Romany Malco

Biography: Romany Malco was the first American born into his West Indian family. He began his career at the age of seven, when he picked up a microphone and started rapping. As a teen, he moved to Texas and formed the rap group, R.M.G. When Malco relocated his group to Los Angeles from Baytown, Texas in the early '90s, his perseverance paid off almost immediately. He fell into a crew of up-and-comers like Snoop Dog, Ricky Harris and Chris Tucker who made the VIP record store in Long Beach their headquarters. Soon Malco's band, the "College Boyz", landed a recording deal with Virgin Records and scored a number one rap hit with the single "Victim of the Ghetto". His foray into acting has been just as charmed. But, he was just as surprised by his success, as were the casting directors who kept calling Malco back even though he was still an unknown with no acting experience. This sudden and unexpected professional turn is now paying-off. In 2000, Malco appeared in Gregory Moser's "The Prime Gig" with Vince Vaughn, Ed Harris, and Julie Ormand. He then co-stared with Paul Rudd in an independent film called "Le' Chateau". Malco takes on the action adventure genre in "Ticker", starring Dennis Hopper, Tom Sizemore and Peter Green and goes back to his musical roots when he plays a DJ making his mark on the underground circuit in "True Vinyl", with Slick Rick and Sticky Fingers from "Onyx". Finally, he stars opposite Snoop Dog and Ice-T, providing comic relief in an Urban Trilogy, directed by Albert Pyune.

Malco's acting career grew more out of serendipity than drive. Happily making his way as a successful musician contributing songs to soundtracks and producing hits for recording artists such as Paula Abdul, CC Peniston, Randy Crawford and a spoken word record for Ernie Hudson, Jr., Malco met John Leguizamo when he was the music producer for Leguizamo's debut feature film "The Pest". Leguizamo was so impressed with Malco's talent, especially his gift of gab, that he encouraged him to pursue acting. Malco's portrayal of the naively hilarious West Indian busboy "Patrick Thomas" on MTV showcased his natural comedic timing and led to national television campaigns for Coca Cola and AT&T.

A recent endeavor, an action-packed UPN crime-fighting drama called "Level 9", was yet another unexpected challenge. Malco never set out to land a television series playing a high-tech, terrorist-fighting character but he says, "Its a great, credible role Its timely and topical and it's fun to work with such a talented ensemble cast." Malco's transition onto the screen as a technology-savvy member of the secret service was easy. Since 1997 he has created several successful e-commerce businesses, including his independent music label MinimumWageRecords.com as well as ScalePlusTen.com.

For his role in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" he was nominated for the 2006 MTV Movie awards for Best On-Screen Team (Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen & Romany Malco) and Breaktrough Performance.

He is working on "Blades of Glory" a movie currently in production.

He currently stars in the Emmy-Nominated Showtime Original Series Weeds which stars Mary-Louise Parker as a soccer mom in surberia who deals weed to her neighbors.… Expand