Sweet on "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody"

Kim Rhodes went from relatively unenviable first job to current dream job.

Portland-reared Rhodes' initial position in the working world was as a volunteer at the Washington Park Zoo, "I worked with the hissing cockroaches and walking sticks in the insect zoo."

But these days, Rhodes plays Carey Martin, the torch-singer single mom to the twin stars, Dylan and Cole Sprouse, of Disney Channel's hit series "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody." The sweetness of the "Suite" life is that Martin is the "resident" entertainer at Boston's most luxurious hotel, the fictitious Tipton Hotel (if exterior shots looks vaguely familiar, it's because it's actually Vancouver, B.C.'s Fairmont Hotel).

Martin has contractually swung it so that she and her sons live in a top-floor suite. While it doesn't seem even remotely possible that could ever happen in real life, it does make for a show that's a huge hit with the 'tween audiences.

If adults (translate: parents) have a hard time differentiating Rhodes' show with the other, equally popular "Drake and Josh," kids sure don't.

Even though in real life Rhodes is "mom" to two dogs, not boys, she says, "The best part about playing a mom is that people hug moms. I get hugs all the time. It really makes hard days a lot easier, and easy days are downright joyous."

Each episode takes two days to shoot. And Rhodes actually does Martin's singing duties with the exception of two episodes (the pilot, where she didn't have time to learn the song, and another in which she had laryngitis).

She was born in Portland and grew up in the city's working-class Southeast section, "the far east of the Southeast. We were just shy of 82nd Avenue, and what a treat that was!"

Rhodes went to Binnsmead Middle School and Benson Polytechnic High School. By the time she entered Benson, "I spent a lot of time in downtown. I remember Pioneer Place being built. The Max. Wow, I'm seriously talking like an old person here. We went to clubs like Scoochie's and Manhattan Club, lots of black lipstick and depressing poetry."

Despite the fact that she lives in Los Angeles with Travis, her husband of a year, and their two dogs, she makes sure to visit Portland at least a couple times a year. Her father still lives there, and "I have some very dear friends I stalk consistently when I come home."

Rhodes caught the acting bug when she moved from Portland to Ashland to attend college at Southern Oregon State College (now University).

"It turned out to be my first genuine experience with theater, and you see where that got me. Then it was Philadelphia for grad school [Temple University] and an introduction to the East Coast. That was a huge adjustment!"

Her acting aspirations took her to other areas of the country, including a season of Shakespeare in Spring Green, Wis., which led to four years in the nation's theater-capital, New York.

"I landed in Los Angeles where I've stayed, with one year-long exception when I returned to Ashland as an actor in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival," says Rhodes. She loved the experience. "I was giddy quite frequently."

Adult TV fans may recognize Rhodes for her role in the soap opera "Another World," which she admits was probably her "big break."

"[It] really taught me about cameras and, believe it or not, comedy. I'm still using things I learned there every single day on 'The Suite Life.' "

She met Travis, a photographer who would like to be a director, on the set of "Touched by Angel," in which she played a guest role and he was in production. The couple would like to eventually work on projects together.

"He's a dancer at heart, and is incredibly visual and movement oriented. He can tell a story effortlessly and wordlessly. I, as you may have guessed, love words a little too much sometimes. But that means that once we got going, we made a great team."

When "Suite Life" was casting for the part, Rhodes had just come back from a season in Ashland and "was ready to pack up, move and do Shakespeare for the rest of my life. I didn't even want to audition, but of course once I got the role, met the boys, played with this incredible set of writers, I can't imagine doing anything else right now. It's an amazing blessing to go to work every day with people I genuinely love. I know everybody says, 'Love you!' in Los Angeles, but I truly do love the people I work with."

Terry Estudillo is a freelance writer based in L.A. who occasionally contributes to The Seattle Times.