Kyla A. Pratt

1986–

Actor

Kyla Pratt carved out a niche for herself in Hollywood as the likable teen in a long list of film and television projects. Working steadily since the age of ten, Pratt has been the voice of Penny Proud in the kids' hit series, The Proud Family, on ABC, and played the younger daughter of comedy veteran Eddie Murphy in the three Doctor Dolittle movies. Her popular appeal was confirmed in 2005 when producers for the UPN sitcom retooled the focus of One on One, one of the highest rated sitcoms among African-American viewers, to focus more on her character, Breanna Barnes.

Born on September 16, 1986, in Los Angeles, Pratt was the first of five children in her family. Her mother was active in local theater, and Pratt's first venture into the performing arts came when she was five years old and served as an extra in a stage production in which her mother was also involved. But acting was not a goal for her, she told Sakina P. Spruell in an interview for Black Enterprise. "I didn't really decide to get into this business, it just came up and I started to love it." she explained to Spruell. "My grandma showed off my pictures on an airplane and another passenger asked for me to be in a fashion show. Then an agent approached us and we signed with them."

Pratt's first paying job came in a 1995 television commercial for an interactive computer game. She worked steadily after that, beginning with an appearance in The BabySitters Club television series and a stint as one of the playmate kids in the Barney television series. That job led to her feature-film debut in Barney's Great Adventure, the 1998 movie that starred the lovable purple dinosaur. Over the next few years, Pratt worked steadily in sitcoms and television dramas. Her credits include Living Single, The Parent 'Hood, ER, Moesha, The Hughleys, The Parkers, Lizzie McGuire, and even an episode of Friends. She also made some memorable television commercials for the Women's National Basketball League, including one in which she upbraided Houston Comets guard Cynthia Cooper.

Pratt was cast as one of the two daughters in Doctor Dolittle, the 1998 feature film, with Eddie Murphy in the title role, about a man with a secret talent for conversing with animals. This modern adaptation of a long-ago children's story proved one of the surprise box-office hits of the summer, and Pratt appeared in its two sequels as the increasingly grown-up Maya Dolittle. Other film roles from this time included Love & Basketball in 2000, in which she played the younger version of the film's star, Sanaa Lathan, and The Seat Filler, a romance featuring heartthrob Shemar Moore and executive-produced by Hollywood heavyweights Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

One of Pratt's first regularly recurring television roles came with One on One, the UPN sitcom that debuted in 2001. She played Breanna, the fourteen-year-old daughter of divorced parents. When her mother's new job disrupts their Atlanta household schedule, Breanna goes to live with her father, a popular sports broadcaster played by Flex Alexander, in Baltimore. The series' storylines originally focused on her bachelor father's often-comic difficulties in adjusting to life as a single parent, and of a headstrong daughter unused to his suddenly strict rules with her. The show began to revolve more around Pratt's character starting with its fifth season in 2005, with plotlines centered on her new life as a college student in California. Breanna's off-again, on-again relationship with her longtime best friend, Arnaz (Robert Ri'chard), provided much of the series' drama that season.

One on One grew to become one of the top-rated sitcoms among African-American viewers. Pratt was also involved in another popular show, The Proud Family, as the voice of Penny Proud in the animated series. Her increasingly busy work schedule forced her to give up a regular school schedule—for a time, she was a student at the Hamilton High School Academy of Music, a magnet school for the performing arts and part of the Los Angeles United School District—and work with a tutor instead. But by the time she turned 16 in 2002, she had saved enough to buy herself a car when she received her driver's license.

Pratt's first starring role in a feature film came in 2004 with Fat Albert, the big-screen version of a popular 1970s television cartoon series based on characters created by Bill Cosby. Pratt was cast in one of the leads as Doris, an unhappy teen who watches a rerun of the show, cries, and a teardrop that leaks into the remote suddenly brings the characters to life inside her house. "From there, the movie, alas, just lies down and dies, despite the capable efforts of the young cast," declared New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis.

In 2006, Pratt appeared in the third Doctor Dolittle movie, and kept up with her One on One role. After having landed what many ten-year-olds would call their dream job, and then working steadily into adulthood, there are a few drawbacks to her career, she admitted to Spruell in Black Enterprise. "At first, I didn't like all the heat, hair spray, or tugging on my hair," she confessed. "For the weeks that I don't have to work, I don't wear makeup at all." Having one's own tutor on the set is not the easiest route to earning a high-school diploma, either. She still had to maintain a C average despite working on the set up to nine hours a day. When Buffalo News journalist Angela Stefano asked her if she had any advice to aspiring actors, Pratt cautioned them to "get into it because you love acting, not just for the money involved. If you don't love it, the whole process will get boring after a while."

At a Glance …

Born on September 16, 1986, in Los Angeles, CA.

Career: Actor, 1995–.

Addresses: Office—c/o UPN, 11800 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025.

Selected works

Films

Barney's Great Adventure, 1998.
Doctor Dolittle, 1998.
Love & Basketball, 2000.
Doctor Dolittle 2, 2001.
The Seat Filler, 2004.
Fat Albert, 2004.
Doctor Dolittle 3, 2006.

Television

One on One, 2001–
The Proud Family, 2001–.

Sources

Periodicals

Black Enterprise, March 2003, p. S10.

Buffalo News, May 14, 2003, p. N3.

New York Times, December 24, 2004.

Variety, December 27, 2004, p. 16.

WWD, December 23, 2004, p. 4