We were lucky to catch up with Maelina Gibson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maelina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I was a kid when I realized that I wanted to be a creative. I just wanted to make everybody happy like I made my family happy! I didn’t really know what that would or could look like for me until I saw Whoopi Goldberg do stand up! It transported me into another mindset! I felt like I could do anything!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I come from a family of creatives! My cousins and I would get together and perform skits for our family. Throughout the years whenever we got together I was usually the entertainment. From the time that I was about 3 or 4 up until the time that I was a preteen my sister told me that my real mom was Whoopi Goldberg. I thought that she was the reason that I felt so strongly about being an actress and why I was so good at making people laugh! I would walk around making people laugh all day. Everybody told me that I should do stand-up. Unfortunately I had stage terror, which is right above stage fright. When I was around my friends and family I was fine, but in front of a crowd of strangers I would freeze. When I went to college for Theatre and Acting my stage terror followed me. My acting teacher said that I should go do stand up because it would help me. A few years later I gave in and got on stage. My sister and I went to the Houston Improv, but on the wrong day. The manager was there and she told me to get on stage and practice. If it was a real show I would have bombed! She told us to come back the next day and bring my family and friends. Talk like I’m talking to them and I’ll be fine. The next day we came back with family and friends and I crushed it! I was bitten and it felt great! When I got offstage the manager told me to come back that Friday. She introduced me to Mark Curry, who she was talking me up to unbeknownst to me, and he gave me a guest spot! I’ve been performing every since!

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Something that I found later in my career is a group called Talent Mangers for Actors on Facebook and the Hollywood Winners Circle. This certainly changed the game for me and everyone that joins and does the work! The people that are in these groups are real working professionals! They’re working now not 30+years ago. To be surrounded by like minded people that are in the business and can tell you what is right right now is invaluable!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The goal that is driving my journey is my daughter. I want her to see me achieve my goals so that she knows that it’s possible. I want her to strive for her goals full force!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @maelina_g
• Facebook: Maelina Gibson
• TikTok: @maelina_g

Image Credits
Kiki Soto on the set of Here/After Still from the set of Jack & Me On set of No Church In The Wild Me on stage at The Comedy Chateau Dante the Comic of Golden Artists LA picture of the festival finalists Still from the set of Immunotherapy On the set of Gift of Scissors