For nine seasons, Hosea Chanchez was Malik Wright, the cocky, charismatic wide receiver at the center of The Game. Now, he says, that chapter of his life is closed. Sitting down with Cam Newton on Funky Friday with Cam Newton, Chanchez made it official for the first time.
“I would definitely say I’m retired, yeah,” he said. “I just never said it publicly. That’s the thing. I’ve never said it to anybody, but I’m absolutely retired.”
The timing makes the news land even harder. The Game just turned 20, and earlier this month, Chanchez reunited with his original castmates Tia Mowry, Pooch Hall, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Brittany Daniel and Coby Bell for a dinner at Lucia’s in Los Angeles.
Hosea Chanchez reveals he is officially retired from acting after feeling let down by the industry and its lack of a safety net after 20 years "I would definitely say I’m retired. Yeah. I just never said it publicly. That’s the thing. I’ve never said it to anybody, but I’m absolutely retired." "My expectations of the industry and the success that we had had I’d had on the game for 20 years. I thought that once I was done with that job, there would be a safety net to catch me from my community. I thought that’s the way it worked."
— nuel (@c68ty) October 18, 2026
It was the first time the six had been in the same room in nearly a decade. Created by Mara Brock Akil, The Game premiered in October 2006 as a spinoff of Girlfriends and ran for nine seasons across The CW and BET.
When Newton asked why he stepped away, Chanchez kept it simple: “Because I have a new dream now.” Acting wasn’t just a job for him. It was the thing he believed he couldn’t live without.
“God gave me something even bigger, which I never thought could happen, because nobody loved acting more than me,” he said. “There was not a person more passionate than me.”
He told Newton that kind of drive is what it takes to reach the level they both reached in their careers, and that he never expected to feel it anywhere else. “With that type of passion, I thought that this was the only [thing]. I would never feel like that anywhere else,” he said. “But I was wrong.”
Newton also asked the question many fans have wondered about: whether the instability of the profession, and the frustration of having to audition after so much success, played a role.
“I thought it would be different,” he said. After the success of The Game, he expected the industry to look out for him once the show ended. “I thought that once I was done with that job, there would be a safety net to catch me from my community. I thought that’s the way it worked.”
It’s a real reflection and conversation on how even the stars of a beloved hit can find themselves on uncertain ground once the cameras stop rolling.
That new dream is The Dawn of Good, Chanchez’s men’s skincare line. The idea took shape during the pandemic. Like many people, Chanchez was washing his hands constantly. He noticed how much they had aged in a short time and started wondering what else he was overlooking when it came to his body.
On set, makeup artists had always handled his skin. At home, he had no routine at all. Conversations with other men showed him he wasn’t alone, since many were dealing with the same dryness, wrinkles and aging without knowing where to start.
The Dawn of Good is designed to make that starting point simple and affordable. The line focuses on essentials like face cream, SPF and toner, built around hydration, protection and consistency. The products are vegan, cruelty-free and dermatologist-tested, and the brand ships carbon-neutral.
Chanchez’s pitch to men is that skincare belongs in the same category as the workouts, vitamins and protein routines they already keep, and that what goes on the body matters as much as what goes in it. “What you’re putting on your body goes into your body,” he told Sharp magazine earlier this year.
Twenty years after fans first met Malik Wright, Chanchez has walked away from the role that made him famous. He sounds like a man who has found his next one, and this one he wrote for himself.
