Inside the Work: Malikha Mallette on Building a Career That Lasts
- Frank Verderosa
- Mar 4
- 6 min read
Long before she became the voice of major national campaigns, Malikha Mallette was an intern in Atlanta answering phones and working in promotions. Voiceover wasn’t the plan. It was the accident that changed everything.
“Interestingly, I got into radio from doing voiceovers,” she says.
At the time, she was attending Spelman College and interning at a radio station. “I was in the promotions department, which is like the prize department, but the production director would call in to get voices.” She didn’t even know what imaging was yet. “It’d be, you know, sweepers in between songs… the big station, V103, you know, that sort of thing.”
The program director heard her voice on those pieces and asked a simple question: had she ever thought about being in radio? That question pulled her fully into broadcasting.
Like many radio personalities, she did commercials as part of the job. “Most radio personalities, we have to do commercials anyway, but we’re not getting paid for it. It’s just a part of being a radio personality.” The skill set was developing quietly: speed, interpretation, confidence behind a mic.
When she eventually moved to New York, someone gave her the push that changed the trajectory of her career. “One of my friends along my radio journey, he said, ‘Listen, you need to be getting this money.’” He had been working with a coach and suggested she do the same.
She did.
At the same time, competition widened. When geography no longer limits casting, the field expands globally. The upside is access. The downside is saturation. The actors who thrive now are the ones who combine talent with technical reliability.
After coaching, she created her first commercial demo. Her radio background gave her an edge. “What was really helpful was my radio background, simply because I knew how to edit myself… I knew producers, because I worked in radio.” She understood production, pacing, and how a finished spot should sound. That made the path more efficient, though not effortless.
Back then, the process looked very different. “I had a demo reel… and it was on a CD. I had to burn it.” She took that CD to Actors Connection workshops and met voiceover agents face-to-face.
One of those agents would change her career.
“Unbeknownst to me, they were leaving that agency to go to the agency I would end up at. And since you can’t poach clients, they needed to be able to bring new clients.” When that agent landed at the new agency, the call came. “Would you like to join?”
She laughs about how little she knew at the time. “I knew nothing about the process. I just knew… I need to have an agent. I didn’t vet anything.” Then comes the line that sums up the moment perfectly: “I fell ass-backwards into the best agent, because we were together for 20 years.”
That kind of long-term representation is rare now. But it reflects something bigger about Malikha’s career: longevity.
By the time she became the retail “greeter voice” for IKEA, she was already seasoned. What turned into years of monthly sessions started during the COVID era. “I think it was September 2021,” she recalls. The run continued through July 2025.
Sustaining that kind of campaign isn’t glamorous behind the scenes. Creative teams rotate. Agencies shift. Schedules get messy. “Thank God for you Frank, because there were times when so many people were involved in a booking that somehow I'd be the last to know- but you always checked in".
But the work itself required consistency. Month after month. Script after script. Retail copy that had to feel fresh without drifting off-brand. That’s the part most aspiring actors don’t see: longevity is repetition without decline.
Before IKEA, there was Nissan — and that booking changed how she operated.
“My first session with them was in December of 2019,” she says. “And it became glaringly apparent that I needed to have a studio.” At the time, she was constantly traveling into Manhattan studios, sometimes multiple times a day. “It was not uncommon for me to come in to record… leave and get back home and get a call. ‘Hey, they need to know if you can jump back in the booth.’”
One day stands out. “I remember one time I had three sessions in one day. I, like, left… went to Trader Joe’s, I was buying stuff, I got a call, I just left the cart on the side and went right back.”
The math didn’t make sense anymore. “They’re not paying for a studio three times a day. You need a booth.”
Here’s the critical detail: she ordered her booth before the world shut down.
“I actually ordered it before I even knew there was gonna be a shutdown.” When COVID hit, she was one of the few actors already equipped to pivot. “I was probably one of the actors that were already prepared.” She quickly adapted her setup into what she describes as “more like a broadcast-quality booth in a closet” until her full studio arrived.
That preparation mattered.
“I have been fortunate that the volume of work has maintained or increased for me,” she says about the post-COVID era. While many actors scrambled to meet technical standards, she was ready. Audio quality, connectivity, and workflow were not afterthoughts — they were professional requirements.
But not everything about the shift was positive.
“It’s the fact that you don’t see anyone,” she says about remote recording. “There is no human interaction. You are not in a room with casting, you’re not getting direction.” The communal energy of in-person sessions disappeared almost overnight. What used to be collaborative became isolated.
At the same time, competition widened. When geography no longer limits casting, the field expands globally. The upside is access. The downside is saturation. The actors who thrive now are the ones who combine talent with technical reliability.
Throughout these shifts, Malikha has remained versatile. Beyond retail campaigns, her work spans national brands, television, and narration. Audiences have heard her in campaigns for Nissan and Discover, and on-air in New York radio. Viewers have seen her on shows like Daredevil, House of Cards, and Law & Order: SVU. She also serves as the narrator for TV One’s Fatal Attraction, a role that demands control, gravity, and emotional pacing very different from high-energy commercial reads.
That range is intentional.
Radio gave her stamina and speed. Commercials sharpened brand awareness. Narration demanded restraint. On-camera work expanded her storytelling toolkit. Each lane reinforced the others.
Even her perspective on marketing has evolved. When her commercial reel came up in conversation, she admitted, “When you said it, I’m like, I don’t even know what it is.” That’s the irony of staying busy — updating materials can slip down the priority list. But growth demands reflection. The work you did five years ago shouldn’t define you today.
So where is she now?
Still working. Still adapting. Still building.
The difference is mindset. Early career is about access and opportunity. Mid-career is about proving consistency. Long-term sustainability is about infrastructure — representation, studio quality, relationships, and reputation.
Malikha’s story isn’t about a single breakout moment. It’s about stacking preparation on top of preparation. Interning in promotions. Learning imaging without knowing the term. Editing her own demo. Burning CDs. Taking workshops. Saying yes to representation before she fully understood the industry. Ordering a booth before the shutdown. Leaving a grocery cart mid-aisle to make a session.
There’s no shortcut in that timeline.
“I have been fortunate,” she says — and she has. But fortune in this business tends to favor people who are ready when the call comes.
Her career is proof that longevity in voiceover isn’t built on hype. It’s built on readiness, adaptability, and the willingness to treat every stage — radio intern, brand voice, national narrator — as part of the same craft.
And that craft is still evolving.
Frank Verderosa is an award-winning audio engineer and voiceover casting director with decades of industry experience. As the owner of POV Audio, he casts, sound-designs, and mixes television, radio, and promo campaigns for leading ad agencies and networks. Outside the studio, Frank supports the voice actor community through coaching, consulting, and demo production for talent at every level. To connect or learn more, visit www.frankverderosa.com and use the chat tab or explore the Voice Actor Services section.
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