About This Episode

Joe chats with Emmy-nominated actor, seasoned director, Grammy Award winning spoken word artist and producer of TV and film, Malcolm-Jamal Warner. They explore what consistency can do for our happiness as well as taking the long view on our artistic journey towards cultivating and sustaining longevity in our career. Together they talk about the evolution of artistry, how it expresses through us and the influences we meet along the way both outside us and within us. Ultimately they speak about what it takes to have healthy self identity, the meditative power of hobbies and the power embedded within our names.

About Malcolm-Jamal Warner

Malcolm-Jamal Warner has become known in the entertainment business for his seasoned acting talents and his accomplishments in music, directing, and producing. As an Emmy-nominated actor and Grammy award winning poet, Warner has positioned himself as one of the most accomplished talents in the industry today. As a staple in television and film for nearly 30 years, Warner first rose to national prominence by starring on the celebrated and long-running classic television series “The Cosby Show.” His work on the show garnered him a Primetime Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and set the stage for him to have a long career in the public eye. 

Warner was most recently seen on ABC’s “Ten Days in the Valley” opposite Kyra Sedgwick, and in the critically acclaimed, award-winning FX series “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson.” In 2011 Warner produced, directed, and starred in the BET original series “Reed Between the Lines” opposite Golden Globe Award winner Tracee Ellis Ross. 

In 2017, Warner released a powerful, spoken word short film entitled “You Can’t Hear Me”, which highlights some of America’s civil and social ills including systematic oppression, deportation and mass incarceration. 

Since 2018 Warner has starred in FOX’s hit medical drama “The Resident.” 

On stage Warner has starred in the off-Broadway plays “Three Ways Home,” “Cryin’ Shame,” (NAACP Theater Award for Best Supporting Actor), “Freefall” at the Victory Garden Theatre, and “A Midsummer Nights’ Dream,” at the La Jolla Playhouse. 

As a seasoned director Warner has worked on a host of television series, including being a regular director [and producer] on the comedy series “Malcolm & Eddie,” and directed several episodes of “The Cosby Show,” “All That,” “Keenan & Kel,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Sesame Street,” and the AIDS awareness video “Timeout: The Truth about HIV, AIDS, and YOU,” which earned Warner the NAACP Key of Life Image Award. 

When not acting and directing, Warner is a poet and a bass player. In 2015 Warner nabbed his first Grammy Award for “Best Traditional R&B Performance as a Featured Performer” on Robert Glasper’s version of the Stevie Wonder classic “Jesus Children of America.” Warner’s jazz-funk band Miles Long has performed in several major jazz festivals, including the Playboy Jazz Festival, and has opened for high profile artists including Earl Klugh and the late Luther Vandross. In 2015 Warner released his latest album, “Selfless,” which melds spoken word and soul music into once cohesive album. All of Warner’s independently distributed CD’s, “The Miles Long Mix Tape,” “Love and Other Social Issues,” and “Selfless” have become popular on the underground music scene, can now be purchased on iTunes and his website.