"My voice sounds like I dragged my vocal chords down a dirt road and then doused it in Jack Daniels and mentholated Cools."
Cree Summer Francks (born July 7, 1969) is an American-Canadian (born in Los Angeles, raised in Saskatchewan) actress whose career began in 1983 when she was cast as the voice of niece Penny on the original cartoon version of Inspector Gadget. Her unique, throaty voice was instantly recognizable to casting agents (as well as viewers even today), who began frequently casting her in animated programs.
In all, Summer has voiced over 100 animated characters since 1983, many of them African-American girlsnote , though she has voiced her fair share of white girls, such as Elmyra Duff from Tiny Toon Adventures (and Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain) and Penny from Inspector Gadgetnote . These have spanned the realm of video games, cartoon television series, animated films and commercials.
Fun facts:
- Her father is jazz musician Don Francks, and her younger brother is Rainbow Sun Francks. There was a time where she was credited by her full name, but she dropped the last part, as she felt that name made her sound like a brand of hot dogs.
- She is married to filmmaker and photographer Angelo Pullen, and they have two daughters, Brave (born March 2011) and Hero (born January 2013).
- She also has a musical career. She was the lead singer of the short-lived band Subject to Change, whose album Womb Amnesia was canceled by Capitol Records before its intended release in 1993, although some promo copies sneaked out. She released a solo album, Street Faërie, in 1999.
Notable roles:
Advertising
- Ms. Green from M&M's commercials
Film
- Herself in I Know That Voice
- Princess/Queen Kidagakash "Kida" Nedakh in Atlantis: The Lost Empire (her first major role in an animated film)
- Mena in Bambi II
- Penelope in Barbie as Rapunzel
- TBA in The Magician’s Elephant
- One of the talking seagulls in The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water
- Mercy Graves in Super Man Doomsday
- Additional voices in The Super Mario Bros. Movie
- Additional voices in Toy Story 4
- Hippolyta and Medusa in Wonder Woman: Bloodlines
Live-Action TV
- Freddy in A Different World (one of her two significant live-action roles)
- Jan in What We Do in the Shadows (2019) (the other significant live-action role Summer has had)
Video Games
- Alison Crestmere/Magma in X-Men Legends
- Archangel Auriel in Diablo III and Heroes of the Storm
- Belgemine and young Tidus in Final Fantasy X
- Calli and Lenne in Final Fantasy X-2
- Evil Cynder from The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
- Dr. Penelope Young in Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Lynette in Fallout 2
- Medusa in Kid Icarus: Uprising
- Mindy in Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
- Dr. Sinclair in Freelancer
- Protoss Executor Selendis in Starcraft II
- Kit Brinny as well as several Chua NPCs in WildStar
- Tandi in Fallout
- Tatjana in Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits
- Teledoor in Broken Age (as well as bit parts such as Vella's mother and the "fun size" maiden)
Western Animation
- Ace on Dinotrux
- Aka Pella in Histeria!
- Anna on Puppy Dog Pals
- Beast Girl in Teen Titans Go!
- Bethanie Ravencroft in Beware the Batman
- Blackarachnia in Transformers: Animated
- Bunny and Grandma Tentacles in The Patrick Star Show
- Catnip in Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater
- Chilly Cooper in Slimer! and The Real Ghostbusters
- Chloe in Sabrina: The Animated Series
- Cleo in Clifford the Big Red Dog
- Cookie BaBoom, the Mayor's deranged "exotic dancer" ex-girlfriend in The Mask (episode - "Flight as a Feather")
- Denzel on Henry Hugglemonster
- Dulcy the Dragon in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)
- Edna Peopleson on Vampirina
- Elmyra Duff and Mary Melody in Tiny Toon Adventures and Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain
- Foxxy Love, Strawberry Sweetcake, Super Nanny, Ni-Pul, Xandir's Girlfriend, Captain She-Ro, Letta Lame, the other Foxxy Five members, Queen of Mexico, Georgina in Drawn Together
- Frightwig in Ben 10
- Geri on Glitch Techs
- Granny May from WordGirl
- High Priestess Haggar and Honerva in Voltron: Legendary Defender
- Hailey in Weird Answer Kommand.
- Haruna's mother on Miles from Tomorrowland
- Hyena in Gargoyles
- Jamzy and the Flexer Teacher in Mixels
- Lady Macbeth in Project G.e.e.K.e.R.
- One of the Lemoncarb twins in Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake
- Lizard and DeeDee in Spirit Rangers
- Madame Xanadu and Aquagirl in Young Justice (2010)
- Maxine Gibson in Batman Beyond
- Miranda in As Told by Ginger
- Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy (2015)
- Nefertina in Mummies Alive!
- Numbuh 5/Abigail Lincoln and her sister Cree Lincoln in Codename: Kids Next Doornote
- The offscreen singer for the "Tiger Prince" episode in Animaniacs
- Panthera in Thunder Cats 2011
- Penny in early seasons of Inspector Gadget
- Penelope in Barbie as Rapunzel
- Pilgrim the dog, Kermit's star, and Kermit's mother in Kermit's Swamp Years
- Prince Louie in the later episodes of Jungle Cubs
- Princess Kitana in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm
- Princess Kneesaa in Ewoks (season 1)
- Queen Xhan in Kid Cosmic
- Raishan and Salda on The Legend of Vox Machina
- Richard's mother and Mrs. Torres on The Rocketeer
- Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Hippolyta in DC Super Hero Girls 2019
- Sheba Beboporeba in The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
- She-Hulk in The Incredible Hulk (1996) (season 2)
- Skeeter on Muppet Babies (2018)
- Spitfire in Robot and Monster
- Storm in The Super Hero Squad Show
- Susie Carmichael in Rugrats and All Grown Up!
