keke palmer
Stylist sits down with Keke Palmer to discuss her evolution, comparison culture and how she really feels about her 20s
words: Leah Sinclair
photography: KANYA IWANA
In April, I wrote a piece about why 2022 was shaping up to be the year of Keke Palmer. The multi-hyphenate talent has quietly become a dominant force in the world of entertainment, with this year seeing her scale new heights after years of non-stop working. From animations to thrillers, Palmer’s IMDb list for 2022 is as long as the box braids she’s rocking when we meet four months later. And it’s impressive indeed. Despite being in the industry for two decades – no mean feat given she’s 28 – some are only just being introduced to Palmer, who was born and raised in Illinois, USA. They may not know that she encapsulates what it means to hustle, ensuring each space she wants to be in opens up to her, not restricting herself (as Hollywood is so fond of) to one box. This has enabled her to span the worlds of musicals (she was the first Black woman to play Cinderella on Broadway), acting, singing and presenting, and take her 11.2 million fans on Instagram, but it was her breakout leading role in 2006’s , about a shy young girl with an amazing talent for spelling, that made me sit up and take notice. It provided a level of representation I hadn’t witnessed before. To see a young Black girl with braids and glasses – like me – in all of her brilliance truly resonated with me and many Black girls around the world. From there, she began to forge a path in music, releasing her debut album at 14 years old and later starring in Nickelodeon series . She then landed her own talk show, , at the age of 20, which made her the youngest TV talk show host in history, going on to host the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards and the Met Gala carpet in 2021. Now it’s time for a defining Hollywood moment, as she stars in Jordan Peele’s much anticipated alongside Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya. The expansive horror film builds on the director’s ability to redefine the genre, as he did with and . Palmer and Kaluuya play siblings Emerald and OJ who live in a lonely valley of inland California and witness an alarming extraterrestrial threat. The film, which topped the US box office, is chilling, humorous and cynically reflective of today’s society. It places Palmer’s personality front and centre and she shines brilliantly on screen. Sixteen years on from when I first saw her, I’m so happy to see her in her full power.
