DR. MALIK YOBA

ACTOR, DIRECTOR, MUSICIAN, AUTHOR, ENTREPRENEUR,

EDUCATOR, PHILANTHROPIST, SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR

Although this 3x NAACP Image Award winning actor offers over three decades of commitment to the arts with over fifty film credits and more than a dozen lead roles in network/cable television series, he considers himself a community and youth advocate first.

Born in the South Bronx and raised in Harlem, it was his debut in the 1993 Disney classic Cool Runnings and his performance as NYPD Detective J.C. Williams in the groundbreaking nineties police drama, New York Undercover, that catapulted Malik into the fabric of American culture.

A serial entrepreneur, he is the founder and CEO of Yoba Development, a diversified portfolio company specializing in real estate, education, and media. As a mission-driven firm, they are committed to building human capacity through education and media while simultaneously pursuing sustainable, affordable and market rate mixed-use development projects in transitioning neighborhoods. Yoba Development has active real estate projects in New York, Baltimore, Augusta GA, Chicago and Charleston.

In 2022, Malik received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Livingstone College. In 2023, he co-founded Yoba Global Solutions, a federal contracting business with several of his family members where he serves as Head of Business Development and in 2024 was named to the U.S. EXIM Bank Advisory Board for Sub- Saharan Africa .

IN THE BEGINNING…

At the age of thirteen, Yoba was a member of The Metropolitan Opera Children’s Theater Guild and at age sixteen he worked with The Negro Ensemble Company. His stage credits include The Atlantic Theater Company’s The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner, The New Group s production of Everything’s Turning Into Beautiful with Daphne Rubin Vega and The Delaware Theater Company’s The Piano Lesson.

THE EDUCATOR + PUBLIC SPEAKER

For over three decades Dr. Yoba has been a well sought after inspirational/keynote speaker and host and has presented hundreds of keynotes and workshops to Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, prisons, colleges, universities, high schools, churches and community organizations around the world that focus on various topics ranging from real estate , community and economic development, mental health, diversity, equity and inclusion, leadership, team building, crime prevention and mass incarceration reform. At fifteen, Yoba was shot by a stranger after leaving his high school in Midtown Manhattan and left for dead. By then, he’d already realized he had a passion and gift for moving others and raising consciousness, but that near death experience solidified his belief in personal and social responsibility; spurring him toward a life of service, creativity, volunteerism, community activism and entrepreneurship. He made it his life’s mission to use the arts and his voice as his weapons of choice. Yoba was a youth development specialist at the City Kids Foundation from the ages 19 to 24 where he designed and facilitated workshops on leadership, diversity and

inclusion, organizational leadership, community organizing, conflict resolution and self- esteem building. Here he was trained on how to use performing and visual arts to educate , build community and promote social change. Yoba and his team served thirteen NYC public high schools via the AIDP (Attendance Improvement Dropout Prevention) program where they assessed students, faculty and parents needs to improve the quality of the academic experience which resulted in improved attendance, higher test scores and graduation rates.

At twenty-three , he was named Vice President of the City Kids Foundation and served from 1991-1993. For his dedication to youth, Yoba has been recognized by or worked with US Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, The Congress of the United States, The Mayor of New York City, NYPD, UNICEF, McDonald s Black Achievers, Hale House, The Ethiopian Children’s Fund, African American Mayors Association, The Congressional Black Caucus and more.  Over the years Yoba has worked with tens of thousands of young people across America and around the globe. From Yale to Rikers Island High School and the Spofford Detention Center in New York to Johannesburg South Africa ,Toronto, Denmark, London, Jamaica, Korea, Brazil, Ethiopia, Guyana, and Belize Central America to name a few.  In 2011 the title “Professor” was added to his list of accomplishments as Yoba completed his first semester teaching a course he developed called “The Working Actor” at Long Island University s Brooklyn Campus. 

MUSIC

Before his acting career took off, Yoba was actively pursuing a career in music and was co-musical director for the Jim Henson Productions/ABC produced Saturday morning show CityKids. A published writer with ASCAP, he also wrote the theme song for the Jamaican bobsled team in the Disney classic, Cool Runnings. The native New Yorker has also performed as a musical artist at both Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden and internationally. He continues to write and perform and is slowly recording his long overdue album.

