Backdrop fallback

Akeelah and the Bee

Akeelah and the Bee

Share

Akeelah and the Bee

"Changing the world... one word at a time."

2006

1h 53m

7.0(355 votes)

Drama

Overview

11-year-old Akeelah Anderson has a way with words. After winning her schoolwide spelling bee, she decides to enter the competition, despite her classmates' derision and the antipathy of her mother Tanya. Thanks to the efforts of her teacher Dr. Larabee, she reaches the finals. As she gets to know her fellow competitors, Akeelah realizes that coming first isn't everything in life.

Where to Watch

Rent

Amazon Video

Links & Resources

Website IMDbView

Social & External

Production Companies

Lions Gate Films

2929 Productions

Cinema Gypsy Productions

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Keke Palmer

Keke Palmer

Akeelah Anderson

Laurence Fishburne

Laurence Fishburne

Dr. Larabee

Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett

Tanya Anderson

Curtis Armstrong

Curtis Armstrong

Mr. Welch

J.R. Villarreal

J.R. Villarreal

Javier

Sean Michael Afable

Sean Michael Afable

Dylan Chiu

Sahara Garey

Sahara Garey

Georgia

Lee Thompson Young

Lee Thompson Young

Devon

Julito McCullum

Julito McCullum

Terrence

Erica Hubbard

Erica Hubbard

Kiana

Creative team

Directed by: Doug Atchison
Written by: Doug Atchison
Produced by: Nancy Hult Ganis
Laurence Fishburne

Similar Movies

Hypothesis of Barrier Agreed Upon

Hypothesis of Barrier Agreed Upon

a filmmaker setting out to capture the life of demolition worker, an immigrant whose close friends and fellow workers went missing. As the filmmaker attempts to do so, the production faces many symbolic and frustrating obstacles in between. Disheartened, the filmmaker departs the site—defeated, exhausted, and grieving the story they couldn’t tell.

Rainbows

Rainbows

A stirring story that captures the glory of determination when a physically challenged young girl brings an abused, homeless female jockey, and an abandoned horse together for a ride of a lifetime and much more.

A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey

While out to avoid spending time with her narcissistic and promiscuous mother, sixteen-year-old Jo has a brief affair that leaves her pregnant and abandoned. When her mother remarries, Jo's only support becomes her friend Geoffrey, a homosexual.

Kabei: Our Mother

Kabei: Our Mother

Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and bring up her two daughters with the support of Shigeru's sister Hisako and Shigeru's ex-student Yamazaki, but her husband does not return. WWII breaks out and casts dark shadows on the entire country, but Kayo still tries to keep her cheerful determination, and sustain the family with her love. This is an emotional drama of a mother and an eternal message for peace.

Kalavaadiya Pozhuthugal

Kalavaadiya Pozhuthugal

The unexpected meeting of two ex-lovers after a long time affect the equation of their respective families

How Stella Got Her Groove Back

How Stella Got Her Groove Back

Through good times and bad, Stella and Delilah have always had each other. Now, Stella's so busy building a life that she's forgotten how to really live. But Delilah is about to change all that. What starts as a quick trip to Jamaica, ends as an exhilarating voyage of self discovery as Stella learns to open her heart and find love – even if it's with a man 20 years her junior.

Dog Run

Dog Run

In 1995, teen runaways Eddie and Miles are sent to New York City to deliver on a drug deal with the promise of easy money and a place to live. But when the deal falls through, they find themselves penniless in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village on the Lower East Side. They discover a vast underworld of abandoned buildings where kids live and are drawn into a world of sex, drugs, and survival.

Lucy Puma - A Gata da Pesada

Lucy Puma - A Gata da Pesada

With the explosion of Hip Hop and Rap, three young black musicians battle for space. They cross paths with the São Bento gang, a singing and dancing group led by Thayde and DJ Hum. And also with musicians like Luni, Marisa Orth, Nazi, Fábrica Fagus and many people who play shows at the Mambembe theater.

In the Heights

In the Heights

The story of Usnavi, a bodega owner who has mixed feelings about closing his store and retiring to the Dominican Republic or staying in Washington Heights.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The Herdman kids are undeniably the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, cheat, bully and overall terrorize their small community. But this Christmas, they're taking over their local church Pageant – and they just might unwittingly teach a shocked little town the true meaning of Christmas.

A Witch Lives In The Attic

A Witch Lives In The Attic

A witch and other strange things live in the attic above lonely, dope-addled artist, Grey. After meeting Renee, Grey struggles to appease these beings, as she tries to find her place in the world outside of her home.

Daydream Therapy

Daydream Therapy

Daydream Therapy is set to Nina Simone’s haunting rendition of “Pirate Jenny” and concludes with Archie Shepp’s “Things Have Got to Change.” Filmed in Burton Chace Park in Marina del Rey by activist-turned-filmmaker Bernard Nicolas as his first project at UCLA, this short film poetically envisions the fantasy life of a hotel worker whose daydreams provide an escape from workplace indignities. —Allyson Nadia Field

The Scout

The Scout

Sofia works as a location scout for a TV pilot filming in New York City. It’s her job to find the homes, businesses, and exteriors where the show will be filmed. Driving around the city's different neighborhoods, she enters the private spaces of strangers to photograph their cozy apartments and eclectic shops, stepping into the fabric of their lives while trying to satisfy the demands of her erratic employers. Over a day filled with these encounters, Sofia witnesses moments of curiosity, vulnerability, and quiet tension until her work takes a sudden, personal turn.

