Hollywood is getting to know the talents of an up-and-coming filmmaker named “Malia Ann.” She’s better known as Malia Obama, the 26-year-old daughter
Hollywood is getting to know the talents of an up-and-coming filmmaker named “Malia Ann.” She’s better known as Malia Obama, the 26-year-old daughter of former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.
Last year, Malia submitted The Heart, an 18-minute brief film she wrote and directed starring Tunde Adebimpe and LaTonya Borsay, to the 2024 Sundance Film Festival under only her first and middle names. Her mother understands that Malia wants to strike out on her own—but recognizes that the title of former first daughter is a tough one to shed. “Malia, who started in film, I mean her first project she took off her last name,” Michelle said to Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson on their Sibling Revelry podcast June 3. “And we’re like, ‘They’re still going to know it’s you, Malia.’ But we respect that she’s trying to make her way.”
Michelle and Barack, who also share 23-year-old daughter Sasha Obama, understand that their kids want to veer away from any “nepo baby” labels. “They are young adult women, but they definitely went through a period in their teens years where it was the push away,” Michelle said. “They’re still doing that. You’re trying to distinguish yourself. It’s important for my kids to feel like they’ve earned what they are getting in the world. And they don’t want people to assume they don’t work hard, that they’re just naturally handed things. They’re very sensitive to that. They want to be their own people.”
“Her first film went to Sundance and all these fancy film festivals and she didn’t use Obama as a director on the credits,” Barack Obama said on The Pivot Podcast last fall. “I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are,’” he recalled telling her. “And she was like, ‘You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association.’”
According to the Sundance website, Malia’s debut brief The Heart is about a lonely man grieving the death of his mother after she leaves him an unusual request in her will. In a “Meet the Artist” video released ahead of the fest, she called it “an odd little story” that she hoped would make viewers “feel a bit less lonely” or remind them “not to forget about the people who are.”
Earlier this year, Malia directed a Nike commercial starring WNBA star A’ja Wilson. She got her gigantic Hollywood break interning for the Weinstein Company and on the set of Girls. Later, she was hired as part of the writers room on Donald Glover’s Emmy-nominated Prime Video series Swarm. Malia even earned a writing credit on the show’s fifth episode, “Girl, Bye,” alongside series co-creator Janine Nabers. “She’s just like, an amazingly talented person,” Glover told Vanity Fair in 2022. “She’s really focused, and she’s working really hard. I feel like she’s just somebody who’s gonna have really good things coming soon. Her writing style is great.”
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