FILM

A working actor ever since he made his debut, his film credits include: The Good Nurse, Copland, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? and Why Did I Get Married Too, Smoke, Blue in the Face, Soul Food, Ride, Bad Dad Rehab, Criminal and Betty and Coretta where he says he had the “great honor” of portraying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposite Angela Basset. International productions include the Danish film, Oh Happy Day, the BBC film Turks and Caicos directed by David Hare and Take Point, a Korean action film for CJ Entertainment which was released worldwide in 2018.

TELEVISION

Series regular roles include Empire, Designated Survivor, First Wives Club, Alphas, Defying Gravity, Bull, Trinity, Kingpin, Raines and Thief. He has had recurring roles on Family Business, Equalizer, Blue Bloods, Revolution, Arrested Development, Girlfriends, Single Ladies and has appeared in numerous guest-starring roles including CSI Miami, The Glades, Justified, Blue Bloods, Limitless, The Good Wife, Person of Interest, Law and Order and Nikita. He also appeared in Jordan Peele s TBS comedy with Tracey Morgan The Last OG as well as the drama series Seven Seconds on Netflix, God Friended Me for CBS and hosted TV One’s documentary crime series Justice By Any Other Means. Next up he will appear in Netflix’s Kings of JoBurg in 2025.

THE BUSINESS OF YOBA

An entrepreneur from the day he started a paper route in Harlem at the age of eight that he ran until sixteen years old. He opened his first restaurant Soul Cafe in NYC s Times Square in 1996 which enjoyed a successful run for almost a decade before the property was sold to make way for

a new housing development. In 2003 he established, The Malik Yoba National Theatre (MYNT) Company to create, acquire, produce and distribute content for the urban theatre market. He has co-written two successful touring musicals for stage, What’s on The Hearts of Men and Acoustic

Chocolate, which has been adapted for screen. In 2006 Yoba became a published author when he co-wrote a book with his sister Akoshia Yoba, titled Please Return My Phone Call! Preventing the Demise of Personal and Professional Relationships,” a handbook for business and interpersonal relationships that challenge the thought processes of students, employees, entrepreneurs and billion-dollar corporations alike as it pertains to interpersonal communication, integrity, accountability, leadership, and effective follow through. Yoba has travelled extensively facilitating workshops based on the book for clients that include, Edward Jones, BNY Mellon, Citrix, Columbia University Film School, Yale University and Morgan’s Hotel Group.

In 2010 Yoba began consulting corporations and non- profits with their marketing needs and began creating and producing branded digital content for a web series, including ShopTalk for Gillette, which he wrote, directed, and starred in and successfully launched on BET.com. This led to a distribution deal with AOL. Finding this work exciting and creatively satisfying, in 2013 along with an advertising veteran they co-founded a short lived content, brand strategy and experiential marketing firm, iconic32 that leveraged pop culture to help corporations amplify their CSR platforms to promote social good. His responsibilities included business development, strategy, commercial writing /directing and event production. Clients included the fashion brand NESH NYC, The American Cancer Society, The United Negro College Fund and AARP, to

name a few.

In 2017, after a ten-year partnership as an investor/apprentice with NYC based real estate development firm La Cite Development, he established Yoba Development and has been able to combine his passions for education, media and real estate with the ground breaking educational docu-series The Real Estate Mixtape, Volume 1: I Build NY, that follows Malik and his cohort of young people of color as he navigates his first commercial real estate development deal in NYC. In 2023 Yoba Development launched the first ever real estate development curriculum for high school students with its “I Build NY” program and established a partnership with Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Johannesburg University School of Architecture and FAMU. Yoba travels nationally and internationally screening the docuseries at real estate conferences, schools, churches, and community events establishing partnerships for education programs in various cities and deal flow for development opportunities. The company’s slogan “Builder of People, Places and Things” exemplifies Yoba’s life and business philosophy. In 2022 the non-profit Yoba Development Foundation was established to execute the education initiatives on behalf of Yoba Development.

PHILANTHROPY

• Yoba sits on numerous boards including :

• The Boston Arts Academy Foundation

• 651 Arts

• The Christian Rivera Foundation

• Dorill Initiative

PIECES OF A DREAM

In February 2019, Yoba premiered his long awaited one man show, Harlem to Hollywood at New York’s famed Apollo Theater. The musical autobiography had been a dream project for 15 years. Co-written and directed by Broadway veteran Kevin Ramsey, the show features Yoba’s original music and provides the audience with an all-access pass to his journey as he flexes deep character muscles and flows between twenty different personas. In 1994, the New York Times Magazine declared that Malik Yoba would be an artist who will most likely influence American culture in the next thirty years…” and that has clearly held true.