Sheila E. is getting animated…
The 64-year-old half-Mexican American percussionist, singer and actress has joined the voice cast of Eureka!, Disney Jr.’s upcoming animated preschool series.
Sheila E. appears on a roster of new cast additions that includes Loretta Devine and Misty Copeland.
Also cast in recurring roles are Ellie Kemper, Jack McBrayer, Ryan Michelle Bathé and Wendell Pierce.
They join previously announced leads Ruth Righi, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lil Rel Howery and Javier Muñoz.
Set in the fantastical prehistoric world of Rocky Falls, Eureka! follows the story of Eureka (Righi), a young girl inventor who is way ahead of her time. She designs inventions and contraptions in the hopes of making the world a better place and moving her prehistoric community into a more modern era.
Goldsberry and Howery voice Eureka’s parents Roxy and Rolle, and Muñoz portrays her teacher.
Sheila E. and Copeland will voice the characters of Yurt, a traveling musician, and Rockanne, a dance teacher, respectively.
Rounding out the voice cast is Kai Zen as Pepper, Devin Trey Campbell as Barry, Fred Tatasciore as Murphy, Cree Summer as Verna, Kevin Michael Richardson as Dima, Aydrea Walden as Olive and Groopy, Connor Andrade as Bog,
Also cast in recurring roles are Ellie Kemper, Jack McBrayer, Ryan Michelle Bathé and Wendell Pierce.
Eureka! is produced by Oscar-nominated animation studio Brown Bag Films (Doc McStuffins) in association with Disney Junior. Emmy winner Norton Virgien and award-winning children’s book author/illustrator Niamh Sharkey are the series’ creators and executive producers. Emmy-nominated Erica Rothschild \developed the series with Virgien and Sharkey and serves as co-executive producer and story editor. Film and television writer and director Rusty Cundieff and Emmy-nominated television producer Donna Brown Guillaume are consulting producers.
Christiana “Chee” McGuigan, a science educator who has worked at the California Science Center, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, serves as the series’ science education consultant. Biomedical scientist, social entrepreneur and former senior policy advisor for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Knatokie Ford, advised on the original series development. Engineering experts from Disney’s Imagineering team advised on the early development of Eureka‘s inventions.
The series is set to premiere Wednesday, June 22, at 7:30 pm EDT/PDT on Disney Junior. An initial batch of episodes will also premiere the same day on on-demand platforms and streaming on Disney+.
