Malia Obama is no stranger to growing up in public. As the daughter of former US President Barack Obama, she has spent her whole childhood in the spotlight, and the media is still obsessed with her every action.
The 25-year-old just premiered her directorial debut, The Heart, at the Sundance Film Festival. Malia Obama declared in the Sundance Institute’s “Meet the Artist” highlight film that she was now going by the name Malia Ann, renouncing her moniker.
Malia, who was born Malia Ann Obama on July 4, 1998, named her middle name after her paternal grandmother, who died of ovarian cancer at the age of 52 in 1995, and she has now dropped her surname in favour of her middle name.
Malia spoke about the short film for which she directed and wrote the screenplay. “This is an odd little story, somewhat of fable, about a man grieving the death of his mother after she leaves him an unusual request in her will.” Furthermore, in the short film’s YouTube video, she commented, “The film is about lost objects and lonely people, forgiveness and regret, but I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in these things.”
The Heat is not her first foray into the profession. Previously, the Harvard graduate worked in the writers’ room for Donald’s Amazon Prime show Swarm, co-writing the sixth episode, “Girl, Bye.”
“She’s a very professional person,” Swarm co-creator Janine Nabers told Malia in a January 2023 Vanity Fair interview. “She is an excellent writer and artist. She made major contributions. She’s extremely dedicated to her craft.”
Swarm’s executive producer, Stephen Glover, also mentioned Malia. “We can’t be too easy on her just because she’s the [former] President’s daughter,” he told Vanity Fair. “No, she is very down-to-earth and cool. So it’s not a problem at all.
Malia Obama is not the first celebrity to drop their family name. Other celebrities have done this before, notably Nicolas Cage, who changed his surname from Coppola, and Angelina Jolie, who discarded her surname, Voight.
Malia looked comfortable in her directorial debut, with minimal makeup and curly hair down with short braids interspersed throughout.
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