Cancer-surviving Pebblebrook grad has big showbiz dreams

May 27—Tomaree Tarpley remembers the moment she knew her daughter, Mikari, was born to perform. It was more than a decade ago, when the two were walking through a mall, and came across a pop-up runway show for kids.

Asked by her mother if she wanted to participate, Mikari, then 4 years old, was hesitant. Her mother said she'd hold her hand when they walked the runway.

"But then came time when it was time for me to walk down the runway. She says that I dropped her hand and just started strutting like I had done that before," said Mikari, now a graduating senior at Cobb's Pebblebrook High School.

"I was in awe," recalled Tomaree Tarpley. "I was like, 'How does she know how to do that?' She went to the end, she did her little T-turn and posed and stopped. And then she came back, like a supermodel. In that moment, I knew."

On Saturday night, Tarpley will walk across a different stage — this time, to graduate as an honor student from the Cobb County Center for Excellence in the Performing Arts, or CCCEPA, the magnet program housed at Pebblebrook that preps high schoolers for a career in show business.

A self-described theater kid, Tarpley is "one of those annoying people in the hallways always singing," she said. She grew up doing auditions and attending performing arts camps, and has performed with classmates in musicals, dance recitals and vocal performances throughout her schooling.

Tarpley's mother is a real estate agent and her father, Mike, works in sales. But she had a musical upbringing, her mother being a singer and her father a saxophonist.

Tarpley, who at CCCEPA studied drama, vocal performance and dance, already has an impressive acting resume. At the age of 10, she landed a part as young Nala in "The Lion King." She had the option of performing on Broadway or joining the show on tour, and chose the latter.

Tarpley and her mother spent 14 months traveling the country, moving every month.

"We went to Des Moines, Iowa. I would have never gotten to Iowa, I don't think ... if it wasn't for the tour," Tarpley said. "I probably would have never gone to Louisville, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio. ... It just really helped me to see different cultures, see different people"

Since then, Tarpley has appeared in "Alex & Me," a 2018 film starring soccer pro Alex Morgan, and "Queen Sugar," a TV drama, among other credits.

Tarpley considered going straight into the acting world after high school, but wants to have that college experience. In the fall, she'll begin attending Howard University, studying musical theater.

"The people that do (attend college), they typically learn a lot from it," Tarpley said. "And they learn a lot about themselves, and they make these lifelong bonds. And I don't think I was ready to sacrifice that experience just yet, when I have my whole life to do professional work."

Tarpley sets her goals high — the ultimate dream is to be an "EGOT" winner, one who wins an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. Just 16 people have accomplished that.

Tarpley is also a recipient of CCCEPA's Katie Grant Shalin Scholarship and Maxwell Truman Chambers Scholarship.

Tomaree Tarpley described her daughter as humble, but a perfectionist.

"She loves performing ... and when she graduates, she's just going to be able to be a star," Tomaree Tarpley said. "That's what she wants to be, so I wait to see when it's in true fruition, but she's a star already to me."

Battles fought

The road to graduation hasn't been easy.

At 15, Tarpley was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. She recalls listening to the doctor's diagnosis, feeling a strange numbness.

"I couldn't cry," Tarpley said. "It was weird. It almost just feels like it's a movie scene. Like, ironically, this is my life, I want to be in the movies, but then I practically live out a movie scenario. ... But then eventually the emotions hit, and then you cry. It's just scary."

Tarpley spent six months doing chemotherapy, visiting the hospital weekly at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was worried about being in a medical environment during that time, but in hindsight was glad it happened during lockdown, when her classmates were also out of school.

During treatment, her mother would tell Mikari that she didn't have to go to class.

"'Yes, I do, because I have a test on Friday, and I need to know what's going on,'" said Tomaree Tarpley, recounting her daughter's grit. "She was always very determined to keep doing and not let her grades drop."

In recent months, writing college application essays, Tarpley has tried to describe her love of performance. She finds it healing, a release, a source of joy and exhilaration. Along with her family, friends and faith, it's what got her through the cancer.

"I just have to beat this, so that I could perform again, so that I could sing again, so that I could dance again, so that I can act again and just get on with my life," Tarpley remembers thinking. "I just have to get past this. ... When I was sick in my bed and I was throwing up I was like, 'Oh, I'm almost ... I'm almost there. I'll be ready to be on a stage again.'"

Tarpley's last round of chemo was July 1, 2020. This summer, she'll celebrate two years cancer-free.

During treatment, as COVID raged and protests for racial equality swept the country, the Tarpleys wanted to do something for others. For her 16th birthday, Mikari set a goal to raise $16,000 for children with sickle cell anemia — she ended up raising more than $18,000.

Tarpley had met kids with the disease during her chemo treatments, and felt it received less attention than childhood cancer. The disease is particularly common among Black Americans.

She also does work for the Dick Vitale Fund for Pediatric Cancer, CURE Childhood Cancer, Children's Miracle Network and the American Cancer Society.

"She just shines," Tomaree Tarpley said. "That's what I see from her. I mean, she'll have her moments where she's not the happiest ... but she has this gift of just making people smile."

Graduation is bittersweet. Tarpley will miss her close-knit group of theater friends. Ever the optimist, however, she's ready for the future.

"You just really have to appreciate what you're getting out of it," she said of high school. "Even though it doesn't seem like it's all good, you're really going to learn, you're going to meet great people, and it's going to help you later on in life. And then, you're gonna miss it at some point."