Netflix’s latest fire documentary has reminded us of an important lesson: Cults come in all different shapes and sizes. Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult breaks down the complicated social media situation surrounding Robert Shinn’s talent management group called 7M, his longstanding church Shekinah, and how the intersection of the two has resulted in a TikTok dancing “family” that has caused young dancers hopeful to make it in the industry to “die” to the life they had before they met him. One of the subjects the series focuses on is Miranda Wilking, who moved to Los Angeles and built a social media empire with her sister Melanie, before becoming deeply involved in Shekinah. As the doc shows, Miranda quickly changes after signing with 7M and committing to Shekinah church. Now that the world has all the chilling details of what’s been going on with 7M, where is Miranda Wilking now and how has she responded to the allegations?
Miranda Derrick Today: Her Life Now
Miranda Derrick’s Response to the Netflix Documentary
On June 4, 2024, Miranda Derrick finally broke her silence on the trending Netflix documentary Dancing for the Devil with a lengthy statement on Instagram. She prefaces the statement with a video where she appears in good spirits as she thanks her followers for their support and says she’s going to get into as much of her side of the story as she can without crossing legal boundaries.
In the statement, Miranda elaborates that she is “a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit” which prevents her from “comment[ing] on specific allegations” though she wants it to be clear that she “does not condone abuse in any way.” Miranda goes on to say she loves her mom, dad, and sister Melanie who are “forever a part of her life” but they “just don’t see eye to eye at this time.” Miranda claims that after she “gave her life to Jesus Chris in 2020” her family was judgemental of her new beliefs. This caused Melanie to kick her off of thewilkingsisters social media pages and eventually snap at Miranda for praying in the car to the hospital when their grandfather died, after months of being “harassed” for going to church multiple times a week. Because Miranda felt “threatened” by the Wilkings, and thought they would keep her from getting back to LA if she returned to Michigan, she didn’t go to the funeral, which led to the falling out we saw break the family apart.
Melanie says things were getting better with her family but their participation in the documentary “has created further problems” between them by exposing her to “public attack.” She insists she is not the “brainwashed/not in control of her own life/shell of herself/human trafficked daughter/sister” the series portrayed her as and she would have preferred to keep this whole situation private. Melanie ends her statement by saying she can’t “convince anyone to believe” she isn’t a victim of abuse but that she has “no other choice but to defend [herself]” until people accept that “what she chooses to do with [her] life is up to [her].”
Where is Miranda Derrick now?
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Miranda Wilking now goes by Miranda Derrick, since her 2024 marriage to influencer James Derrick AKA BDash (the one who originally brought her into 7M). Miranda’s family found out about the wedding on social media. The married couple still currently appears to be an active part of the 7M group in California, posting their professional dancing videos from 7M-approved venues and often tagging Isaiah Shinn (Robert Shinn’s son) as the videographer.
Does Miranda Wilking speak to her family?
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After cutting her family off following becoming a devout member of Shekinah Church in 2021, Miranda has reestablished contact with Melanie and The Wilking family. When she and James first visited her parents in Michigan, it was a tense situation. The world was watching after the Wilkings went live to accuse 7M of being in a cult, so Robert Shinn had encouraged the members (as revealed on tape in the doc) to “play the race card,” which James seemingly did by tweeting that Miranda’s parents only had a problem with him because he was “a black man from Compton.” Miranda recorded her parents live as she insisted she was not in a cult.
Since then, Miranda has made somewhat of a truce with her family, which is why viewers were surprised to see that she posted a Mother’s Day tribute to Kelly and a solo shot of herself at Melanie’s wedding before Dancing for the Devil premiered. The Wilkings say that these posts are intentionally a frequent part of their new normal with Miranda, made to look like everything is fine. But the reality is Miranda has made it clear if her family wants to be a part of their life, they have to refrain from mentioning 7M, Shekinah, and Robert Shinn entirely. Because of this the family, Melanie especially, calls their contact with Miranda purely “superficial.”
Has Miranda Wilking responded to the TikTok Cult documentary?
Miranda has not made any official statements in regard to the recent Netflix documentary. She previously released multiple statements, on social media and to The Cut, maintaining her distance from her family is by choice, not because of 7M. Her first post since the series aired could be a subtle dig at her family though. Under a disco-themed feature of herself and another 7M dancer, Kendra Willis, Miranda wrote “Dancing it out with my sis by my side” as the caption.
