Malik Yoba- Livingstone College Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient

Malik Yoba- Livingstone College Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient
Livingstone College's One Hundred Fortieth Annual Commencement
Varick Auditorium Livingstone College Salisbury, North Carolina
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Special Thanks to the LC Multimedia Team -
Keith ”Synphany” Anderson
Preston Gillespie
Patrice E. Saunders
Actor, activist, entrepreneur
Malik Yoba, born in the South Bronx and raised in Harlem, is a Hollywood veteran with more than three decades of commitment to the arts. He has amassed over 50 film credits and more than a dozen lead roles in network/cable TV series.
His debut in the Disney classic “Cool Runnings” and his performances as New York police detective J.C. Williams in the groundbreaking police drama, “New York Undercover,” catapulted Malik into the fabric of American culture.
Malik, alongside Michael DeLorenzo, made TV history in “New York Undercover” as it was the first police drama on American TV to feature two people of color in the starring roles. Malik won three consecutive NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for that part.
He went on to star in films such as “Copland,” “The Good Nurse,” “Soul Food,” “Ride,” and Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married” and “Why Did I Get Married Too.”
His TV credits include “Blue Bloods,” “The Good Wife,” “Law and Order,” “Empire,” “Arrested Development,” “Girlfriends,” “Single Ladies,” “Designated Survivor,” “The Last O.G.” and “God Friended Me.”
Among his branded digital content clients are BET, Gillete, the American Cancer Society, the United Negro College Fund, AARP and Google.
Yet among all of his acting success, Malik considers himself a community and youth activist first. Starting at 16 years old as a tutor and theater instructor at the Upward Fund Afterschool Program in Harlem, Malik went on to work with the Citykids Foundation, where he became the vice president at 23 years old and is vice president emeritus. He has worked with youth globally including helping to build a school in Ethiopia called Ethiopian Children’s Village.
A serial entrepreneur, the emerging real estate developer has projects in NYC and Baltimore, and is currently in post- production for his educational docuseries, “The Real Estate Mixtape, Volume 1: Build NY.” The series follows Malik and a cohort of youth as he navigates his first commercial real estate deal in NYC, which is currently happening in the South Bronx, and includes the building of a new school, sports and wellness center and affordable housing.
He has served as a board member of The Center for Social Innovation; The Boston Arts Academy Foundation; and The One Brooklyn Fund. Most recently, he was invited to become the honorary chair of the School of Construction at Pratt University.
Malik lives by the creed, “Build your own generator so when they turn off the power, you still have lights.”