Even though the whole world knows who she is, Malia Obama chose to go by a different name for her film career. When her debut film, “The Heart,” premiered in February 2024 at the Sundance Film Festival, it credited Michelle Obama and Barack Obama’s eldest daughter as just Malia Ann. When Barack learned of Malia’s decision to drop her surname, the former president had a hard time understanding her point. But he later saw she wanted to remove the focus from herself — and found it admirable.
At the time, the consensus was that Malia wanted to avoid the nepo baby discourse. The label had been thrown around since Malia got her high-profile job as a writer on Donald Glover’s Amazon series, “Swarm,” in 2022. When Sundance introduced Malia’s film in its “Meet the Artist” spotlight video, many mocked her career efforts — or their perceived lack thereof. “I’m stoked Sundance is discovering new talent with no relation to famous people and donors!” one commented on YouTube.
But Malia does her best to show what she has to offer beyond her name, as Glover can testify. “She’s just like, an amazingly talented person,” he told Vanity Fair. “She’s really focused, and she’s working really hard.” Similarly, Halle Berry gushed about Malia’s work ethic when she interned on the TV series “Extant.” “She was down to do whatever a PA is asked to do,” she said on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” in 2017. Malia knows it will be hard to be taken seriously for her talents, but she’s willing to try.
Malia Obama didn’t want her name to become a distraction
Malia Obama knew the audience would know the “Malia Ann” listed as the writer and director of “The Heart” was Barack Obama’s daughter. The point wasn’t to keep the public from finding out who she really was but to prevent her last name from becoming an unnecessary distraction. It took Barack a while to understand it. “I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are,'” he said on “The Pivot Podcast” in October 2024. He laughed and shook his head as he recalled his reaction to Malia using her middle name instead of Obama, suggesting he found it silly.
Still, he saw that it had a deeper meaning to her, even if he couldn’t fully grasp how leaving out Obama helped. “She’s all like, ‘You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association,'” he said. Malia isn’t the only one eager to carve her own path. Sasha Obama also tries to step aside from Barack and Michelle Obama’s shadow. “The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all,” Barack said.
Like her sister, Sasha has given signs of following a career in show business. And also like Malia, she is seemingly going by a different name. Though she kept her last name, she appeared as Natasha Obama (which is Sasha’s real first name, by the way) when credited as a casting interviewer on the Paramount+ show “Couples Therapy.”
