Tenisha Warner Launches Foundation Honouring Malcolm-Jamal Warner

Nearly two months after actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner died in a drowning accident in Costa Rica, his widow, Tenisha Warner, has announced two initiatives in his memory: River & Ember and the Malcolm-Jamal Warner Foundation.

She shared the news in a Sept. 12 Instagram post, noting the following day would have marked the couple’s eighth wedding anniversary.

In the post, Warner thanked supporters “for holding us in so much love during this tender time” and offered a glimpse into their relationship. “I can still hear my husband’s laugh,” she wrote.

“His presence was a river, steady, sure, and always moving toward what matters. His spirit was an ember, glowing with encouragement, igniting possibility in those around him.”

River & Ember is billed as a family well-being project that will release seasonal toolkits beginning spring 2026, inviting parents and children to connect through story, ritual and art.

A companion app, designed to be used together by adults and kids, aims to turn those practices into everyday habits. The platform frames its experience as “not screen time, sacred time.”

The newly announced Malcolm-Jamal Warner Foundation will host the Creative Legacy Fund, which supports young artists working across disciplines.

Its flagship award, the Malcolm-Jamal Warner Creative Legacy Scholarship, is open to creators aged 14–22 whose work reflects an interdisciplinary spirit, “poets who paint, musicians who write, actors who cook” mirroring Warner’s multifaceted career.

The fund’s guiding principles include freedom, originality, an interdisciplinary lens and legacy, with an emphasis on nurturing the next generation of artists.

Warner said the projects are rooted in the emotional safety she and her husband built together. “We discovered that what we both needed was simple, but rare: to be fully seen,” she wrote. “To have someone say, ‘your feelings belong here.’… We found that in each other, a safe space for vulnerability.”

Details on application timelines for the scholarship and the release schedule for River & Ember’s first toolkit will be announced in the coming months.