Malia Obama Ditches Her Famous Last Name Ahead Of Debut As Filmmaker

Former US President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama’s oldest daughter, Malia Obama, is embarking on her filmmaking journey. However, the 25-year-old has now dropped her surname ‘Obama’ in an attempt to distance herself from her successful parents and to carve her own identity. Malia now goes by Malia Ann, preferring her middle name over her last name. Her new pen name or stage name was revealed in the ‘Meet the Artist’ video posted by the Sundance Institute for her short film ‘The Heart’.

The short film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, interestingly neither of her parents attended the festival, seemingly not to steal any spotlight from her daughter.

In the ‘Meet The Artist’ video, Malia mentions that she wrote and directed the short film. She describes, her film as “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." The Harvard graduate says that she hopes her film makes people feel less lonely and think about people who might be feeling isolated.

This film was produced by comedian and actor Donald Glover’s company Gilga. She has previously worked as a writer on Glover’s Amazon Prime show Swarm.

In March 2022, Donald Glover spoke to Vanity Fair about recruiting Malia in his writer’s room. He described her as “an amazingly talented person and said, “she’s really focused, and she’s working hard." The seasoned director and producer also that his company will not give any preferential treatment to Malia just because she has famous parents. He clarified if her ideas are not impressive, they will be turned down and said, “We can’t be easy on her just because she’s the [former] president’s daughter."

Malia is not the only celebrity kid who dropped their last name in a bid to attract less attention. Actor Nicolas Cage changed his last name from Coppola, to distance himself from the Cappola family known for making cult films like ‘The Godfather’. Actor Angelina Jolie also picked her middle name over the surnames of her actor parents, father Jon Voight and mother Marcheline Bertrand. Musician Elle King, daughter of famous comedian Rob Schneider, was born Tanner Schneider but she started her career with her stage name ‘Elle King’.