Malinda Williams On Reinventing When The Industry Shifts

When actress Malinda Williams told me she finally learned to answer “I do not know” on a red carpet, it landed with the weight of a revelation.

For decades, Hollywood trained women like her to always have a prepared line, a new project on deck, a performance-ready smile.

But in a world where the ground is shifting beneath Black women across industries, honesty has become its own form of liberation.

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Hollywood is in flux. Corporate America is shedding jobs. AI is rewriting the rules of creative labor. Stability feels like a moving target.

Yet in the midst of that uncertainty, Malinda, 55, has built a blueprint for reinvention that is grounded in purpose, faith, and an unshakeable sense of self.

Her path is not about pivoting for applause. It is about evolving because you must.

Below, she shares the lessons that reshaped her life and what they can offer to every Black woman navigating her own transition.

A Season of Reflection

Malinda told me the biggest word in her life right now is reflection.

“I turned fifty five this year,” she said. “I had to take account. I realized I never counted my wins. I just kept going.”

When she went home for Christmas and found every commercial clip, headshot, article, and VHS tape boxed away in her father’s closet, she heard something deep in her spirit:

It is time to take your life out of the box.

That reflection became the gateway to reinvention.

Not a pause. A reckoning.

A moment to honor who she has been and expand who she can become.

When the Lane Shifts

Malinda’s pivot into tech did not come during a glamorous season.

It came when everything felt stripped away.

“I was going through a difficult period,” she told me. “A major life shift. Divorce. Relocation. Things were falling away. But I still knew I had me.”

She prayed. She asked God for direction.

Then, something unexpected happened.

A book called HTML for Dummies fell off a shelf at the bookstore.

“That was different,” she laughed. “But I bought it. I took it home. I learned HTML, CSS, a little JavaScript. I started building websites before there was drag and drop. I learned the language.”

What she discovered was not just a new skill, but a new identity.

A woman who could create her own lane long before Hollywood or the internet caught up.

She also saw the future coming.

“I understood streaming before most people did. I saw the change in revenue, content, ownership. I knew if I went back to Hollywood, I was going to be different. Because I was different.”

Hollywood, AI, and the New Fight Over Black Women’s Likeness

Today, Malinda is watching another shift. AI entering entertainment without fully formed rules or safeguards.

“AI introduced a whole different game,” she said. “Likeness and voices being used without permission. Royalties in limbo. The unions are still figuring out the regulations. The industry is still figuring out the money.”

She refuses to respond with fear.

Instead, she responds with strategy.

“AI is a tool. Technology is a tool. We can let the tools use us, or we can use them to make our lives easier.”

Her foundation, the Arise and Shine Foundation, teaches Black women and girls exactly that.

To embrace the technology that is reshaping their world rather than be erased by it.

Because “visibility does not always mean stability,” she says.

Black women have learned that truth across Hollywood, journalism, technology, and corporate America.

Flying Above the Noise

When I asked her how she stays grounded in her worth, Malinda smiled.

“I do not stay grounded,” she said. “The thing that has always elevated me is flying. Having the audacity to float. Having the nerve to rise above.”

Her husband, Tariq Walker, said it best:

“You did not come to Hollywood and become a star. You are a star and you came to Hollywood.”

That is the energy she carries now.

Not waiting for validation.

Not waiting for the next call.

Not shrinking when the industry reshapes itself again.

“My family gives me the wings,” she said. “They put the wind beneath me.”

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“No” Is a Complete Sentence

Her relationship with no has changed everything.

“When my son was young, I refused to take projects that took me away from him too long. That no was my family.”

Now her no is her clarity.

“I represent my family and my community now. That means I have to be intentional with my yes and my no.”

It is a lesson Black women everywhere are learning in a world that demands endless output without offering equal care.

Bringing Your Whole Self

Malinda refuses to flatten herself for anyone.

“You are not meeting a one dimensional person when you meet me,” she said. “Black women cannot be stuffed into a box. We have too many skills by nature or by necessity.”

She believes every ability we carry, from coding to sewing to mothering to creating, has a season where it becomes the thing that saves us.

“At some point, one of those skills will come into play, and you will pull it out your pocket and say, I got that,” she told me.

The Somebody Principle

One of her favorite reminders:

“This is not for everybody. It is for somebody.”

You do not have to reach the masses.

You only need to reach the one person who needed you to show up.

Perhaps the most powerful thing she leaves us with is her daily affirmation:

“I am happy, I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am wise.”

Because reinvention is not about what is next.

It is about who you become while you wait.

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