So here's my relationship to Raven-Symoné. I adore her.
I think she is the type of person
in Hollywood that lots of people can look up to.
She's been a huge inspiration for me throughout the years.
Raven-Symoné has been in our hearts and minds since she was a little girl
on The Cosby Show.
I remember seeing her and growing up with her,
and she's a little younger than I am.
But I remember feeling like that was
such a cute kid on the show while I was growing up.
And she was super talented, even at a young age.
I remembered when I met her that when she was a kid,
she had had like a music career and she was a great dancer
and had a great style and all these things.
I just was really excited when I was told that she was
going to be a part of the Disney Channel family back in the day.
And I remember
them saying how
it was really important to her family and her to have her
name in the title of the show. That right off the bat was like
somebody who was putting their legacy in the front of their mind.
That's a really big power move, if you want to call it that.
I was kind of already really intrigued when I had heard that
that was happening. So Raven is a really great leader.
And I think in order for you to become anything other than
sort of a self-interested actor, you kind of need to have
leadership skills. And sometimes
you don't have them, right?
Sometimes you can develop them.
But I really feel that Raven has always had
them, was born with them, and has this natural
entrepreneurial spirit about her that is extremely inspirational.
Raven had success with her show.
And from that, you know, she started working
within the Disney Channel family.
And the Cheetah Girls did fantastic things for her as well.
And it showed us how she was a great singer
and she sang on her own with lots of different tracks.
I'm actually really surprised
that Raven didn't have more of a music career.
I would have bought her CD. She deserves it.
I remember meeting her at various things that I've done with Disney
and just being super impressed with her and her charisma and her way
to literally change the room when she walks in it.
Then when she became Monique for Kim Possible, I was thrilled.
I was sad because I wasn't in the same studio when we were recording.
And it would have been really great to be able to hang out with her more.
That was kind of a bummer, because we were supposed
to play best friends, but we never really got to hang out.
So I sadly had a little friendship with her via Kim.
So they told me “hey, Kim has a new best friend
and her name is Monique.”
That's amazing.
Who's going to play her? Raven-Symoné.
And I was like, that's awesome guys.
Great, great idea.
From there, her character just like burst into life.
And that character to me is just so great.
Their relationship together, it really brings Kim out of her shell.
Because without Monique, we don't really get to see
Kim Possible as like anything but like an action fighter or whatever.
So Monique was super duper important for Kim Possible to stay successful.
I really enjoyed watching her
go out of the traditional TV space and start to do all
the feature films that she did.
I was really excited to see her
do College Road Trip, and I loved seeing her grow.
And I know that there was probably a lot of pressures for her
to sort of mold into a traditional way of doing things.
But overall, she is just very iconic.
And I'll tell you why I think she's so iconic.
So other than just having really great leadership skills.
She's the master of reinventing herself
by accepting her truth and her authenticity.
I feel like when you think of Raven-Symoné, you never think about somebody
who's pretending to be someone else.
You know, she joined The View, and
that was a really important part of her process.
I do think that it was probably really daunting
because I think she was at a time where she had joined
the list of Disney actors who have starred on Broadway.
And she did Sister Act, and she did an amazing job.
And I can't imagine someone better for that role.
I'm really proud
any time someone from Disney Channel can go and perform on stage
because it is not easy, it takes a ton of work.
And to me, the fact that she could do that
successfully shows what kind of performer she is.
I mean, she has been acting on a stage and on a set since she was like
four or five, six years old.
So to her, that probably was a really great experience, I would imagine.
I hope it was.
It's like she's one of those performers
that just doesn't stop.
She's like a powerhouse, essentially.
In the last few years, I was really lucky to see
behind the scenes on how she works.
I was shadowing because I am a director as well.
So Raven came back, I guess, to Disney Channel,
and the Raven’s Home idea came about.
And I am so happy that it did, because I feel like what it does
is it empowers the idea of a reboot,
but it's less reboot and more a continuation.
It shows people that
Ravens grown up, Anneliese has grown up. But they have these
three dimensional lives. They’re parents now, and they're still funny.
And when you see these two women together,
I can't even tell you. When you meet them in real life.
Their energies are amazing.
And so essentially, I shadowed
and I was just watching them do their run through.
And then I sat in the run throughs like notes, like
they do a note session with people from the studios and whatnot.
She is such a...I want to say boss,
but I know that that's somewhat cliché these days.
She's like in charge, like she
she's in charge of her own ideas, let's put it that way.
Because she's respectful of everyone else's ideas.
But she has her convictions and she stands by her creative
ideas. You know, it was a big deal when Raven came out.
I think that's amazing.
I think that this person needs to live their truth and that is their truth.
She's now married.
They're in love.
This is awesome.
We can only wish the best for our friends. Right?
And hope to see her singing more and performing more.
And I will be there to support her.
I hope she knows that
I really do hold a special place in my heart for her. She's awesome.
She's my animated best friend.
So when I was doing
Chrissie's Kitchen Throwback, I was able to get Anneliese
to come onto my show and we cooked together.
And while we were there, we Face Timed, Raven. And it was awesome.
She was like, hey, what are you guys doing? What?
What's going on? This is crazy. What are you doing?
And I was like, we're here.
I want you to come on my show.
I then ended up moving to Austin and she's obviously
with everything going on.
I do believe that we would have been able to work it out,
but it was like no time had passed when I saw her on that Face Time
It's weird. It's weird how like when you grow up with certain people,
when you see them, it's just like a connection.
Oh, my God. I totally forgot.
I saw her at the Kim Possible Live action movie.
She was there and Tahj Mowry was there. Oh, my gosh.
Am I getting old?
And being like “and that person was there and this person was there.”
But there's a picture online with me, Tahj and Raven, because
we were the crew.
We were the KP crew.
And it was a really good moment.
Like, honestly, it was a really good moment
when we got to see each other quickly and it was again,
like no time had passed.
So Raven if you're watching this, know that I love you very much.
You've inspired me for years, probably decades now.
And I hope that someday I can be as great of a communicator that you are.
And congratulations on your nuptials.
We should all aim to be like Raven. She's awesome.
But then I remember when she started doing her
YouTube content. Which was like lifestyle, space stuff,
she could show that she was like enjoying cooking and in the kitchen.
And that was kind of inspirational to me in the long run. Right?
and I directed a full length feature for Lionsgate.
That's a Christmas movie, and it's super cute.
And it was super low budget.
And I would really like to keep doing that and producing and directing.
But it's difficult when you have two kids who are very,
very young and they're in school and being on set for 12 hours a day.
And then some when you want to be a good producer and a good director.
It's not easy, especially when you’re a mom.
Dad, maybe it's a little different, but that's just my opinion.