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She
had fun with the character and learned a great deal from
one of her first inspirations, Bill Cosby. Today, Keymáh
stars as Tanya Baxter along with Rondell Sheridan, Orlando
Brown, Kyle Massey, Anneliese Van der Pol and another Cosby
kid, Raven, on Disney's zany, adventure packed #1 comedy
series, That's So Raven. T'Keyah plays the devoted, suburban
mom of Raven, an eccentric and offbeat teenager who has
the ability to foresee flashes of the future.
From
the age of three, Keymáh entertained her family;
singing, dancing and reciting original poems and stories.
She wrote her first play and her first song in elementary
school. In high school, she performed with the Mary Wong
Comedy Group, and produced and directed theatrical variety
shows! Florida A & M University's School of Business
and Industry recruited the National Merit Scholar. On scholarship,
Keymáh excelled in their Leadership program. The
university has since given her their second highest honor,
'The Meritorious Award', and she is listed among the 100
most influential FAMUans of the Century.
During
and after college, she taught theater, dance, and pantomime.
Keymáh even served as an elementary substitute teacher
by day, while working in many of Chicago's renowned theaters
such as the Court, ETA and The Goodman (where she last played
Beneatha in Chuck Smith's 2000 production of A Raisin in
the Sun). She also performed with companies such as Wavelength,
Chocolate Chips, and Light Opera Works, sang with Rafo International
Combo and danced with the Bill Cody Dancers and the Najwa
(West African) Dance Corps (with whom she sometimes appears
as a guest artist).
Keymáh's
other stage performances include Love Letters (with David
Alan Grier) and The Five Heartbeats Live (for which she
received a NAACP Theater Award nomination). In her one-woman
show, Some of My Best Friends: A Collection of Characters
Keymáh toured the country playing eleven characters.
The critically acclaimed show garnered her NAACP Theater
Awards for Best Actress and Best Play and an AUDELCO nomination
for Best Solo Performance. She has performed as a singer
in plays and at various venues in Chicago, Los Angeles and
Senegal, West Africa. Through a collaboration between The
Eugene O'Neill Playwright Center and the Moscow Ministry
of Culture, T'Keyah was part of a select group of actors
sent to Russia to workshop and perform in John Henry Redwood's
drama, The Old Settler. Her current project, T'Keyah Live!
... Mostly: A True Variety Show, debuted at the 1999 National
Black Theatre Festival to rave reviews. Her film work includes
Rusty Cundieff's Tales From the Hood, Quentin Tarantino's,
Jackie Brown and Booker T. Mattison's The Gilded Six Bit.
Keymáh
has done voice-over guest spots on HBO's Happily Ever After;
Disney's American Dragon and Warner Brothers' Hysteria,
Pinky & the Brain and Batman Beyond. She created three
of the voices for the Fox holiday special Cool Like That,
over a dozen for Warner Brothers' Waynehead and the voice
of Tweety's newest pal, Aoogah, in Warner Brothers' video
feature, Tweety's High Flying Adventure. She is the voice
of Bumblebee on Warner Brothers' Teen Titans.
Keymáh
has also taken on the challenge of producing films! With
actor, writer and director Bobby Mardis, she starred in
and executive produced the award winning romantic thriller,
One Last Time. For Showtime, the two also produced the acclaimed
short subject, Circle of Pain, starring Todd Bridges and
Glynn Turman which won 2nd place at the Charleston Worldfest
International Film Festival and 3rd place at Temecula Valley
International Film Festival. Keymáh is now developing
a romantic comedy that she will star in and produce through
her own company, T'Keyah Keymáh, Inc. Undaunted by
neither the scarcity of opportunity nor the negative images
sometimes generated by mainstream Hollywood, she feels that
it is imperative to avoid complacency and to "carve
your own road." She feels that she has been very fortunate
so far, but plans to push her luck!
T'Keyah
Crystal Keymáh enriches her life with charitable
work and writing. Through the Keymáh Cultural Fund,
she supports arts organizations and gives underserved youth
opportunities to see live theater. A lifetime member of
Delta Sigma Theta, Public Service Sorority, Inc., she also
works with the NABSIO prison outreach program and Color
Me Bright Youth Foundation. Keymáh is currently working
on both a screenplay and a children's project. She is the
author of the popular, Natural Woman / Natural Hair: Hairstyles
and Hairstories From the Front, with Simple Step-By-Step
Instruction of Taking Care of Your Natural Hair. She has
co-hosted the National ACT-SO Awards, and the Orange Bowl
and Aloha Parades. She enjoys public speaking and directing
workshops, especially for youth audiences, and tempers her
schedule with a vegan diet, gardening, reading, daily exercise,
meditation and prayer. When she has time, T'Keyah loves
to travel! She was born on October 13, in Chicago.
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* For interviews with T'Keyah, email press@tkeyah.com.
Press Inquiries Only, Please!!
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