Hosea Chanchez, who played star quarterback Malik Wright on The Game, says he has retired from acting.
The Montgomery, Alabama, native made the revelation on Cam Newton’s Funky Friday podcast. About 46 minutes into the nearly two-hour conversation, Newton asked him directly whether he was retired. Chanchez paused before answering.
“I would definitely say I’m retired,” he said. “I just never said it publicly. That’s the thing. I’ve never said it to anybody, but I’m absolutely retired.”
Chanchez said he has found a new passion in entrepreneurship. He now runs A Very Good Company, which he founded in 2022 to build ventures that are “good for mankind, but even better for men of color.”
“I have a new dream now,” he said. “I thought I would never feel like that anywhere else. But I was wrong.”
He also pointed to frustrations with Hollywood. He said he expected a safety net to catch him after The Game ended, the kind of support that carried stars like Will Smith and Denzel Washington from job to job. For him, he said, it “didn’t exist.”
Even in retirement, he isn’t fully closing the door on the craft. “I’ll always be an actor,” he said. “My approach to the industry is just different.”
The announcement comes days after Chanchez reunited with his original The Game castmates to celebrate the show’s 20th anniversary. He joined Tia Mowry, Pooch Hall, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Brittany Daniel and Coby Bell for dinner at Lucia’s in Los Angeles. It was the six original stars’ first time together in nearly a decade, and Mowry credited Chanchez with leading the effort.
Created by Mara Brock Akil as a spinoff of Girlfriends, The Game premiered on The CW in October 2006. The CW canceled it after three seasons, but BET revived it in 2011, and its premiere there drew 7.7 million viewers. The show ran on BET through 2015, and Paramount+ brought it back for two more seasons from 2021 to 2023. Chanchez and Robinson are the only cast members to appear in every version of the series.
The wide-ranging conversation covered much more than his retirement. Chanchez revealed that Newton himself was one of the inspirations for Malik, along with Terrell Owens and Deion Sanders. He opened up about his spiritual journey and the role meditation plays in his life. He also discussed moving to California at 17 and living in his car, and the recent death of the grandfather who raised him. The two also talked about the challenges facing Black men today.
The full conversation is available on Funky Friday with Cam Newton.