admired Keke Palmer since the days when Disney Channel was one of my primary sources of entertainment, I am pretty excited for how her career has been going lately. From playing the title hero of the fact-based revenge thriller, Alice, to one of the leads of Jordan Peele’s latest thriller, Nope, as well as lending her voice to Pixar’s Toy Story spin-off, Lightyear, 2022 is really looking to be her year.
Of course, the 28-year-old actress and singer’s current success is really the result of nearly two decades of proving her talent to the world, starting when she was a child. As a way of applauding her hard work for paying off so well, let’s take a look back on some of the best Keke Palmer movies and TV shows you can find on streaming, staring with her first starring role in a theatrically released, feature-length film.
Akeelah And The Bee (Peacock Premium)
A naturally inquisitive 11-year-old girl from South Los Angeles (Keke Palmer) who's struggling to break free from her own insecurities and rough home life is given the chance to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, with help and much encouragement from a renowned English professor (Laurence Fishburne).
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: In 2006, Keke Palmer shared the screen with Academy Award nominees Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett (one of her biggest acting inspirations) as the title role in Akeelah and the Bee - a heartwarming and inspiring family drama about academic learning and learning to be yourself from writer and director Doug Atchison.
Stream Akeelah And The Bee on Peacock Premium.
Rent/buy Akeelah And The Bee digitally on Amazon.
Buy Akeelah And The Bee on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Cleaner (Netflix)
A former cop (Samuel L. Jackson) who now makes a living cleaning up after crime scenes discovers that, for his most recent assignment, he was conned into unknowingly helping cover up a murder by removing the evidence, and begins to investigate the truth behind the matter himself.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: In 2007, Keke Palmer shared the screen with another Academy Award nominated icon, Samuel L. Jackson, as his daughter, Rose, in Cleaner - a suspenseful mystery thriller from the perspective of the people involved in crime scene investigation whom you never really think about, from director Renny Harlin.
Stream Cleaner on Netflix.
Rent/buy Cleaner digitally on Amazon.
Buy Cleaner on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
The Longshots (Vudu)
A washed up former high school football star (Ice Cube) discovers that his young niece (Keke Palmer) has skills with the pigskin and trains her into becoming the new quarterback for her local high school’s football team.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: In 2008, Keke Palmer reunited with Ice Cube (one of the stars of her acting debut, Barbershop 2: Back in Business) in The Longshots - yet another inspirational family drama about discovering and accepting your talents, which is also based on the true story of female football prodigy Jasmine Plummer, from director Fred Durst (yes, the lead singer of Limp Bizkit).
Stream The Longshots on Vudu.
Rent/buy The Longshots digitally on Amazon.
Buy The Longshots on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Ice Age: Continental Drift And Ice Age: Collision Course (Disney+)
The clumsy, bizarre creature known as Scrat causes cataclysmic issues for the mismatched herd of Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo), Diego (Denis Leary), and others on two separate occasions.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: In 2012, Keke Palmer reunited with another one of her Barbershop 2: Back in Business co-stars (Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah) as the voice of her daughter, a young mammoth named Peaches, in the fourth installment of the Ice Age movies (subtitled Continental Drift) before reprising the role in the 2016 follow-up, Ice Age: Collision Course.
Stream Ice Age: Continental Drift and Ice Age: Collision Course on Disney+.
Rent/buy Ice Age: Continental Drift digitally on Amazon.
Buy Ice Age: Continental Drift on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Rent/buy Ice Age: Collision Course digitally on Amazon.
Buy Ice Age: Collision Course on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Animal (Amazon Prime)
A group of five close-knit college students have their weekend getaway cruelly interrupted when they and others must hole up together as they begin to fall prey to a strange, bloodthirsty predator unlike anything they have ever seen before.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: After voicing an animal in Ice Age: Continental Drift, Keke Palmer and others (including Joey Lauren Adams and Elizabeth Gillies, to name few) faced off against a ferocious creature in the fun, 2014 creature feature, Animal, for which Palmer also performed an original song of the same name.
Stream Animal on Amazon Prime.