Villa Touma

Villa Touma

Three unmarried aristocratic Christian sisters from Ramallah have shut themselves in their villa clinging desperately to their former glory, until their orphan niece, Badia, walks into their life and turns their world upside down.

Home, Sweet Home

Home, Sweet Home

A father and his son have a vicious confrontation when the former returns after 5 years of absence.

In Name Only

In Name Only

A wealthy man falls for a widow but is locked into a loveless marriage with a woman who has contrived to convince his parents she is the ideal wife.

Mud Key

Mud Key

A lesbian couple and their lapdog accidentally beach their boat on a tiny remote Florida Key, crashing a right wing couple's campsite, and all must wait for the tide to come back in for them to get the hell out of there.

Chinese Angel

Chinese Angel

Spencer Thompson, at rock bottom after losing his job and home, plans to end his life. But when he meets Angela, who calls herself a “Chinese Angel,” his path takes an unexpected turn toward light. Shot in London, Cyprus, and Canada, the film won awards worldwide.

The Living End

The Living End

Two HIV-positive young men — a semi-employed film critic and a hot hustler — tear off on a cross-country crime spree.

Mother

Mother

An everyday conversation between Marta and her mother turns into a tragic race against the clock when Marta receives a phone call from Iván, her six-year-old son, who is on holiday in France with his father.

Recommended Movies

Skin

Skin

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid

New Jersey teen Daniel LaRusso moves to Los Angeles with his mother, and soon strikes up a relationship with Ali. He quickly finds himself the target of bullying by a group of thugs, led by Ali's ex-boyfriend Johnny, who study karate at the Cobra Kai dojo under ruthless sensei John Kreese. Fortunately, Daniel befriends Mr. Miyagi, an unassuming repairman who just happens to be a martial arts master himself. Miyagi takes Daniel under his wing, training him in a more compassionate form of karate for self-defense and, later, preparing him to compete against the brutal Cobra Kai.

The Fabelmans

The Fabelmans

Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

Gigi & Nate

Gigi & Nate

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

American Underdog

American Underdog

The true story of Kurt Warner, who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback.

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables

A retelling of L.M. Montgomery's story of Anne Shirley, an orphan who is accidentally sent to a couple looking to adopt a boy instead.

Boyhood

Boyhood

The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.

Won't Back Down

Won't Back Down

Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew

In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.

The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle

A young girl is raised in a dysfunctional family constantly on the run from the FBI. Living in poverty, she comes of age guided by her drunkard, ingenious father who distracts her with magical stories to keep her mind off the family's dire state, and her selfish, nonconformist mother who has no intention of raising a family, along with her younger brother and sister, and her other older sister. Together, they fend for each other as they mature in an unorthodox journey that is their family life.

Wonder

Wonder

The story of August Pullman – a boy with facial differences – who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.

The Forge

The Forge

19 year old Isaiah Wright lives for basketball and video games. A year out of high school, he has no job, no plans, and no idea how to be a man. At odds with his single mother Cynthia, Isaiah is given an ultimatum – to step up or move out. Feeling the pull from his friends and the push from his mom, Isaiah is hired by Moore Fitness, unaware of how the owner will personally impact his life. With the prayers of his mother and unexpected guidance from his new mentor, Isaiah is forced to deal with his past, sacrifice his selfishness and discover how God might have a greater purpose for his life.

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward

Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded.

The Boys Are Back

The Boys Are Back

When the wife of sports-writer Joe Warr dies of cancer, he takes on the responsibility of raising their 6-year-old son, and his teenage son from a previous marriage. As Joe rejects the counsel of his mother-in-law and other parents, he develops his own philosophies on parenting.

Dog Gone

Dog Gone

When his beloved dog goes missing, a young man embarks on an incredible search with his parents to find him and give him life-saving medication.

The Judge

The Judge

A successful lawyer returns to his hometown for his mother's funeral only to discover that his estranged father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder.

Dad

Dad

A busy executive learns during a meeting that his mother may be dying and rushes home to her side. He ends up being his father's caretaker and becomes closer to him than ever before. Estranged from his own son, the executive comes to realize what has been missing in his own life.

Dancer in the Dark

Dancer in the Dark

Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life gets too difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.

Whip It

Whip It

In Bodeen, Texas, an indie-rock loving misfit finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin.

Out of My Mind

Out of My Mind

Melody Brooks, a sixth grader with cerebral palsy, has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but because she is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, she is not given the same opportunities as her classmates. When a young educator notices her student's untapped potential and Melody starts to participate in mainstream education, Melody shows that what she has to say is more important than how she says it.