Malinda Kathleen Reese
Malinda Kathleen Reese (born June 27, 1994) is an American YouTube personality, singer-songwriter and stage actress. 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. 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. Early life and education. Reese was born in Washington, D.C., where she was also raised.  She is the only child of Mary Hall Surface, a teacher and playwright, and Kevin Reese, an actor. 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. She learned to play the Irish flute at the age of thirteen, having  been "drawn" to the instrument from a young age. She is also able to play guitar, ukulele, electric piano, cajón and classical flute. Reese attended Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. and attended at Vassar College, New York; she initially studied cognitive science, before switching to Drama, in which she majored, and Religion, in which she minored. She also studied drama in London in 2014. 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. 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. Her first translation video was uploaded on February 10, 2014, and quickly went viral, amassing one million views within a week. On February 14, she  announced on YouTube that she would create more translation videos. Other Twisted Translations songs include songs from Mulan, "One Day I'll Fly Away" from Moulin Rouge! and "Hello" by Adele. 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, song covers, and comedic songs, as well as her original songs. In March 2019, the channel surpassed 100,000 subscribers. Music. In 2018, Reese launched her singing career. Her debut EP, "Love Letter", was released on September 14, 2018. On  May 15, 2020, she released the single "More With You", which involved a collaboration of more than 50 musicians from 17 countries. 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. On July 16, 2021, she released her second EP, "The Folks I Love", a collection of Folk-style cover versions. 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. 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. In 2019, she sang "How Can I Keep from Singing?" in Washington National Cathedral while empty. Acting. Reese frequently performed as a child actor at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 2017, Reese played the titular character in "Ella Enchanted", a stage musical adapted from the book of the same name. The play was directed by her mother, Mary Hall Surface. "DC Theatre  Scene" praised Reese's performance, calling it "truly enchanting". In 2019, she starred as "Girl" in the stage production "Once" at the Olney Theatre Center. 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" while "Washington Post" said she was "effectively direct". Her performance won her a Helen Hayes Award for Best Actress in a Musical and a BroadwayWorld Washington, DC Awards for Best Actress in a Musical - Large Professional Theatre.