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Malinda Kathleen Reese (born June 27, 1994) is an American YouTube personality, singer-songwriter and stage actress.[7] She is best known as Twisted Translations on YouTube, in which she and her team create songs and performances from song lyrics and other texts that have been translated through multiple languages and back into English using Google Translate; in that guise, she has over one million subscribers.[5] She releases original music and vlogs on her secondary channel, MALINDA. Her debut is a 2018 EP, Love Letter. In addition, she has performed in numerous theatre plays in the Washington DC area, including playing Girl in the musical Once, for which she won a Helen Hayes Award in 2020.[8]

Malinda Kathleen Reese
Reese in 2018
Personal information
Born	(1994-06-27) June 27, 1994 (age 28) [1][2] Washington, D.C., United States
Education	Vassar College[3]
Occupation	YouTuber Singer-songwriter Instrumentalist Actress
Website	www.malindakathleenreese.com
YouTube information
Also known as	MALINDA[4]
Channels	Twisted Translations MALINDA
Years active	2014–present (Twisted Translations) 2018 – present (MALINDA)
Subscribers	1.2 million (Twisted Translations)[5] 622,000 (MALINDA)[6]
Total views	233 million (Twisted Translations)[5] 48 million (MALINDA)[6]
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2014 (Twisted Translations) 2019 (MALINDA) 1,000,000 subscribers 2019 (Twisted Translations)
Musical career Genres Pop, Folk Years active 2016–present Musical artist
Last updated: June 30, 2022

Early life and education

Reese was born and raised in Washington, D.C.[9] She is the only child of Mary Hall Surface, a teacher and playwright, and Kevin Reese, an actor.[10] She recalls spending much of her youth backstage during theater performances, and spending time in costume shops. As a teenager, she went to Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and Broadway Artists Alliance in New York City.[9][10]

She learned to play the Irish flute at the age of thirteen, having been "drawn" to the instrument from a young age.[7] She is also able to play guitar, ukulele, electric piano, cajón and classical flute.[7]

Reese attended Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. and attended at Vassar College, New York; she initially studied cognitive science,[10] before switching to Drama, in which she majored,[9] and Religion, in which she minored. She also studied drama in London in 2014.[11]

Career

YouTube

Twisted Translations

Twisted Translations (formerly Google Translate Sings and Translator Fails) is Reese's initial YouTube channel, in which she translates song lyrics and other texts through Google Translate, through other languages and back into English, to create a parody of the song or text.[11][3]

She came up with the idea of Twisted Translations while she was a student at Vassar College. After watching a video of "Let It Go" sung in various languages, she noticed that the Spanish translation wasn't exact. Her college friends began using Google Translate to create humorous alternatives to famous works of literature, inspiring Reese to do the same with song lyrics.[10] Her first translation video was uploaded on February 10, 2014, and quickly went viral, amassing one million views within a week.[12] On February 14, she announced on YouTube that she would create more translation videos. Other Twisted Translations songs include songs from Mulan,[13] "One Day I'll Fly Away" from Moulin Rouge![10] and "Hello" by Adele.[14][15] In her Twisted Translations song videos, she often dresses as the character or singer of the song.

MALINDA channel

In 2018, she launched another YouTube channel, MALINDA, which contains vlogs,[16] song covers, and comedic songs, as well as her original songs.[9] In March 2019, the channel surpassed 100,000 subscribers.[6]

Music

In 2018, Reese launched her singing career. Her debut EP, Love Letter, was released on September 14, 2018.[9][17]

On May 15, 2020, she released the single "More With You", which involved a collaboration of more than 50 musicians from 17 countries.[4]

In 2021, she produced a cover of Wellerman as part of the ‘ShantyTok’ trend on TikTok. She had previously created a shanty-style song about puffins on her YouTube channel, featuring user-submitted lyrics.[18]

On July 16, 2021, she released her second EP, The Folks I Love, a collection of Folk-style cover versions.[19]

In early 2022, she embarked on a Folks I Love Tour.

In a video in October 2022, she announced her debut album would be released in spring of 2023.

Singing in empty churches

In 2018, during a trip to Montefrío, Spain, she sang "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" impromptu in Iglesia de la Incarnación when it was empty, so the sound resonated.[16][20] Footage of the singing was uploaded to YouTube and went viral, to Reese's surprise. It was shared by Spanish news outlets and artists, including Alejandro Sanz.[21]

In 2019, she sang "How Can I Keep from Singing?" in Washington National Cathedral while empty.[22][23]

Acting

Reese frequently performed as a child actor at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.[9]

In 2017, Reese played the titular character in Ella Enchanted, a stage musical adapted from the book of the same name.[24][25] The play was directed by her mother, Mary Hall Surface.[26] DC Theatre Scene praised Reese's performance, calling it "truly enchanting".[27]

In 2019, she starred as "Girl" in the stage production Once at the Olney Theatre Center.[10][28] She received positive reviews. DC Metro Theatre Arts called her and Gregory Maheu, who portrayed "Guy", "standouts" and commented they "bring depth to both their solos and duets"[29] while Washington Post said she was "effectively direct".[30] Her performance won her a Helen Hayes Award for Best Actress in a Musical[8][31] and a BroadwayWorld Washington, DC Awards for Best Actress in a Musical - Large Professional Theatre.[32]

Personal life

In October 2022, Reese came out as bisexual in a video entitled "I have some things to tell you".[33] She said she was inspired to come out publicly, after having previously been a "quiet queer", through her involvement with Irish music, which she saw as "music of the oppressed".[33]

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Location
2016	The Second Shepherd’s Play	Sheep/Ensemble	Elizabethan Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C.[31]
2017	Ella Enchanted	Ella	Adventure Theatre, Glen Echo, Maryland[31][24]
2017	Back to Methuselah: As Far as Thought Can Reach	Ecrasia	Undercroft Theatre, Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, Washington DC.[31]
2017	Drumming with Dishes	Child	Lab Theatre at Convergence, Arlington, Virginia[34] Atlas Performing Arts Center, Washington D.C.[31]
2018	The Skin of Our Teeth	Gladys	Source Theatre, Washington, D.C.[31]
2019	Once	Girl	Olney Theatre Center, Olney, Maryland.[31]
2021	Andrew A. Isen Cabaret Series	Herself	Olney Theatre Center, Olney, Maryland[35]

Discography

EPs

• Love Letter (2018)
• The Folks I Love (2021)
• Sea to Sky (2021)

References

External links

• Malinda Kathleen Reese at IMDb
• Official website
• Translator Fails on YouTube
• Malinda Kathleen Reese's channel on YouTube

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