- Tessa and Vanessa James in Pepper Ann
- Thunder on DC Super Hero Girls
- Tiff on My Life as a Teenage Robot
- Valerie Gray in Danny Phantom
- Vixen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold
- Wuya in Xiaolin Chronicles
Tropes associated with Cree Summer:
- Acting for Two:
- As sisters Abigail and Cree in Codename: Kids Next Door.
- As Lenne and Calli in Final Fantasy X-2. In Final Fantasy X she had also voiced Tidus's younger self (who doesn't appear in the second game).
- In The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses as Lizzie and Bonehead.
- As Elmyra Duff and Mary Melody in Tiny Toon Adventures.
- In Drawn Together she voices eight other characters in addition to Foxxy Love.
- Actor Allusion: In Batman: Arkham Asylum she voices an original character named Penny Young, a reference to her first major role - Penny in Inspector Gadget.
- Actor-Inspired Element: Miranda Killgallen was going to be white, but was changed to a black girl when Cree was cast.
- The Cast Show Off: Susie becomes an aspiring singer in All Grown Up!, allowing Cree to show off her singing talents.
- Cross-Cast Role: She's voiced white characters before, as well as voiced little boys. Word of God has stated that where she'd be stuck only playing the Token Black Friend on-camera, as a voice actor she has the range to play anyone/thing whether it's the white girl in that situation or an Animate Inanimate Object.
- The Danza: As Cree Lincoln in Codename: Kids Next Door, though her more prominent role in the show is Cree's little sister Abigail, a.k.a Numbuh Five.
- Ink-Suit Actor: When voicing Princess Kida, the animators modelled her movements and gestures off Summer while she was in the studio.
- Magnum Opus Dissonance: The favourite character of hers that she's voiced is actually Princess Kida. She jokes that she considers her a Disney Princess even if she isn't in the line-up.
- Non-Singing Voice: She provides Lenne's speaking voice in Final Fantasy X-2 but the singing is done by Jade Villalon, who also sings for Yuna. However in All Grown Up! she does sing for Susie.
- Old Shame: Her voice acting work for Nelvana in Canada for three reasons: 1. Nepotism as her father was also doing voices there, 2. She was more focused on her music career and 3. "The fucking Care Bears."
- Only So Many Canadian Actors: One of the few examples of this trope to break out of this, since only her pre-Tiny Toon Adventures resume consisted of Canadian works.
- The Other Darrin:
- She's the Other Darrin for minor character Calli in Final Fantasy X-2, but is two years older than the first game, justifying the change.
- She was on the other side of this trope with Tandi between Fallout and Fallout 2. This is justified in that eighty years pass between those games.
- The Other Marty: Was originally cast as Meg Griffin in Family Guy before getting replaced by Lacey Chabert - who was likewise replaced by Mila Kunis. On the flip side, she replaced Ralph Hall on Henry Hugglemonster.
- She was also the original Lisa, Will Smith's love interest on The Fresh Prince Of Belair for one episode before Nia Long permanently took the role.
- Pigeonholed Voice Actor: Need a Sassy Black Woman? Cree Summer is your girl. Half the examples on the page are voiced by her.
- Playing Against Type:
- Miranda Killgallen in As Told by Ginger is not particularly sassy and is actually a manipulative scheming Beta Bitch. Cree Lincoln from Codename: Kids Next Door is in a similar vein. Not coincidentally Summer uses a similar voice as Miranda's.
- Princess Kida in Atlantis: The Lost Empire is The Chief's Daughter.
- Both characters she voices in Final Fantasy X-2 - Calli is an Adorably Precocious Child, while Lenne is a Mysterious Waif. In the previous game she voiced Tidus's younger self as a Bratty Half-Pint.
- She voices Edna Peopleson on Vampirina, Poppy and Edgar's nice, but normal mom.
- Playing with Character Type: Susie in Rugrats has some sass from time to time but she's usually the Only Sane Man or the moralistic Foil to the more exaggerated personalities on the show.
- Race Fetish: Her song, "Curious White Boy" calls out this trope that the titular curious white boy may like sleeping with her, but doesn't want to let his parents know about her out of shame.
- Role Reprise: Voiced Penny again on Robot Chicken where Gadget got taken over by SkyNet as well as an Elmyra Expy.
- Romance on the Set: She was in a long term relationship with Kadeem Hardison during the run of A Different World.
- The Stoner: Shockingly, the daughter of hippies used to smoke pot, which gave her the signature rasp in her voice. Since she quit, the rasp has faded over the years.
- What Could Have Been:
- Seth MacFarlane initially chose Summer to play Meg in Family Guy before she was replaced by an uncredited Lacey Chabert and later Mila Kunis, but, depending on who you ask, either Seth MacFarlane thought having a (half-white) black woman play a white girl would be in poor tastenote or Summer turned down the offer because she didn't want to voice white girls anymore. In other interviews she's said that she simply wasn't the right choice for the role.
- Miranda on As Told by Ginger was written to be white, but changed to a black girl when Summer was cast - also in an attempt to diversify the cast.
- She almost didn't get the role for Foxxy Love because she self-admittedly phoned it in until Tara Strong called her out on it and went back for a proper audition.
