Keke Palmer Says She Wasn't in the 'Same Conversations' as Selena Gomez or Miley Cyrus as 'the Black Girl' on Nickelodeon
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/keke-palmer-selena-gomez-miley-cyrus-011425-233c8b3fefbe4c1b8e6e5ff36503a887.jpg)
Yesterday at 05:36 PM
"There is a loss of innocence that comes with the awareness that you're treated differently," the actress told The Cut
SGranitz/WireImage; Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic; Mike Guastella/WireImage
Keke Palmer in 2006; Selena Gomez in 2009; Miley Cyrus in 2006Keke Palmer is reflecting on her early acting days.
The Emmy winner, 31, said in a recent interview with The Cut that she wasn't considered in the same way as her peers during her time on Nickelodeon.
Despite the success of Palmer's teen sitcom True Jackson, VP, she felt that "people were putting limitations on me," she shared.
Cindy Ord/Getty
Keke Palmer visits the SiriusXM Studios on Nov. 20, 2024 in New York City"I wasn't necessarily in the same conversations as Victoria Justice or Selena Gomez or Miley Cyrus at that time," Palmer said. "It was very much 'That's the Black show' or 'That's Keke Palmer, the Black girl on the network.' "
Justice had her own Nickelodeon show Victorious, while Gomez starred in Wizards of Waverly Place and Cyrus famously headlined the Hannah Montana franchise – both on Disney Channel.
Palmer went on to relate the feeling to being the only Black child in her class at her private school in Illinois. "There is a loss of innocence that comes with the awareness that you're treated differently that I'd accepted a long time ago," she said, noting that she has since changed her perspective.
"I don't compare myself to anyone," Palmer said. "But I definitely don't compare myself to any White person."
Following the success of True Jackson, VP, the actress continued to nab roles in television and movies. In 2016, she played a lead role in Ryan Murphy's series Scream Queens, and next up she'll be in the comedy One of Them Days.
As someone who worked on both Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel — in the 2007 film Jump In! — Palmer recently opened up about the differences she saw between the two networks.
"Disney is really amazing when it comes to, not only the storytelling you see on screen, but the storytelling within the company. They are storytelling through marketing, through their employees. They've got the pins in the office," Palmer said on a November 2024 episode of The Toast podcast.
"They are literally like a whole universe, and I think that feels really good when you're a kid because the magic doesn't end. There's an element that being a part of it is really, really fun."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Palmer later noted that "Disney has a way of making you feel like, 'I need to be here. It's something you want to be a part of.' "
When it came to Nickelodeon, "their paying was really awesome," she revealed, adding that the environment was "kind of like 'Come in and get this check.' It wasn't about making it necessarily exciting."
