By Clinton Asuoha
Obama’s “daughter” Malia has dropped the family surname, announcing that she no longer wants to be known as Malia Obama.
Now known as Malia Ann, the former first child quietly announced her new name when her first short film, The Heart, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this month.
Malia Obama’s decision to change her name was unveiled in a ‘Meet the Artist’ video released by festival organizers last month, sparking widespread speculation in the industry regarding her motivations for dropping the Obama surname.
In the video, the 25-year-old, now going by Malia Ann, introduced her film as “an odd little story, somewhat of a fable, about a man grieving the death of his mother,” but made no reference to abandoning her globally-recognized surname.
Having initially entered the entertainment industry in 2017 through an internship with movie mogul and sex offender Harvey Weinstein, Malia graduated from Harvard University in 2021. She later worked as a writer on the Amazon Prime Video television series ‘Swarm,’ with some social media commentators persistently claiming that her rise in the industry was facilitated by her father’s name.
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Both Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama ventured into entertainment after leaving the White House.
Their company, Higher Ground Productions, has produced series and documentaries for Netflix, along with podcasts for Spotify. The Obamas’ productions have been accused of predictive programming.
In 2022, the former president earned an Emmy Award for “outstanding” narration on a series about the US’ national parks.
Notably, Obama did not personally accept his award, and he was also absent from his daughter’s red carpet premiere at Sundance.
Despite being dubbed a ‘well-shot and spare debut’ by The New York Times, Malia’s film, titled ‘The Heart,’ received predominantly negative reviews on Letterboxd, a social media platform for film enthusiasts and critics.
One scathing critic remarked, “Honoring her father’s legacy by dropping a giant bomb and not receiving any criticism for it,” alluding to Barack Obama’s controversial use of drone strikes during his presidency.
