Kobe Bryant once said, “I create my own path. It was straight and narrow. I looked at it this way: you were either in my way, or out of it.” And maybe—just maybe—his eldest daughter Natalia took that to heart. A standout volleyball player in high school, she could have stayed in sports. But instead, she chose to carve her own lane in film and fashion. Did she ditch her dad’s legacy? Maybe in sneakers, yes—but in spirit, not at all.

Natalia has already turned heads off the court: she fronted David Yurman’s April 2025 graduation campaign, starred in VS PINK’s August 2024 Back-to-Campus push, and led UGG’s Autumn/Winter 2023 “Feels Like UGG” ads. She’s walked high-fashion runways, interned at Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment in May 2023, and made student-film cameos long before her USC finale. Now, Natalia is carrying that same drive forward. She just graduated cum laude from USC’s prestigious School of Cinematic Arts—not chasing championships, but crafting narratives. Different arena, same Mamba fire.

Natalia Bryant has spent four years hustling across USC’s campus, but her passion began long before late‑night edits. “I grew up in a female-dominated household watching Sofia Coppola’s films [portray] women and especially girlhood,” she said while talking to Flaunt Magazine, eyes lighting up at the memory. It wasn’t volleyball trophies or famous-last-name pressure that pulled her in—it was Coppola’s dreamy sisterhood and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, which she dragged friends to see “five times.” Inspired by those on-screen sisterhoods, Natalia’s senior thesis explores a similarly intimate bond.

Now freshly graduated, Natalia is doubling down on that childhood spark. Her senior thesis short zeroes in on “two sisters learning how to support each other on the eldest’s wedding day,” a storyline lifted from her own fascination with everyday intimacy. “I think you can find creativity from anything and everything,” she says, crediting late-night matcha runs, student-film sets, and even a Finding Nemo scene breakdown in class for sharpening her eye. Modeling gigs with David Yurman, Victoria’s Secret PINK, and UGGs may pay the bills, but film is where she feels most seen.

What really fuels her, though, is that childlike sense of limitlessness. “As a kid, you have a mentality where there’s no limit… You don’t put up walls,” Natalia explains, determined to carry that boundary-free mindset into Hollywood’s maze. Whether she’s storyboarding her next short or striding down a runway, the mission’s the same: protect the inner child, keep the voice clear, and write the story herself. Chapter one ends with a USC diploma; chapter two starts the moment the credits roll on commencement day.

This passion roots itself in her father’s own dream of being a storyteller.

Kobe Bryant wanted to inspire the next generation through storytelling

After 20 NBA seasons, Kobe launched Granity Studios in 2016 to inspire future athletes with shows, films, and books. “I knew filmmaking was where I wanted to go,” he told TheWrap in 2017. His Oscar-winning short film Dear Basketball wasn’t just a side project—it was a declaration of his passion. “The best way to inspire the next generation of athletes is through stories,” Kobe said. “If I was a kid growing up and Michael Jordan had a project like this, it would have helped me tremendously to learn from his dream.” That’s exactly why he made Dear Basketball—for every kid chasing greatness.

Kobe Bryant’s creative vision blossomed across many projects. Legacy and the Queen is a young adult novel about a 12-year-old tennis player fighting to save an orphanage, praised for its charm and a protagonist you can’t help but root for. Then there’s The Punies, a podcast featuring a diverse group of kids chasing big sports dreams through playful stories and original songs, with a second season already in the works before his passing. And his Wizenard Series: Training Camp—a fantasy sports book often described as “Harry Potter-meets-the-sports-world”—even reached No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. Through all of these, Kobe showed how storytelling could educate, entertain, and inspire families and kids alike.

What tied it all together was Kobe’s deep connection to family and his desire to create stories rooted in personal experience. “What goes into creating all of the stories… centers around our own personal experiences with our own kids,” he said. Coaching his daughter Gigi’s basketball team, Kobe Bryant kept it real with a message that was both simple and powerful: “Making sure she knows that I love her whether she plays well or plays like crap… You’re my daughter before you’re a basketball player.” That deep love—for his family and for storytelling—was what pushed Kobe to keep creating and building something meaningful well beyond his basketball career.

Natalia keeps the Mamba mentality alive in everything she does—whether it’s film, storytelling, or creativity. Her journey is a powerful reminder that honoring a legacy doesn’t mean you have to repeat it exactly.