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Actress Quinn Copeland, 10, recently won an Emmy – the Outstanding Younger Performer in a Preschool, Children’s or Young Teen Program from the Children’s & Family Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California – for her portrayal of Izzy in Peacock’s reboot of the hit 1980’s TV comedy series, “Punky Brewster.” Quinn becomes one of the youngest recipients in TV history to win such an award! We talked with her shortly after she returned from LA to ask her about the experience and what the future holds.
“My experience was awesome!” says Quinn. “The best part was chilling with Jenna Berg, my friend who flew in from San Francisco to join me for the fun. Jenna is also an actress. I loved getting to see Soleil Moon Frye again, the original Punky Brewster, and actually meeting a lot of famous people from cartoons that I like: Fix It Felix (Jack McBrayer) from Wreck It Ralph who hosted the show; Mabel (Kristen Schaal) from Gravity Falls, and Cece Bell who is the author of the El Deafo, which became a cartoon that I voiced. I played Martha in El Deafo on Apple TV+. I had never actually met Cece Bell in person because we did the voiceover in different locations.”
Receiving the Award
Quinn says the announcement of her award made her speechless at first, but then she regained her composure and gathered enough courage to walk up on stage to receive her award. “It felt like magic when I was on stage with all these people clapping for me. I felt like I belonged. When I said literal magic in my speech, I meant an unrealistic feeling like a magic wish came true.
“I was thinking: Oh, my gosh. This must be the most elaborate prank ever. My mom and I are known for pranking people, especially on the set of a project; so I thought maybe I was getting payback. The other nominees are so talented, and I wanted them to feel good and accepted like the way I was feeling.”
Quinn said she had to stand on her tippy toes when she gave her speech into the microphone after accepting the award and that wasn’t fun. “I thought, ‘What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to say?’ So I just decided to start talking – sharing my feelings and reflecting on the feelings all at the same time. It was confusing because I had never seen this kind of stuff happen up close in real life, so I was confused about how to respond.”
Izzy Similarities
The character Izzy was easy to portray as Quinn saw a bit of herself in her. “Izzy was a sassy, little girl who was struggling to cope with feeling abandoned by her mom and joining a new family. She never knew how to belong. She loved telenovelas and wrestling. She was a tough cookie. But, really, all she wanted was to be loved. She was a lot like me.”
Even though Quinn and Izzy are similar, they are also different. “She didn’t have parents and didn’t have her mom with her. I feel lonely sometimes when I don’t have my mom by my side. She loved to eat super weird food whereas I like to eat the same thing over and over again like popcorn, King’s Hawaiian rolls, Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream chips, pickles, peanut butter crackers, and Goldfish.”
Back in Texas
Unfortunately, Punky Brewster was not renewed for another season, and this made Quinn sad. Yet, she is happy something good came from it. Quinn loves to perform in LA but she loves being home in Texas. “I love the super hot summers and super duper cold winters here. It’s fun, but can get annoying. It’s extra exciting when it snows because we don’t normally get snow. We have Sonic and Whataburger. It’s not weird to wear cowboy boots with any outfit. My favorite Texas places to visit are: the playgrounds at nature parks; Fort Worth Botanic Gardens; the Fort Worth Science Museum and the Elmo show at the Planetarium, the Fort Worth Zoo; catching musicals at Bass Hall or Casa Manana; the renaissance fairs in Texas are also fun; the Texas State Fair; and, the Fort Worth Stockshow and Rodeo.
The Future
The future looks bright for Quinn as she shares about an upcoming feature film she performed in that was shot in Africa. “I have a big awesome movie coming out this year called, Boy Kills World. I’m not gonna spill all the tea, though, but really – it’s gonna be so good.”
Her final thoughts about her LA experience: “I can’t say it enough. Receiving this award was magical. With acting, it never feels real. It feels like I am in a dream or something because everything is so beautiful like the sets created for the project – like nothing I have ever seen. I love getting to travel and explore the cities where we get to film like Cape Town, South Africa and Los Angeles.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
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Cover photo courtesy Katie Copeland
Bob Valleau is a freelance writer living in McKinney, Texas
