‘Days of Our Lives’ Star Sydney Malakeh Opens up About Playing EJ & Sami’s Daughter

Sydney Malakeh will make her daytime debut on Thursday, September 10, playing Sydney DiMera on Days of our Lives.

The fact that she shares a name with her character came as a surprise to Malakeh, who didn’t know it from the initial script. “When I auditioned for the show, originally the character was called Harlow,” Malakeh recalls. “The night before the chemistry read, I got the name of the person that I would be reading with, and it was Dan [Feuerriegel, EJ DiMera]. I looked up who he was on the show, and I knew that I would be playing his daughter, so I kind of put two and two together. And then, once we got the offer, we all found out that it was truly Sydney.”

Malakeh was traveling in Europe with her two best friends when she got the news that she booked the role. “My life has not been the same since,” she reports. “I feel so grateful. It’s surreal still.”

The actress had little experience with Days of our Lives or soaps in general when she joined the show, but quickly learned that the environment was unlike anything she had encountered before. “I think for the first week, it was an out-of-body experience,” Malakeh says. “Marnie [Saitta, casting director] had warned me that it is one take and it moves fast. You hear it, but when you’re actually here and under the lights, you really have to be on top of your game.”

That learning curve initially left Malakeh feeling overwhelmed, but a reassuring conversation helped settle her nerves. “For the first week, I was losing it,” she admits. “I truly was having so much anxiety that I was going to be fired that I asked the producer to have a meeting because I wanted to check in. I was worried that I was doing an awful job, and he was like, ‘No, absolutely not. We were looking for our Sydney, and you’re our Sydney.’ So that was really nice to hear, but it was truly humbling. I don’t think I would have been able to do this years ago. I have so much respect for actors and soap actors, and my respect for Days actors specifically has grown exponentially.”

She says her new castmates helped to make her transition easier. “My first day, I had an episode with John-Paul [Lavoisier, Philip] and Cherie [Jimenez, Gabi] and we were playing poker in Monte Carlo,” Malakeh recalls. “That was really fun and I’m thankful that I got to come in and have some lighter episodes in the beginning. Everybody was so welcoming, especially Cherie. After my first day, I was about to crash out because it just truly moves so fast and there’s really no handholding in this. I ran into Cherie, and she was like, ‘Come to my room,’ and we talked. We were both tearing up and just saying how grateful we are to be on the set and to be working and she welcomed me with open arms. Since then, she has been a confidante for me throughout all of this.”

Peacock

That early support meant a lot to Malakeh, who has been working toward a career as an actress for years. Her journey to Salem began in Wilmington, Delaware, where her love of performing took hold at an early age. “From the moment I think that I became sentient, I knew that I was going to be somewhere on the screen or on the stage,” she shares. “It’s just something that’s been innate to me; it’s something that I’ve always known I wanted to do. In Delaware, I was super shy and kind of nervous, but I did some summer acting camps and some school shows, and I really started acting once I moved out to L.A., which was in 2019.”

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Malakeh enrolled at San Diego State, but spent her weekends traveling to Los Angeles, where she took acting classes that ultimately cemented her decision to pursue the profession. “On parents’ weekend when my parents came out to San Diego State, I broke down and told them that I got a manager and I want to pursue acting,” she says. “And of course, they were like, ‘Oh no.’ But they were super supportive, and that was the start of it all.”

By 2021, she had a few Lifetime movies under her belt — The Wrong Stepfather, Cheer Camp Killer and Her Deadly Boyfriend — jobs that proved particularly valuable as she continued to hone her skills. “That was the closest thing I have to soap experience because Lifetime films also move super, super quick,” she explains. “So that was like a boot camp. I just got thrown in, and I learn best by just doing, so I feel super blessed that I was able to work on those films. They were really fun.”

Other credits soon followed, including Sex Lives of College Girls, Shrinking and Grey’s Anatomy. “It was absolutely surreal to do those,” she relays. “When I did Sex Lives of College Girls, I was still fairly early on in my career, and then with Shrinking and Grey’s Anatomy, I was really proud of the way that I felt myself coming into myself as a working professional actress, and I got really lovely feedback. Those are dream shows for me to be able to work on and be involved in, so it was just another affirmation that I’m on the right path.

Now, that path has led her to Salem, where she’s focused on making Sydney her own. The daughter of EJ and Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney), Sydney has inherited traits from both of her complicated parents. “She has, I think, equal parts of both Sami and EJ,” previews Malakeh. “Sydney’s a strong girl. She wants to forge her own path. She’s a leader. She has a big, big heart, and she wants to do good, and she wants to be loved. It’s been super fun to get to find her myself through the scripts.”

And with her first episode to air tomorrow, Malakeh is ready to embrace what comes next. “This industry is cutthroat, and it’s rough,” she reflects. “You can get beat down and lose some faith along the way, so to have to be welcomed into a family like this and an ongoing job like this is truly all I’ve ever dreamt of. And waking up and knowing I have a responsibility to this story, this character, and this legacy has given me a lot of purpose.”

Days of our Lives, Weekdays, Peacock