F L A U N T
It’s hard not to fall in love with Malia Baker. You may recognize the name from her role in Netflix’s hit series Baby-Sitters Club, rising to the forefront of the show as Mary Anne Spier in 2020. Or maybe you saw her on Nickelodeon's second season of Are You Afraid of the Dark. Either way, the Botswana-bred, Canadian-raised actress exudes nothing short of good energy for her growing fanbase—giving them the hope and inspiration they need so that they can also turn their dreams into a reality.
In describing herself, she states, “I’d describe myself as an actress/activist who’s trying to make myself, my family, and where I’m from proud.”
Boasting 256K followers on Instagram alone, Baker uses her voice and platform to amplify underrepresented voices, even speaking at multiple Black Lives Matters programs throughout Vancouver and supporting activists on the frontlines of the protests. This desire to give back stems directly from her father, whom she frequently visited on set as she became enthralled in the world of television and film.
And while she’s not on set, Malia enjoys the simple things in life such as spending time with family, dancing, painting, and anything that has to do with the arts. Flaunt caught up with Malia via Zoom to discuss her roots in Botswana, biggest influences, acting at age 10, shooting Netflix’s Baby-sitter’s Club, watching Are You Afraid of the Dark as a kid, being a straight A student, favorite hobbies, her activism, goals, and more!
Talk about being from Botswana, that’s rare!
It’s really cool how I’m originally from Botswana, I’m one of the very few people in the film industry there. Whenever I call my family, they all say “oh my god Malia, everyone knows you here! We’re so proud of you.”
How was it growing up there? I know you moved to Canada early on.
Yeah, half of my family is still there. My dad’s originally from Botswana. He grew up during Apartheid, so he has crazy stories to tell. I was living there for two years, then moved back here [Canada] at 2.5 years old. I’ve been in the same house since, which is pretty cool. [laugs] It's the family house. It was really amazing having two worlds and being exposed to so many things growing up. It teaches you a lot of great lessons that I’m really grateful I had the opportunities to have.
What lessons did it teach you?
It taught me how to communicate with everyone, hear everyone's perspective and their side of the story. To really understand and be grateful for where I’m at today. Whether that's being happy that the sun’s out or it's raining, most people don't have those opportunities or those chances. I'm very happy and very excited to be doing everything I’m doing.
Biggest influences coming up?
I gotta say my parents, they’re fantastic human beings. In the film industry, I really admire Robin Williams. He’s been one of my biggest aspirations. I remember first seeing him in Mrs. Doubtfire, [screams]. Amazing. Meryl Streep, who else? Angela Davis, I remember really being interested in her. I’m an avid reader, so a little bit of everyone to be honest.
You did musical theatre and dance at the young age of 3. When did you realize you could act?
Acting started when I was around 10 years old. I wrote a letter to my dad, he’s in the film industry as well. I wrote him this big letter about “I want to become an actor. I really want to aspire to do this, I'm really motivated to do it. I'm super excited, what do you think?” He wrote me back this 10-page essay, I think I still have it on my wall. It’s all about “Malia, you got this. But remember..”It was these life lessons stacked on top of each other. I remember that's when I decided that I'm going to be committed to it.
What was at the top of that list?
Oh my God, why don't I read it now? [laughs] You gotta be happy with yourself, and you gotta stay true to yourself. You come first, your mental mentality stays first. Everything comes second on top of that. He was also very avid about school, which I'm doing great at. [laughs] So there's that too.
You get straight A’s?
I am a straight A student, very proudly so.
What's your favorite subject?
Art obviously, but I love English and Science. Those two are my favorites.
How did you land the role as Mary Anne Spier in Netflix’s Baby-Sitter’s Club? That’s huge.
Mmhmm, it was very big! [laughs] It’s been amazing. We just finished filming Season 2, that was heartbreaking to see them all go back to their homes. Whatever, I miss them already. I first landed the role when I was 11 years old. The funny thing is my mom had given me one year to do acting. She said, “If nothing happens, that's okay, but the drive to all the auditions is too much.” I said “I understand that, I can get with that.”
It was one year on the dot that I booked Mary Anne, like “Yes! Finally!” It was such an amazing experience. Everyone had prepared me for it to be really competitive, everyone wasn’t going to be so friendly. When I first walked into the audition room for the chemistry test, everyone gave me a hug. “You must be auditioning for Mary Anne!” I was wearing a generic outfit and rocking my braids, like “yeah, I am!” I met my best friends in that room that day. It’s been such a journey so far.
What's the highlight from shooting on set? I'm sure it's endless.
Definitely filming with some of my best friends. It's funny because in the scenes, you can barely tell if it's real life or not. Half of the improv scenes, the director Kim didn't even tell us we were rolling. We’re talking and she goes “Oh okay, great! Awesome day guys, that’s a wrap.” We’re like “hold up, no, no, no.” [laughs]
Having your best friends on set with you 24/7, and being in a position to play such iconic characters that at least I've read about growing up and I admired. Mary Anne's my favorite character, so to portray her in this day and age is beyond amazing.
