What Hunt has done for adults in projects such as “Jerry Maguire," “Dave” and TV's “Life with Bonnie,” she now generously extends to children — and the grownups who love them — with “Amber Brown.”
“I grew up on TV and movies and I know how powerful it can be as a child," she said. "When I would see my parents watch something like ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ or ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show'....they were just in those moments, free of stress and worry and just laughing.” Hunt had begun writing a series about an eccentric aunt when she ran into an executive with a production company that had the rights to the Amber Brown books. They joined forces, and Hunt was introduced to the family of the late author, who died in 2004 at age 59.
Amber is two years older then her 9-year-old book version and is starting middle school. She's also a budding artist, “almost a savant,” as Hunt puts it, expressing her deepest feelings in vibrant sketches that come to animated life and show what she can't tell. Race isn't a theme in the series, but Amber's family is multiethnic and the cast is diverse. Her dad is played by Michael Yo, who is of Black and Asian ancestry, with Sarah Drew as her mom. Carsyn Rose, who boasts an exuberant crown of curls, stars as Amber, who in the books is depicted as a freckle-faced, white kid with a mass of red hair.
Nobody gives a 💩 .