26-05-2025
Life after the White House: where are Malia and Sasha Obama now?
Having grown up in the glare of the spotlight, the daughters of Barack and Michelle Obama are now carving out lives and identities of their own which are completely separate from their parents' legacies.
Malia (26) has embarked on a directorial career, making her debut with the short film The Heart, which premiered at last year's prestigious Sundance Film Festival. The eldest Obama daughter opted to use the name Malia Ann for the screening, deliberately distancing herself from her famous family.
She also recently directed an advert for sports apparel maker Nike. However, the project was clouded in controversy after a fellow filmmaker, Natalie Jasmine Harris, came forward saying the ad looks eerily similar to a her film, Grace.
'It featured two people playing pat-a-cake in a way that echoed an early scene from my 14-minute short film,' Natalie wrote in an essay to Business Insider.
'At first, I was confused, wondering whether it was real,' Natalie adds. 'I was disappointed and hurt.'
For Natalie it was not about the children's game, but rather the technical use of cinematography in taking the shots.
'My cinematographer, Tehillah De Castro, noted a lot of similarities from a technical perspective, from the camera angles to the shots to the framing composition and the colour palette,' Natalie says.
She has not had any communication from either Nike or Malia since going public with her concerns but hopes it sparks a broader discussion about smaller creatives in film.
Film has always been a passion for Malia. Having interned at the Weinstein Company in 2017, she chose to study filmmaking at Harvard, graduating in 2021.
Since then, she's done a few projects with music and film artist Donald Glover.
PHOTO: Instagram/MichelleObama
On the other hand, her sister, Sasha (23), has chosen to stay out of the spotlight.
Although the siblings live together in Los Angeles and have been spotted on nights out together, they seem to be on separate journeys.
According to Hello!, the closest Sasha has come to the entertainment industry was getting her name in the credits as a casting interviewer for a TV series titled Couples Therapy.
However, there's little to indicate that she would choose a similar path to her sister.
In an interview on The Jennifer Hudson Show last last year, Michelle shared that her youngest daughter has gone back to university.
She revealed that Sasha has opted to further her studies after graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in sociology in 2023.
Michelle added that she and Barack are very proud of their daughters.
'They are smart, they're funny, they're wise in their own ways and I love spending time with them,' she said.
