Keke Palmer Has a Lot to Say About 'Scream Queens' and Ryan Murphy — Here's the Scoop

Actor, singer, entrepreneur, and meme queen Keke Palmer has proven she can accomplish anything she puts her mind to. In 2024, she added being a second-time author to her lengthy resume with her sophomore memoir, Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative. The book allowed Keke to open up about her rediscovering herself ten years into her career, raising her son, Leodis, as a single mother, and the highs and lows that come with being in the limelight since she was 10.

Ahead of her memoir's release, Keke also disclosed details about her time working on one of her various projects, Scream Queens on Fox. The Baby, This is Keke Palmer podcast host claimed her time on Ryan Murphy's horror TV show didn't go as well as she intended — so much so that her comments have made social media scramble to figure out who needs to apologize to our girl.

Here's what Keke has said about her Scream Queens experience.

On Nov. 11, eight days before the launch of Keke's memoir, she reflected on writing it to The Los Angeles Times. In the article, the outlet discussed a passage from the book about the actor's time on Scream Queens. Keke shared in her book that, while playing ZayDay Williams on the series, one of her white co-stars scolded her by making a racist comment towards her after Keke encouraged her to stop fighting with another co-star and "have fun and respect each other.”

The Nope star claimed her co-star said: "Keke, literally, just don’t. Who do you think you are? Martin F----ing Luther King?"

Keke didn't name the person who commented, opting to call her "Brenda" in the book. During her two-season run on Scream Queens, she starred alongside Emma Roberts, Abigail Breslin, Billie Lourd, Skyler Samuels, and Lea Michele. Instead of making the moment about the person, Keke said she wanted her fans to recognize the magnitude of her hearing those words at her workplace.

"It was such a weighted thing that she said, but I didn’t allow that weight to be projected on me because I know who I am,” Keke explained. “I’m not no victim. That’s not my storyline, sweetie. I don’t care what her a-- said. If I allow what she said to cripple me, then she would.”

While Keke didn't want to share the person behind the comment she received from her Scream Queens co-star, social media users were determined to do it for her. Once the interview went viral, several eagle-eyed fans searched the True Jackson VP star's Instagram account to see who from the cast she still followed on the app.

Fans noticed she followed all her former co-stars except Emma and Lea. As one X user noted in a Nov. 11 post, both actors have been accused of making racist comments about their co-stars in the past.

"Emma Roberts or Lea Michele are the most likely suspects given their past," they wrote. "Also, not that social media follows mean anything, but Keke follows almost all of her Scream Queens co-stars on Instagram *except* for Lea Michele."

Many other users theorized Lea Michele, who apologized in 2020 after her former Glee co-star, Samantha Ware, accused her of mistreatment and racism, could've been more behind the comment than Emma. However, we must reiterate that Keke hasn't directly named any of her co-stars.

Keke mentions in her book one former colleague: Ryan Murphy, the creator of Scream Queens. In another unpleasant anecdote about her time on the show, she recalled getting a scathing phone call from Ryan after she decided to make a work obligation happen instead of filming on set during one of her days off. She said the producer "ripped" her a new one on the call.

"It was kind of like I was in the dean’s office,” Keke remembered. “He was like, ‘I’ve never seen you behave like this. I can’t believe that you, out of all people, would do something like this."

Keke added that she and Ryan moved past her not showing up to the set that day, despite another co-star telling her "It's bad." She further explained that, while her and Ryan didn't become ongoing collaborators, she doesn't regret choosing herself in that moment.

“I’m still not sure Ryan cared, or got it, and that’s okay because he was just centering his business, which isn’t a problem to me,” she wrote in her book. “But what I do know is even if he didn’t care, and even if I never work with him again, he knows that I, too, see myself as a business.”

Neither Ryan nor Keke's Scream Queens co-stars have commented on her claims.