Akeelah and the Bee

Akeelah and the Bee is a 2006 American drama film written and directed by Doug Atchison. It tells the story of Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), an 11-year-old girl who participates in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, her mother (Angela Bassett), her schoolmates, and her coach, Dr. Joshua Larabee (Laurence Fishburne). The cast also features Curtis Armstrong, J.R. Villarreal, Sean Michael Afable, Erica Hubbard, Lee Thompson Young, Julito McCullum, Sahara Garey, Eddie Steeples, and Tzi Ma.

The film was developed over a period of 10 years by Atchison, who came up with the initial concept after seeing the 1994 Scripps National Spelling Bee and noting that a majority of the competitors came from good socioeconomic backgrounds. After completing the script in 1999, Atchison won one of the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting in 2000, which attracted producers Sid Ganis and Nancy Hult Ganis. After an initial inability to secure funding, the project got a second wind as a result of the success of the 2002 documentary film Spellbound. Lionsgate Films undertook the production in 2004 and in the following year it was filmed in South Los Angeles on a budget of over $6 million.

Keke Palmer

Lauren Keyana "Keke" Palmer (born August 26, 1993) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, presenter and television personality. Palmer was born in Harvey, Illinois and raised in Robbins, Illinois. After Palmer's film debut, Palmer and her family moved to California to help her pursue a career in acting. Palmer released her debut album, So Uncool, on September 18, 2007 through Atlantic Records. The album failed to chart on the US Billboard 200 but did chart at number 85 on the R&B chart. The album was preceded by the lead single "Keep It Movin'".

Apart from her work in music, Palmer is also a recognized actress. She made her acting debut in the 2004 film Barbershop 2: Back in Business and rose to prominence in 2006 for her breakthrough role in Akeelah and the Bee as well as starring in Madea's Family Reunion. Palmer has also starred in films such as The Longshots (2008) and Shrink (2009). In 2012, Palmer starred in four films Joyful Noise, Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and Virgin Mary. Besides films, Palmer has also starred in the television films Knights of the South Bronx (2005), Jump In! (2007), and Rags (2012) amongst others. Palmer has also had numerous television roles including the lead role in Nickelodeon sitcom True Jackson, VP. Palmer earned $20,000 per episode of True Jackson, VP, which made her the fourth highest-paid child star on television. She is currently a series regular on Scream Queens, a horror-camp television show, which debuted on the Fox Network on September 22, 2015.

Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr.; September 13, 1969) is an American actor, producer, director, screenwriter, playwright, author, and songwriter, specializing in the gospel genre. Perry wrote and produced many stage plays during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2011, Forbes named him the highest paid man in entertainment; he earned US$130 million between May 2010 and 2011.

Perry is known for both creating and performing as the Madea character, a tough elderly woman. Perry also creates films, some produced as live recordings of stage plays, and others professionally filmed using full sets and locations with full editing. Perry is estimated to have earned around US$75 million by 2008. Many of Perry's stage-play films have been subsequently adapted as professional films.

Perry has also created several television shows, his most successful of which is Tyler Perry's House of Payne, a show that ran for eight seasons on TBS from June 21, 2006, to August 10, 2012. On October 2, 2012, Perry struck an exclusive multi-year partnership with Oprah Winfrey and her Oprah Winfrey Network. The partnership was largely for the purposes of bringing scripted television to the OWN network, Perry having had previous success in this department. Perry has created multiple scripted series for the network, the most successful being The Haves and the Have Nots. As of 2014, The Haves and the Have Nots has given OWN its highest ratings to date. The series has also been critically acclaimed as being "one of OWN's biggest success stories with its weekly dose of soapy fun, filled with the typical betrayals, affairs, manipulations and a bitch slap or two."

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Aly & AJ

Aly & AJ, formerly known as 78violet (seventy-eight violet) is an American pop rock duo that consists of sisters Alyson "Aly" and Amanda Joy "AJ" Michalka. They signed a recording contract with Hollywood Records in 2004. Their debut album, Into the Rush, debuted at number 36 on the US Billboard 200, and was later certified gold by the RIAA. It has sold 839,000 copies domestically and 1 million worldwide. Their second album, Insomniatic, peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, selling over 39,000 copies in its first week and becoming Aly & AJ's highest debut to date.

In 2009, Aly & AJ renamed themselves 78violet and officially announced their departure from Hollywood Records the following year. In 2013, the sisters released their first single in five years, "Hothouse". The duo had planned to release a full-length album in 2014, which was later leaked onto the internet during the summer of 2014. On December 9, 2015 the duo announced they have decided to return to their original name, Aly & AJ.