Want to know what it takes to be a cast member of Scout's Safari? Read more about the real Scout and Bongani — Anastasia Baranova and Freedom Hadebe — in these interviews by Margaret Smith of the Family Screen Scene. Click here!

Meet the Characters

Jennifer “Scout” Lauer

Jennifer “Scout” Lauer is 13 — a confident, self-reliant city girl who speaks her mind and can't wait to keep life moving. Poised on the edge of womanhood, she's finding it harder to talk to her father about the things on her mind ... but she's not sure she wants to move to rural South Africa just to talk to her mom!

Cheryl Lauer-Schickler

Cheryl Lauer-Schickler is Scout's 36-year-old mother, happy to have her daughter living with her and ready to work at their relationship. Cheryl owns and runs the ON THE EDGE Lodge which has been in her family for generations.

Roger Schickler

Roger Schickler, 38, is a very cool guy. A free spirit, Roger helps maintain the Lodge, protecting it from greedy developers and dangerous poachers. His relationship with Scout is tense at first, but Roger's always doing his best to make her feel welcome and part of his family.

Tyler Schickler

Tyler Schickler is Scout's 10-year-old stepbrother &mdash, bright, probably a tad spoiled and very used to being the only child. He also loves his pets — a snake, a dog, a goat, a bird and a live Piranha, not to mention a giant dung beetle. Tyler's not too thrilled when Scout comes along and disrupts his cozy little world.

Bongani Sibisi

Bongani Sibisi is 15 and Scout's childhood friend. Hailing from a long line of Zulu chiefs, Bongani works at the lodge after school and in the summers. Proud of his heritage and connected to the land, Bongani is the first in his tribe to cross over to Western culture — Scout's mirror image, in a way. Now attending a prestigious private school, Bongani still manages to pull practical jokes on his old friend Scout, even though they're often at odds from their opposing world views.

Nandi Ngwenya

Nandi Ngwenya is a 14-year-old Transkei who digs American pop culture. She has an instant connection with Scout, although she doesn't always get along with Bongani, which can make for some uncomfortable situations.

Charlton Boone

Charlton Boone, a.k.a. “C.B.,” is the Lodge vet, close friends with Roger, and the voice of reason and experience. Tending animal orphans and releasing them to the wild when they are ready, C.B. respects the harmony of nature and becomes a mentor to Scout.

Sherna Puckett

Sherna Puckett is Scout's best friend since kindergarten. Now she must share stuff with Scout via e-mail and real-time video, providing the scoop on their old friends (and Scout's boyfriend) and what else is going on in “civilization.”

Sherna the Elephant

Sherna is Scout's baby elephant, named after her best friend from home. (Oddly enough, Sherna the person does not take well to having an elephant named after her.) They tend to one another with such sympathy that Scout comes to see her big baby as a bona-fide friend.

Dennis Lauer

Dennis Lauer is Scout's father — a photojournalist now off on assignment near the North Pole. It was hard for him to leave his daughter, but he needed to make ends meet, and he knows that by living with her mother in South Africa, Scout will grow tremendously.