Malaya Stern Takeda (born June 19, 1997 in Tokyo) is an American - Japanese actress. The daughter of an American mother from California and a Japanese father from Tokyo who was passionate about German studies, Takeda grew up in Berlin from 2000 onwards. There, she attended a bilingual school. Although she is fluent in German, she states that English is her native language. Her first name means "free" or "independent" and, like her middle name, "Stern," was chosen by her father. From 2015 to 2016, Takeda attended the private acting school Michael Tschechow Studio Berlin. This was followed by acting studies at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in her hometown from 2017 to 2021.

While still studying acting, Takeda took on stage roles, and from 2018 onwards she had her first roles in student films. During her training at the HfS Ernst Busch, she appeared, among others, in the bat-Studiotheater in the title role of Penthesilea (2018, directed by Theresa Thomasberger), in the Schaubühne as Natella Abaschwili in The Caucasian Chalk Circle (2019–2020, directed by Peter Kleinert), in the Volksbühne as Lars in Men's Fantasies (2020, directed by Theresa Thomasberger) and at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus as Gabi in The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (2020, directed by David Bösch ). Takeda first attracted the attention of theater critics at the end of 2021 during a solo recital alongside Aram Tafreshian at the Lausitz Festival in Cottbus . At the State Theater there , she interpreted the title role in the 90-minute Shakespeare drama Richard III as man, woman, and child, using contemporary feminist texts. The performance had emerged the previous year from Takeda's 8-minute graduate recital at the Ernst Busch University of Music, where Tafreshian was also her lecturer. She is currently a permanent member of the ensemble at the Nationaltheater Mannheim .

In 2022, Takeda took on the lead role alongside Aram Tafreshian in Sarah Miro Fischer's student short film Spit , which received an invitation to compete at the Max Ophüls Prize film festival . For her portrayal of Livia, who is attracted to violent fantasies, she and Tafreshian received a nomination for the Max Ophüls Prize for "Best Young Actress". The short film Girl Who Cried Wolf was also invited to the festival, for which she was also a member of the ensemble. In the same year, she played one of the four main roles as Zoé in the TV series Love Addicts .