Pamela Warner, Mother Of Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Has A New Book To Help Guide Parents Managing Their Showbiz Kids

Pamela Warner is a veteran Hollywood professional who has had a fruitful career managing child stars and other high-end clientele, and now she hopes to make the road easier for other parents who are taking a similar route.

The entrepreneur has had a successful 40-year run in Tinseltown and is now adding “author” to her list of accomplishments. On Feb. 5, she released her first book titled A Parent’s Guide to Managing Showbiz Kids to help guide other parents through the complicated elements of managing their child’s career in entertainment. With chapters named “The Reluctant Parent Manager,” “The Agent,” “The Business Manager” and “You Are Not A Momager,” she is excited to provide valuable tips from her experience of managing her son Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played Theodore “Theo” Huxtable in the iconic sitcom The Cosby Show. The writer recently sat down with Blavity to discuss how and why she became a manager and what readers can expect her to touch on in her new book.

After graduating from college, Warner struggled to find a job. Eventually, she launched a catering service, This Good Cookie, to survive after a friend suggested she sell her cookies, a well-known gift to others during college since she couldn’t afford to buy people gifts. While her business expanded to sandwiches and cakes, she decided to put her son in the Inglewood Playhouse, a community theater now named The Willie Agee Playhouse, to keep him busy. Little did she know that would be the start of his entertainment career.

“I’ve been self-employed for many, many years, and while I was doing that, I also had Malcolm at a place here in Los Angeles called Inglewood Playhouse,” Warner told Blavity. “That is where and how he kind of started his career because I was looking for something for him to do, an extracurricular activity is basically what it was. And it wasn’t for him to go into show business. That was not my aim, it was just to keep my kid busy and to have something else to do but that’s what it was, and it turned into a career.”

Malcolm landed his recognized role as “Theo” shortly after, which catapulted his career. The writer didn’t realize how big the job was, but the director at the Inglewood Playhouse did and assisted her when she met with the network executives. Although she never planned on being her son’s manager, after a situation occurred with the management he had during his first year on the TV show that concerned her, she decided to take the reigns.

“I started seeing because Malcolm was a minor, and with all minor children, you cannot make decisions without the parents’ input. I mean, I’m sure some do, but you can’t do that,” she said. “And so while I still was involved I wasn’t in direct contact with whomever was calling wanting to know about Malcolm. I had this manager and something did transpire, and I realized that I needed to take over, so I took over. And that’s how I became his manager. It was to protect my son. And since everything was being run by and through me anyway, I might as well just take over.”

Warner revealed that she often fought through having “imposter syndrome” before she became comfortable in the role.

“I never felt confident ’cause I had never done this before, and this was not in the wheelhouse of my experience. So, I did not know what I was doing, I just knew the focus of what I did was what was best for my child. That was what I went on,” she said. “I went on what was best for my child. My degree was in speech communications, and so I was primed and ready and trained to listen, to listen to what was being said to me and to be able to discern BS and to be able to discern the truth, you know? Um, so that was all I had.”

Because the businesswoman learned the ropes on the job, she credits herself with being a serious student of the industry, which is what most parents are when they begin leading their child’s career. It’s unknown to her who coined the phrase “momager,” but she isn’t a fan because the job is nothing but easy.

“I absolutely wish they would take it [momager] back because I just hate it. It takes away because it’s cutesy, and so it takes away from the parent, father or mother, who is trying to do a really good job for their children,” Warner said. “It takes away their power because it’s cute.”

She added, “What I want to really get out there is that you are a professional and you must go forward as a professional. And you also have to demand that you be treated as a professional.”

A major takeaway point Warner wants parents who read her book to understand is that they’re just as important as anyone else in the decision-making rooms, and should carry themselves as such.

“Parents, not all parents, aren’t welcomed into the business because there’s a history of parents who have made life very miserable for directors and producers and agents because of their unmet needs, because of their fear, and because of their lack of information,” she said. “And so they go forward in a very disruptive, angry, pushy, you know, all of the awful, examples of stage parents.”

“I really wanna dispel that by giving parents information. Information is power so you don’t need to be ugly, you know? You don’t need to go forward with your chest stuck out and being demanding and being ugly on a set,” she continued. “You are a professional entertainment professional. And so, and you, I want parents to go forward with that mindset. You don’t have to do all those things, all that hysteria. You don’t have to do that.”

The talent manager still works with her son, who has expanded his career to music, production, and more throughout the years. She hopes her book can transform how parents of kids in show biz approach all components of being a manager.

“I think to redirect and redefine what it means to be a parent in the business is part of what I would like to do, or what I want to do, and what I hope my book does,” Warner said. “It’s just a blueprint. It’s not the seminal publication on how to manage because each situation is different and unique to that particular family.”

In addition, Warner is thinking about putting a roundtable of other managers together to help pour into the parents of celebrity children.

“We can as a group maybe set a standard or even set another way for parents can do this in this business,” she said. “Let’s talk about the pitfalls that you see. Let’s talk about the a-ha moments that you have had. Let’s talk about, you know, what you can input to grow another generation of parents who can do this better.”