Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Malia Obama Makes Red Carpet Debut at Sundance Festival for Her New Film ‘The Heart’
Former First Daughter Malia Obama is officially a member of the Hollywood creative community. She made her red carpet debut at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in support of The Heart, a short film she wrote and directed.
Malia, 25, looked chic in an open-front long gray coat with an unbuttoned blue blouse underneath. She donned black shorts and matching tights with heavy, knee-high boots to protect against the chilly Park City, Utah, night air on Thursday, January 18. She accessorized with a stylish gray scarf and let her long curly locks cascade freely.
The filmmaker, who credits herself as “Malia Ann” instead of using her famous last name, described her first major project in a “Meet the Artist” video for Sundance.
“This is an odd little story, somewhat of a fable, about a man grieving the death of his mother after she leaves him an unusual request in her will,” she said over stills from the movie.
“The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret, but I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in these things,” Malia continued. “We hope you enjoy the film and it makes you feel a bit less lonely, or at least reminds you not to forget about the people who are.”
Malia was 10 years old when she moved into the White House after her father, Barack Obama, was elected president in 2008. While she grew up in Washington D.C., as a teen, she made it clear her interests didn’t follow politics like her dad and started a career path in Hollywood.
Her first step was working as production assisant on Halle Berry‘s CBS sci-fi series Extant in 2014. Three years later during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Halle, 57, said Malia “was fantastic. She is such a smart, beautiful young woman.”
Before starting college at Harvard, Malia took a gap year to work as an intern at the Weinstein Company in New York, where she read scripts and helped decide which ones got passed along to higher-up’s for further consideration.
After graduating from Harvard in 2021 with a degree in English, Malia moved to Los Angeles and got her first major job working as a staff writer on Donald Glover‘s Amazon series Swarm. “She’s just, like, an amazingly talented person,” the Emmy winner told Vanity Fair in March 2022. “She’s really focused, and she’s working really hard.”
The Atlanta star and creator added, “I feel like she’s just somebody who’s gonna have really good things coming soon. Her writing style is great.” Two years later and Malia has already written and directed her first film!
