Today we’d like to introduce you to Malia Arrayah.
Malia, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story is very much like many others, a little all over the place and accidentally falling in love with the entertainment industry. I spent the majority of my youth and young adulthood pursuing basketball actually. I loved the sport a lot and created my whole life around it. It wasn’t until I began facing injury after injury where I had to face the reality that I would have to make a very difficult choice someday. After fighting back from numerous injuries, where I was told I wouldn’t run again, I actually ended up going pro and signing with a great sports agent. I made the choice a few months after leaving college to quit and I think that is when my self-discovery really started taking place creatively.
I accidentally got into acting, and that’s the truth. I moved to NYC to sign with a modeling agency, who flashed a two-year international contract in my face and asking me to lose weight. I took a few weeks to try “getting in shape”, but I realized I would be trapped in an unhealthy cycle for myself trying to fit into some beauty standard I just felt didn’t fit me. I was larger than I am now, but certainly not plus-sized. There is no box of modeling that I fit into where I wasn’t expected to be super skinny or gain ten more pounds. I just didn’t feel like trying to fit into an industry that put this pressure on me.
So, the very day I emailed that modeling agency saying no, I was walking through the NYC subway and a Broadway and film actor by the name of Bill Irwin stopped me and asked me if I was an actor. I stared at him and remember telling myself to say “yes” because it just felt right. That was the day I decided to start looking into the entertainment industry. I felt like I could be myself, and as someone who never fit in anywhere, I knew I could be myself in acting. At the time I had no idea what I was doing, that is a whole other story, but this is the short version. I started shortly in NYC for about six months before I ended up experiencing residual mental health issues from my basketball experience as well as financial losses as I struggled to take care of myself in NYC at 24 and 25. So, I headed back in the Bay Area, CA for and got stuck there for four years attempting to save money and get myself to LA. I was laid off of three jobs in a row, which delayed me, but perhaps in the best way. I learned a lot about disciplining myself and staying focused during that time. In the meantime I became an author, and published model, published writer and published artist.
It’s been a winding road for me, a ton of ups and downs, but despite the roadblocks, the lay-offs of jobs I experienced in the Bay Area, CA and injuries, I always kept in mind the experience I had in NYC where I was able to get a tiny taste of the industry. I love storytelling and I love everything about expression, so to be a part of the industry that creates the limitlessness on screen for people to dive into and lose reality, this is the passion that never left my spirit.
And today, I am now in LA and have been here for a year and a half, and before then I moved to Diamond Bar, CA in 2020. I was laid off of a start-up job in San Francisco, CA and never looked back. I moved to SoCal and ended up signing with an agency, and receiving a screen test within the first four months I lived in SoCal. And then, I was living in GA in 2021 filming a Marvel’s project. It all seemed a bit divinely guided. Everything fell into place and it’s been this amazing coast after such a winding road filled with roadblocks. I am thankful to have gotten to work on She-Hulk because I learned SO much. It fuels me to continue forward and know that if I continue to be passion lead, then I can hopefully continue to be part of amazing projects.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
A lot of the struggles I’ve faced rooted itself within the basketball world and from some family dysfunction. As good as basketball was for my life, it was also equally as bad. I realized that after I left that world, I had a ton of unhealed trauma from how the toxicities of the sports world at high levels compartmentalized within. They all started pouring out of me when I started utilizing creativity. Whether it was physical pain and injuries I had to spend a lot of time – months, years – healing and tending to, causing me to change everything I did in terms of exercising, but also mental, emotional and spiritual healing. I hadn’t realized how much it affected the way I lived my life and how I expressed myself creatively. I wanted to merge all parts of me, physically speaking, from my athletic journey into on-camera work as an actor or model. It took many years for me to learn how to be confident and I am still on that journey of expressing all parts of myself.
I also knew that I developed many insecurities that kept me away from wanting to be in front of cameras. I was often body shamed for my height, and then also when I had gained weight in college. It really created a lot of blockages I still work through today. At that time, I had poor body image and self-esteem, so I would challenge myself to doing all these photoshoots when I lived in the Bay Area, CA. This affected how I would submit myself and push myself out there as an actual actor or model. But as time went on, I became more confident in myself after developing experience and trying to do as much as I could to overcome these fears.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I guess I am most known for my part in the show called “She-Hulk”. I was hired to be the on-set She-Hulk reference which while on set, I was essentially “She-Hulk”. I was painted green like a beautiful green amazonian goddess and I was totally into it! I was very excited, and I feel very lucky to have gotten to work on a Marvel’s project. This was one of my filmmaking goals! So, it has been such a dream to see and it come to pass. I also was able to learn some stunts and be able to do some for this character as well. I think I am in the phase where I am just saying yes to whatever opportunities come my way still. I am rather tall, so female roles going for me are a lot slimmer and because of my height I have had those kinds of roadblocks to work through. However, because of my height and look, there are a lot of very cool specific opportunities too! So, no complaints here! I am very lucky to have this experience and I am very much looking forward and focused on continuing to take on any challenging roles or opportunities that come my way.
I have also done many creature acting roles which I LOVE, and I have done some fighting scenes and also on camera work coming out in the near future as well.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was known as the tall, quiet, soft-spoken girl! Which is hilarious now because I literally don’t shut up. I was even recorded in school newspapers as the soft-spoken basketball player and I was this way through age 24 or 25. I think I just kept to myself a lot as a kid and teen. I was always playing with barbies or action figure toys as a child or drawing and actually creating picture books. But I enjoyed being alone and being in my imagination a lot.
I also knew I wanted to play basketball and get to the WNBA as a teenager, so all I cared about was the sport and didn’t care much for traditional teen things like dances, proms or hanging out. I wish I had more, but I was never that popular. People saw me and I was just there, known, but never really included in things, so I just accepted that I was kind of an outcast.
I was the quiet jock tall girl. I actually was the yearbook editor my senior year of high school, and I remember a lot of times I was gaining an interest in modeling and acting and talent showcases, but I just felt so shy and not confident about myself there. I excelled in sports and felt the most free. That was me in my youth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.maliaarrayah.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maliaarrayah/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Malia_Arrayah
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MaliaArrayah777
Image Credits
@lrbk_photography, @official_la_damon, @photosbyelizaveta, @ruslanphotography
