Alum spotlight: Damian King (B.F.A. ’10/A) & Malorie (Mackey) King (B.F.A ’10/A)

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wedding photo and same couple working on set together

Damian King, BFA Performance ’10

Malorie (Mackey) King, BFA Performance ’10

damian.c.king@gmail.com

Malorie and Damian’s headshots

Damian & Malorie both attended Atlee High School, where they played Macheath and Polly in The Beggars Opera. Damian recalls, “We had to kiss on stage, and somehow that did it.” Their theatre teacher and VCU alum, Charles Wax (BFA ’98) encouraged them to attend VCU.

After graduating, they travelled to Buenos Aires, because “Malorie’s big into Evita Perón.” Damian recounts, “I was very broke and couldn’t afford a ring, but we were went by a ring shop…and I realized that pesos were a fifth of a price…so, I emptied my account and bought it and proposed to her in the streets right then. It was as much of a surprise to me as to her.” They were married in 2012.

VCU Theatre Professors Barry Bell and Lorri Lindberg with Malorie at the Wedding

They credit Lorri Lindberg (former Acting Professor) for helping them get started in California. Malorie contacted Lorrie, “I know you guys do a New York showcase, but we’re going to LA, so Lorri put together an LA showcase and pretty much all the contacts we made led directly to our careers now.”

After working as a first assistant director and stunt coordinator, Damian’s career led to his company Fantasy Forge Films. He comments, “Something we learned is that the industry was shifting into streaming and new media. We started producing our own content immediately.”

Malorie and Damian at the premier of “Manipulated”

One of the high profile projects Damian produced is The Wedding Pact and he’s working on the follow-up, The Wedding Pact 2: The Baby Pact, which has locked distribution. Malorie also came on board as a co-producer. Here’s a Deadline article on the project.

Damian with the Cast of The Wedding Pact 2: The Baby Pact

In the last two years, Malorie shifted into travel and adventure, creating and hosting a series called Weird World Adventures, featuring the “strangest, dorkiest and most unbelievable places in the world.” It’s currently being shopped around to streaming services.

from Damien’s book

Malorie and Damian have four “fur babies,” one dog and three cats. Damian actually wrote a children’s book about one of the cats, The Christmas Monster. Damian explains, “I’m a huge nerd and play D&D, so I named him Strahd, after the villain, because that cat brought no end of chaos.” Taking it further, since Andrew Lloyd Weber is one of Malorie’s faves, she sang a song from Cats for Weber’s pandemic musicals in isolation, and her video was featured on Weber’s instagram account! You can see the video here – flip to the 6th video to see Malorie and Strahd.

When Malorie first got to LA, “I got swept in modeling around the world of Playboy and became friends with Hefner and family.” She’s written a memoir titled My Playboy Story, Hopping from Richmond to Hollywood.



Compiled by Liz Hopper (professor emeritus) and Jerry Williams (BFA ’71) for the February 2022 Theatre Alumni newsletter