Malia Obama now has a high profile job as a director, and after getting her start working on shows such as “The Swarm,” she directed a short film and a commercial for Nike. The commercial, which dropped on May 4, promoted WNBA star A’Ja Wilson’s Nike A’One shoes. A day after the ad was released, controversy arose as another young director claimed Obama may have taken ideas from her short film and repurposed them for the sneaker ad.
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Director Natalie Jasmine Harris’ short film, “Grace,” played at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, the same year Obama’s short, “The Heart,” played at the same fest. “The social cut of the new @Nike commercial directed by Malia Obama … feels shockingly similar to my work,” Harris wrote on X on May 5. “If brands want a certain look, why not hire from the source instead of for name recognition?” she added. Later that month, Harris wrote about the similarities between her project and the Nike ad in an essay for Business Insider. Harris mentioned that she had met Obama at Sundance for a director’s brunch and discussed how the commercial mirrored her short film “from the camera angles to the shots to the framing composition and the color palette.”
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I’m just going to leave this here.
This is my indie short film, “Grace,” next to Malia Obama’s @Nike x @_ajawilson22 commercial
It’s devastating, but at least you can (hopefully) see that this is about much more than just pat-a-cake…. pic.twitter.com/71m0H5n84z
— Natalie Jasmine Harris (@nataliejharris) May 12, 2025
To further back up her claim, Harris tweeted out a side-by-side video on May 12 comparing portions of the Obama-directed Nike ad to her short film (above), the main focus being a scene where young Black girls are playing patty cake on a porch. People popped up in the replies to bash Obama’s apparent plagiarism. “[T]his frame for frame copying,” one user wrote. “[Be] angry with the people who hired the thief,” another added. Alleged thievery was not the only reason people were upset with Obama.
Malia Obama’s name change caused controversy
Many people took issue with Malia Obama being attached to the Nike commercial before Natalie Jasmine Harris even aired her claims that the daughter of Barack Obama lifted from her short film. When it was first announced that Malia directed the sneaker ad, cries of “nepo baby” rang out, and those only increased after Harris highlighted the similarities between her work and the commercial. “[N]epobabies wildin,” an X user replied to Harris’ tweet. “I can’t help but think that if it wasn’t an Obama, [people] might be a bit more upset,” another wrote. However, long before working on the Nike spot, Malia dropped the “Obama” from her name, opting to go by Malia Ann for her career in the film industry.
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The first time people noticed Malia was using a different name for her film career was when her short film, “The Heart,” was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. Prior to the film’s debut, Sundance released a series of YouTube videos featuring up-and-coming directors called “Meet the Artist” in January 2024 and the former first daughter was the subject of one, credited under the name Malia Ann. Viewers had dissenting views on the name change. “I noticed she’s also going by her middle name. It’s amazing to see people create their own lane,” a YouTube viewer noted. “Finally, an underground artist in sundance,” another snarked.
Debate sparked online regarding whether it was duplicitous for Malia to change her last name in order to downplay her status as an Obama. Even Whoopi Goldberg weighed-in on an episode of “The View” where she came to Malia’s defense. “Leave this child alone … Why do you care what she calls herself,” Goldberg said about the name change.
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