Malala Yousafzai, the world’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is in the midst of developing three films for Hollywood after partnering with Apple Inc to produce several television dramas, according to Variety. Malala, who has always had a serious mentality in life and consequently created an image that people would take seriously, is also a storyteller and an intellectual. She is hoping to make the world a more inclusive place by providing it with her fun side.
Malala’s latest interaction with Variety suggests that she, like most young women of her age, enjoys binge-watching popular Netflix series, as well as telling dad jokes, and much like everyone else, she also enjoys seeing people like herself portrayed onscreen. In a special for the outlet’s Power of Women celebration, Malala expressed her affection for Stranger Things, Dustin Henderson, and her growing interest in entertainment. She also talked about her desire to use entertainment to effect social change.
How to make it happen
“I am Vecna,” she says to Variety. “I have been watching Mind Your Language, Ugly Betty, among other things to improve my English and learn Western culture. I want my name to be listed in TV shows, documentaries, and movies.”
In addition to running her own production company, Malala is also an active activist. She lives in London, away from her parents in Birmingham, England, and her film and television company. “When I fill out forms that ask for a profession, I always struggle, because I’m trying to figure out what my role is,” she continues. “I feel like I’m an activist and a storyteller. I’ve been doing activism for more than a decade now, and I’ve realized that we shouldn’t limit activism to the work of NGOs only: There’s also the element of changing people’s minds and perspectives — and that requires a bit more work.”
Apple TV is currently working on the first slate of Extracurricular projects. “You’re often told in Hollywood, implicitly or explicitly, that the characters are too young, too brown or too Muslim, or that if one show about a person of colour is made, then that’s it — you don’t need to make another one. That needs to change,” Malala asserts. “I’m a woman, a Muslim, a Pashtun, a Pakistani and a person of colour. And I watched Succession, Ted Lasso and Severance, where the leads are white people — and especially a lot of white men. If we can watch those shows, then I think audiences should be able to watch shows that are made by people of colour, and produced and directed by people of colour, with people of colour in the lead. That is possible, and I’m going to make it happen.”
