As a huge fan of her work on The Gates, it is so exciting to see Skyler Samuels back on the small screen on the all new ABC Family original series, The Nine Lives of Chloe King.

Just a junior in high school, Samuels is playing the lead role in the new series, which you can catch a brief preview of here. Here’s what she has to say about her character, Chloe:

Chloe is definitely more of a superhero than a supernatural creature. On her 16th birthday when she discovered that she’s got these heightened abilities—the super speed, super hearing, claws, and the ability to read peoples’ feelings. This incredible combination kind of leads Chloe to want to help people who are in trouble.

Chloe finds herself running from the bad guys and the ones who are trying to kill her because she’s this special girl who can die nine times and people are trying to see if it’s true. They’re trying to get rid of me and the rest of our feline race, the Mai. (But) Chloe still finds herself trying to help people and save peoples’ lives using her heightened abilities. She’s constantly torn between the chase and having to save the day.

Having read the book series that the television adaptation is based on before filming, Samuels has this to say to the book fans, “We’ve taken a lot of creative liberties with the books and our adaptations of the TV show. We kind of have a lot of the same basic ideas as the books—some of the mythology, a lot of the main characters are still the same. But we’ve taken a lot of liberties in making it more exciting, and more action-oriented, and really spicing it up.“

As far as the use of special effects, CGI, etc… goes, “We use a lot of different kinds of media on our show to make that happen. We have an incredible special effects makeup artist, Ed French, who won Emmys for his work. He is absolutely the best of the best. He came in at the beginning of the season and all of the Mai feline people, had claws made, which is very cool.

We had to dip our hands in seaweed goop and we made these nails. So we have actual physical claws that we put on. But we also use visual effects like CGI to make them come in and out. So it’s kind of a balance between the two to make that stuff work.“

Samuels also says that this season (which is a ten episode order as of now) is full of adventures, thrills, romance, comedy and drama… a lot of heartfelt relationships and a lot of unexpected twists and turns. So there’s clearly plenty more to this show than just the supernatural element. Samuels says, “I think that the really cool thing about The Nine Lives of Chloe King is that while it has a lot of supernatural elements and Chloe is kind of a superhero, herself, it is not all about the supernatural. I mean, this show, week-to-week, deals with the struggles of Chloe trying to manage her relationship with her mom. Her mom’s a single mom trying to raise a teenage girl, and so that presents a lot of difficulties, as in what that brings when her mom starts dating, and Chloe feels about getting a new dad, and maintaining relationships with her friends in high school as they go through all these changes.

And how can you maintain a relationship with a boy you really like if you can’t really be with him? There’s a lot of realistic, really grounded, heartfelt relationships and dynamics on this show to the point where the supernatural elements don’t even strike you. It’s like it all just seems to blend in and make sense.“

There’s clearly a lot to look forward to not just for Chloe but Chloe’s family, friends, the curious, the enemies, and more. So be sure to tune in tomorrow night for the series premiere!

The Nine Lives of Chloe King premieres Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 9/8c on ABC Family.