Kel Mitchell dishes on ‘Good Burger 2’ with Jalen Rose

We met comedian and actor Kel Mitchell as a young teen, when he and his partner in crime, Kenan Thompson, were introduced to the public on Nickelodeon’s “All That.”

The hit show was sketch comedy, a theme song by TLC and performances from top hip-hop artists.

And it was a dream for Kel, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago rapping and doing graffiti.

“These are people that just a year ago I was just listening to on a CTA bus,” he told me on this week’s “Renaissance Man” of “All That’s” musical guests.

“And now I’m chillin [with them]. And they were giving me advice. It definitely was like, ‘Yo, this is amazing right now.’”

Of course, returning to his Chicago homestead after production was humbling.

“I remember my parents, when I came back home, was like, ‘Take out the garbage.’ That’s why I love my family,” Kel told me.

They kept him grounded as his star was rising.

He was raised by good stock.

Both of his parents are now retired, but his mother was a teacher and his father was a psychologist.

They knew they had a class clown on their hands, so they packed his schedule with anything they could find. Boy Scouts, the church and, later, acting.

“They tried everything when I was a kid. And I mean, I did every activity you could possibly think of. But acting is the one that stuck with me. Shout out to ETA Creative Arts Foundation … They sent me to the theater in our community where we used to watch plays and they had a summer program. And when I stepped into that theater, that’s when I was like, ‘Yo, this is it. This is what I want to be doing,’” he said, adding, “It was just a positive thing to do.”

And then there was also the church, where he was a fixture.

He was in the choir and his youth pastor was also a sensei there who taught the kids martial arts.

He credits the theater and the church for keeping him on the straight and narrow as a kid in Chicago, where there were so many land mines for impressionable children.

“I love my city because I always say, like, there’s two sides. There’s the wrong side and there’s the good side. You know, for the youth … we need to support the good side, the things that are going on within our community,” he said.

“But yes, the thing about it is that I saw a lot coming up. I lost some friends along the way.”

Even in adulthood, he’s leaned on the church and his faith, as he openly dealt with depression and addiction.

He’s now a youth pastor and author of “Blessed Mode: 90 Days To Level Up Your Faith.”

And last year he put out “Prank Day,” an illustrated novel for kids.

He’s now a Christian rapper and considers himself an “ambassador for Christ.”

But that doesn’t mean his tastes in comedy aren’t edgy.

His influences were Martin Lawrence and the entire cast of “In Living Color.”

And of course, there’s his longtime pal Kenan, who had him on “Saturday Night Live” a few months ago to reprise his role from “Kenan & Kel,” the “All That” spinoff sitcom.

“Keke Palmer was [hosting ‘SNL’]. She had a fun, fun, fun idea of doing ‘Kenan & Kel,’ where she would play [a new character in the world of the kids’ show]. And ‘SNL’ was like, ‘Oh, this is great. We’re going to do it,’” Kel said.

Kenan texted him, asking him to fly out the next day.

“I’m in the building and they transform the entire set,” Kel said of the “SNL” studio. “It looked just like Rigby’s store in ‘Kenan & Kel.’ Keke is amazingly talented. And we surprised her, because she didn’t know I was going to end up being in it. So she was excited.

“And yeah, man, we had a blast doing that. Shout out to ‘SNL.’”

That mini-reunion was just an appetizer to the main course because he and Kenan are also about to start production on “Good Burger 2.”

It’s a long-awaited sequel for fans who grew up on the 1997 movie, which has endured and continues to rope in new audiences.

“You’re talking about ’97. There’s little kids who weren’t even born [then], they’re having Good Burger birthdays,” he said.

“I just think it’s so awesome that it has a special place in people’s hearts.”

“We took a long time to work on the script,” he added, promising good family fun and celebrity drop-ins.

“It was cameo crazy,” he said of the original. “So I will say this: [There’s] cameos on steroids in this one … And a lot of the people that you loved in the first one are going to come back.”

So get ready for the Kel Mitchell renaissance with his newest flick.

As he said, “It’s going down.”

Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the college hoops world in the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons in the NBA before transitioning into a media personality. Rose is an analyst for “NBA Countdown” and “Get Up,” and co-host of “Jalen & Jacoby.” He executive-produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the author of the best-selling book “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.