Who is Cree Summer?

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By Thean Sargeant

Cree Summer Francks, professionally known as Cree Summer, is an American Canadian actress who has graced both live and animated screens. Her father, Don Francks, was a Canadian actor, singer, and musician. Her mother, Lili Red Eagle Francks (née Clark), is a Plains-Cree African American actress and an adopted Red Pheasant Cree Nation member. Summer lived in both Saskatchewan and British Columbia before starting school in Toronto. She now lives in the U.S.

Summer was interested in voice acting from a young age. With her father’s help, she landed the role of Penny in the 1983 Inspector Gadget animated show. In an interview with AV club, she said that her father was auditioning for the show and asked if his daughter could read for Penny. With that, it was the beginning of her acting career. Summer has voiced main characters, acted as multiple characters within a show, and played background characters for over 40 years. She has amassed over 250 roles across films, television shows, and video games.

When asked how she thinks of voices for her characters, Summer told Splinter that she sees a picture of them and gets an “indication of what they sound like.” According to asitecalledfred.com, she also looks at the character’s age, jaw, and even teeth to determine what they should sound like. Aside from that, Summer uses the voices she gave her toys from when she had to entertain herself as an only child without a TV.

Summer enjoys the non-competitive nature of the voice-acting world as she feels that other voice actors are silly people who enjoy doing their job. They “[know] their lane and what they’re good at,” she explains to AV club. Voice actors recommend one another for roles they know the other person would be good at. Summer has grown close to many in her voice-acting circle like Grey Delisle and fellow Torontonian Tara Strong, describing her relationship with the latter as one of the “sweet soul sisters for a million years.”

While some of her characters have been white, Summer has brought many Black female characters to life. In the past, Black and brown kids didn’t see themselves depicted on screen as often as their white counterparts. According to Summer in AV Club, cartoons are one of the first times kids can see themselves, so it’s not good when Black and brown kids are not represented. She got excited when she saw her Rugrats character, Susie Carmichael, thinking that the character “looks like a real little brown girl, not like a white girl [coloured] brown.” She also feels that her Black princess in Atlantis: The Lost Empire doesn’t get the recognition a Disney princess needs. She hopes this changes.

Summer’s work has also extended into live-action roles. She appeared on popular shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Living Single in 1994. Her longest role was Winifred “Freddie” Brooks in A Different World, a spin-off of The Cosby Show. She played the role from 1988 until the show’s end in 1993. Recently, she played a minor character on Abbott Elementary and will be starring in Disney/Marvel’s miniseries Ironheart.

Summer has dabbled in singing and released one studio album called Street Faërie. Her love for singing carried over into her characters as she has sung for some of them. A few shows wherein Summer has sung are All Grown Up! as Suzie Carmichael, Drawn Together as Foxxy Love, and Codename: Kids Next Door as Abigail Lincoln (Numbuh 5).

Summer has been unstoppable in pursuing the career she has loved since she was a little girl. She credits the start of her career to pure nepotism and hopes that her daughters can carry on the “family business” of voice acting.