Malcolm Venable

Los Angeles

Senior Staff Writer at Shondaland

journo (TV, arts) virgo. comedy writer. runner, cyclist, lil' yogi. great gowns, beautiful gowns.

Articles

Broadway’s 'BOOP! The Musical' Finally Makes a Black Woman the Official Face of the Iconic Betty Boop

2 weeks ago | bet.com | Malcolm Venable

Pretty much everybody knows Betty Boop, or at least has seen her: the coquettish cartoon, known for her pin curls and tiny dress, is one of the most recognizable animated characters ever. Few know, however, that Betty, an intentionally sexual symbol of the swinging Jazz era, is primarily based on a Black woman performer of the day, Esther Jones. Of course, given that Jones made her mark some 100 years ago, there’s not exactly a trove of videos to see and hear her performances.
Broadway’s 'BOOP! The Musical' Finally Makes a Black Woman the Official Face of the Iconic Betty Boop

2 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Malcolm Venable

23 hours agoA night on Broadway can be dazzling. But behind the scenes, it’s often a chaotic storm of wardrobe menaces: oily stage makeup, sweat-inducing spotlights, and a dimly lit backstage that lends itself to lost jewelry and torn costumes. Broadway dresser Michelina Evans deals with this almost every day. …
Meet the Husband and Wife Duo Shaking Up the Art World

1 month ago | bet.com | Malcolm Venable

You probably know that Jay-Z is a respected art collector. Or that Siwzz Beatz and Alicia Keys are power players in the art world, too. You might have heard of Amy Sherald, who did Michelle Obama’s portrait, or perhaps Kehinde Wiley, who painted her husband’s presidential portrait.
Meet the Husband and Wife Duo Shaking Up the Art World

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Malcolm Venable

3 hours agoRyan Coogler’s sexy, gory vampire musical Sinners made a big, bloody splash on its opening weekend, grossing $48 million domestically (a few million more than the projected $40 million that insiders said it would make), and taking the top spot away from box-office behemoth A Minecraft Movie. Usually, …
Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Why These Black Expats Left the U.S. for Costa Rica—and Never Looked Back

1 month ago | bet.com | Malcolm Venable

Davia Antonia, who left the United States for Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, 10 years ago, when she saw a Trump presidency as a real possibility, sums up the vibe in the town by explaining what happens when power goes out–a fairly regular occurrence in the still-developing nation. “We just go to the beach and wait for the power to come back on,” she says, speaking of the sizable and growing population of fellow Black Americans who’ve left the U.S. for Costa Rica.
Daniel Lawrence Taylor’s ‘Boarders’ Season 2 Hits Harder Than Ever—Because Real Life is Catching Up

1 month ago | bet.com | Malcolm Venable

When Daniel Lawrence Taylor began crafting Season 2 of "Boarders" in 2023, he couldn’t have known he was writing what now feels eerily prophetic. The creator, writer, and executive producer of the Tubi comedy is back with a sharper, bolder season of the British series, which follows five Black teens from inner-city London who land scholarships at an elite boarding school.
Sterling K. Brown Teaches Us About Softness and Ferocity on Screen

1 month ago | ebony.com | Malcolm Venable

Boy stop all that crying! Men ain’t supposed to cry!A Black man can’t show weakness, otherwise white folks will take advantage of you. I ain’t raising no punk. Many Black men, particularly those of a certain age, know these codes––the rules handed to us by our daddies, cousins and aunties that were reinforced by culture.
Danielle Brooks Mines a New Role

2 months ago | bet.com | Malcolm Venable

The last time Danielle Brooks hit the big screen, she was commanding our attention as Sofia in the 2023 movie-musical The Color Purple. Her fierce and unforgettable performance—complete with her own powerful spin on the iconic lines “All my life I had to fight” and “You told Harpo to beat me!”—earned her an Oscar nomination, a BAFTA nod, and a Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. It was the kind of highbrow, prestige recognition most actors dream of.
Opinion: Hollywood’s DEI Retreat Is a Box Office Bomb Waiting to Happen

2 months ago | bet.com | Malcolm Venable

Urges to play in Black people’s faces are about to rise to an all-time high now that you know who is smelling up the White House again––the petty and ridiculous mandate to remove the Black Lives Matter mural in D.C., another sign of the cultural shifts underway.
Paradise's Sterling K. Brown on His Action-Packed Return to TV

2 months ago | televisionacademy.com | Malcolm Venable |Sterling K. Brown |Dan Fogelman

Sterling K. Brown, known for his Emmy-winning turn on This Is Us, makes a bold return to television with Hulu's Paradise, a gripping sci-fi political thriller that reunites him with creator Dan Fogelman. Playing Xavier Collins, a Secret Service agent framed for the murder of the president, Brown steps to the to of the call sheet and sheds his sensitive-dad persona for a high-stakes, action-packed role. Sterling K. Brown had been reluctant to return to TV — network TV at least.