Chloe Bailey Recalls Reconnecting With Malia Obama on the ‘Swarm’ Set | SXSW 2023

Award-winning Atlanta creator Donald Glover has a new television project, Swarm, part of his eight-figure overall deal with Amazon Prime. The series, which will be available to stream on Prime Video March 17, had its world premiere Friday at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

Cast members Dominique Fishback and Chloe Bailey were joined by showrunner Janine Nabers and writer Jamal Olori to talk about the series and its writing staff, which includes former First Daughter Malia Obama.

“I remember, in passing, we’d see each other, like at the White House Easter Egg Roll,” recalls Bailey on her relationship with Obama. “Her mom [Michelle Obama] has always been so warm and welcoming to my sister [fellow actress and musician Halle Bailey], and so seeing her again as we were older and evolved into women and owning ourselves and our creative minds, it was really cool. It felt like a group of girlfriends when we were on set.”

Swarm follows a young woman whose obsession with a female pop star turns sinister. Showrunner Nabers staffed her writers room with many of Glover’s former collaborators from FX’s Emmy darling Atlanta, which wrapped its fourth and final season last fall.

“Bringing Malia, who’s our staff writer, along with Karen [Joseph Adcock, staff writer], into the room, it was great,” explained Nabers. “They’re both so young, and they have crazy, wild pitches, and they’re both so funny. There’s so many writers from Atlanta [who] came over. I think Malia completed the circle of things we were looking for in a writer to tell this story. She nailed it. Her episode is great.”

Check out the full THR conversation in the player above.