Rent/buy Animal digitally on Amazon.
Buy Animal on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
True Jackson, VP (Paramount+)
After her no-nonsense attitude and sense of style gets noticed by a renowned fashion mogul (Greg Proops of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame), a 15-year-old girl (Keke Palmer) is impulsively offered the chance to be the new vice president of his company, Mad Style.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: Keke Palmer’s Animal co-star Elizabeth Gillies found fame on the cast of Victorious on Nickelodeon, which also aired the sitcom True Jackson, VP, starring Palmer in the title role, from 2008 to 2011.
Stream True Jackson, VP on Paramount+.
Buy True Jackson, VP digitally on Amazon.
Buy True Jackson, VP on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Scream Queens (Hulu, IMDb TV)
The diverse and dysfunctional members of a prestigious college sorority become subjected to even more conflict when they begin to fall prey to a mysterious masked killer and everyone is a suspect.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: If Animal was not enough to make Keke Palmer a Scream Queen, then her role as Zayday Williams on the aptly titled, semi-anthological horror-comedy series, Scream Queens (from American Horror Story co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk) from 2015 to 2016 had to be more than enough.
Stream Scream Queens on Hulu.
Stream Scream Queens on IMDb TV.
Buy Scream Queens digitally on Amazon.
Buy Scream Queens on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Pimp (Amazon Rental)
With her pimp father gone, a young woman (Keke Palmer) is forced to take over his business in order to look after her mother (Aunjanue Ellis) and her girlfriend (Haley Ramm), but her ambitions to eventually get them out of the Bronx and on track toward a better life are complicated by a male pimp who is very competitive and very dangerous.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: In 2018, Keke Palmer gave one of the most stunning performances of her career so far in Pimp - a gritty crime drama and love story from Academy Award nominated producer Lee Daniels and writer and director Christine Crokos.
Rent/buy Pimp digitally on Amazon.
Buy Pimp on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Hustlers (Hulu)
A group of former employees at a high class New York City strip joint aspire to make a little more money off of their wealthier clients, typically male Wall Street brokers, than the unassuming customers may have intended to give.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: In 2019, Keke Palmer reunited with Jennifer Lopez (her co-star from Ice Age: Continental Drift and Ice Age: Collision Course) and gave another stellar performance as an exotic dancer named Mercedes in the Hustlers cast in this acclaimed, stylish crime drama, which was also based on a true story, from writer and director Lorene Scafaria.
Stream Hustlers on Hulu.
Rent/buy Hustlers digitally on Amazon.
Buy Hustlers on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Human Resources (Netflix)
Emmy (Saturday Night Live’s Aidy Bryant) is a love bug in an office full of other monsters - ranging from shame wizards to logic rocks, and many more - who receives her first assignment in a mother struggling to connect with her new infant child.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: In 2022, Keke Palmer would reprise her recurring role on Big Mouth as a former hate worm turned love bug named Rochelle, as a series regular in the Human Resources cast in this new spin-off from Netflix’s clever, animated coming-of-ages series that gives a larger voice to the metaphorical monsters who control our many emotions, thoughts, and actions.
Stream Human Resources on Netflix.
The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder (Disney+)
Fourteen-year-old Penny Proud (Kyla Pratt), her overly-protective father, Oscar (Tommy Davidson), affectionate mother, Trudy (Paula Jai Parker), and outspoken grandmother, Suga Mama (former Family Matters cast member Jo Marie Payton), work together day by day to navigate life in modern times.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Keke Palmer: Also in 2022, Keke Palmer revisited her Disney Channel days by joining the voice cast for The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder - the Disney+ reboot of the hit animated family comedy - in the regular role of fellow 14-year-old Maya Lebowitz-Jenkins, who makes up for her age in unapologetic, and often one-sided, progressive views and staunch social activism.
Stream The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder on Disney+.
In addition to acting and singing, Keke Palmer has also had an impressive hosting career, from MTV’s Singled Out revival in 2019 to its 2020 edition of the Video Music Awards. The talent can already do it all and should be around for many years to come.
