Biography
Cree Summer is a Canadian-American actress and singer. Born Cree Summer Francks on 7 July 1969 in Los Angeles, she grew up in Saskatchewan and Toronto, Ontario, and began her career as a child voice actor, appearing on the Canadian programme Mr. Dressup and voicing Penny in the first season of Inspector Gadget (1983).
She is known for her live-action role as Winifred "Freddie" Brooks in the NBC sitcom A Different World (1988–1993). Her extensive voice work includes Princess Kida in Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and its sequel, Susie Carmichael in the Rugrats franchise, Elmyra Duff in Tiny Toon Adventures, and numerous other animated series and films. She has also appeared as Lenny in the FX series Better Things (2019–2022), for which she co-wrote an episode, and voices Ahni in the Netflix series Bass X Machina (2026).
Summer is the daughter of Canadian actors Don Francks and Lili "Red Eagle" Francks.