How does the role relate to your own life, playing a teen on a quest to identity?
Since Mary Anne is a Black kid in the series, they've changed it in so many ways that I'm super grateful for getting an opportunity to share. Rarely do we see Black youth simply living, thriving, and growing in their own ways. We’ve never really had that good coming of age story without it being a cry fest. ‘Cause there's a lot to cry about, it's true.
Coming up, I didn't get to see that. If I did, it was not relatable. They were spies or they’re in outer space. With Mary Anne, she's a very relatable character. I know so many kids out there are looking after her and saying “Hey, I get shy and I'm sensitive too. I can't speak up yet, but I'm getting there. Maybe I'll find my own way to be true to myself.” For this story, especially in the first season, it's fantastic. I'm very excited for you all to see the second one.
How excited are you for Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark?
So excited! I’d also watched the original series growing up. My mom when I got the first audition, she said “Dang, okay! We got this. There's something about the nostalgia factor for you Malia, we're gonna get this.” I said “yeah for sure, I'm super stoked.” Working on that was my first thing outside of The Baby-Sitters Club that I was a big role in. I got to see and work how things actually felt. Since I was becoming more comfortable on set, I was able to know what a 35 millimeter camera lens is. Now I have all these useless little pieces of information in my head that I'm so grateful to have, because I know what I'm talking about in the future.
When you're not filming, what are your favorite hobbies?
I'm a big music fan, all about music. My family, it's been a spiritual thing since I came out of the womb. Playing guitar and piano, I love listening to my records. I love going outside, spending time with my family, whether that’s board games or FaceTiming them back in Botswana. Watching movies, being creative in any way I can. Of course you got school which I do have to do, but it's not too tortuous at moments.
What do you want fans to get from your story? I know you're still so young.
That’s a good question. [laughs] Like you said, I am pretty young so there's a lot of the story to still go on. It's definitely not finished, hopefully it's not finished. I want fans to find someone that they can look up to. All my supporters out there, I've been so grateful for them. They've done more for me than they even realize. I hope they take away that they're proud to look up to me in a sense that I use my voice for what I'm passionate about, and I'm spreading good in the world.
How long have you been pescatarian, and how do you feel?
It's almost five years now. I started when I was 10 years-old. I saw this one video, then my mom made me like a chicken sandwich. I said “No! No way we’re getting this down.” [laughs] I used to cry on the ferry boats when I saw the chickens cooped up on the boats, like “Oh my God, oh my God! [sniffles]”
My dad being African, that was the scariest thing ever because our big family is all about meat. He said “Oh Malia, I got some Boerewors,” which is this African sausage. I said ”Dad, I got something to tell you…” I said “I don’t eat meat anymore.” He said “oh my! I said “it’s okay, it’s really okay.” But he's been so supportive and to this day, he still makes vegetarian options.
Talk about your activism, and using your voice to push for change.
Having a platform, it's a responsibility to choose what you want to do with it. Whether that's having a safe space for people online, where they want to relax and watch you living your life, or they want to see what's going on in the world. Have their voices heard for, realized and acknowledged. That's where my page comes in. With social media nowadays, it's so easy to spread things. Although that can be so amazing, it can also be really hard because wrong info could be spread so easily.
I'll see hashtags like “No, no. That's no! Ahh, okay.” Those hashtags, they just post something, then they go back to the normal things. Or they spread the hashtag, and it's completely gone a week later and everyone forgets about it. Having that consistent pattern of using my voice for things that I do care about, whether that be talking about animal rights, talking about human rights, talking about what's going on in our world that no one's talking about, it's been very important since day one. Also having a team surrounding me that acknowledges those and sees through it with me for the future.
What’s the premise behind “Hashtag And”? I saw that in your Instagram bio.
My mom and I set up that website this year, we started it for AAPI hate. We said “okay, we could expand on this idea a little bit.” My friends and I do this Live where we write little posters, then we put them up for auction. It was really cool, that’s the first thing that we’d done together. Okay awesome, how can we make this go further? We set up that page, it's a bunch of resources and donations, things you can do to help out and not just spread the hashtag. Which is always amazing, but you can take that further step.
Do you have any goals at this point of your career?
I have a bunch of goals. I mean, winning an Oscar. That's something, that’d be cool. I have goals as an actor and in my personal life, whether that's “I'm going to get out of bed in the morning and do a 30-minute workout.” Those are little life and healthy goals you can do every day that aren't recognized for being as big as they are, when you need to applaud yourself once in a while for actually doing so. Those little goals everyday, whether that's drinking the two glasses of water. That's something I keep in mind from day to day.
What are you most excited for this year?
I’m most excited for you guys to see Season 2. There's a lot of great new storylines that are going to be continuing, some newer ones that you guys are not going to see coming. I’m excited to see all the opinions.
Instagram: @maliabakermsb
Twitter: @maliabakermsb
Photographer: Noah Asanias
Stylist: Leila Bani
Makeup: Zabrina Matiru
Hair: Tania Becker for NOBASURA Clubhouse using Oribe
