McDaniel willingly took roles where she played a maid stating she’d “rather play a maid in a movie than be one in real life.” Throughout the 1930s she played a servant or cook role nearly 40 times. After World War II, many activist groups rallied to end the roles of racial stereotypes in Hollywood. Since McDaniel had been typecast in her career as a maid, her work in film slowly declined.
In 1947 she became the first Black woman to star in a weekly radio show aimed at a general audience. The Beulah Show later became a television show in which McDaniel starred in six segments before suffering from a heart attack.