Kyla Pratt Is Ready To Take Over Your Television Screens…Again

Between the late 90s and 2000s, you couldn’t turn on your tv without seeing, (or hearing the voice of) Black America’s sweetheart, Kyla Pratt. Recently, the 35 year old actress reflected on the impact she’s had on Black culture, and the reprisal of her role as Penny Proud in the new “Proud Family” reboot.

“My mom is an actress, so I enjoyed watching her work, and I wanted to be like Mommy,” she told HuffPost about her beginnings in the industry. “And literally everything I auditioned for, I was that young girl, I would let you know if something was too grown for me.”

Pratt began her acting career shooting commercials for brands like Nike. We later saw the young starlet in one of her first film roles in Dr. Doolittle, and as the tween version of Monica Wright, the Love and Basketball lead depicted by Sanaa Lathan.

Ask any Black millennial woman you know and they’re sure to recall Kyla Pratt as the it girl taking over for the 99 and the 2000s. Her characters in shows like One on One go down in Back girl history for the fashion alone. And let us not forget her first ever voice over role as Penny Proud in one of the highest viewed Black led animated shows of all time, “The Proud Family.” This month, Pratt happily reprises her role as the spunky teen in the show’s reboot, “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.”

“I’m just so excited that a newer generation also gets to enjoy what we had back in the day,” she said. “And then also we can go back and go back to that space of being 10, 11, 12, and take us to that area where we were first watching it.”

While many tv fans have been left yawning at the thought of another 2000s era reboot, Pratt says that she never had that fear about the new Disney+ version of the classic show.

“I think knowing the situations that we had, and the storylines that we had, and the people that we have working on the project, I never felt that way. I felt like they were about to kill it in every single way,” she said.

Many of Pratt’s Proud Family co-stars have returned to reprise their roles as well. Fans can look forward to once again hearing the voices of Tommy Davidson, Paula Jai Parker, Jo Marie Payton and Karen Malina White also. Additionally, a few new, yet familiar voices will join the cast including Keke Palmer, EJ Johnson, and Lizzo.

If you’re looking forward to keeping your commitments to your inner child this coming spring, you can catch “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” on Disney+ beginning February 23rd.