Malco was born in Brooklyn, New York. His family is from Trinidad and Tobago, and he has extended family in Venezuela. As a young boy, Malco moved to Baytown, Texas, and he attended Ross S Sterling High School. In 2008, he married former ice skater Taryn Dakha, the body double for Jessica Alba. They met in 2007 on the set of the 2008 film The Love Guru. In 2015, Malco decided to move to Puerto Rico while filming Mad Dogs there. During an interview on ABC's The Chew, Malco said he "couldn't leave" and that living on the island made him feel he was "living the dream".
Music career
After high school graduation, Malco formed the rap group R.M.G. The group moved to Los Angeles and signed a deal with Virgin Records in 1991. The group's name was changed to College Boyz. The single "Victim of the Ghetto", off their 1992 album Radio Fusion Radio, went to #2 on the rap charts. Malco is often mistakenly credited for performing one of the raps as MC Skat Kat on the Grammy award–winning "Opposites Attract", a duet with Paula Abdul. On October 29, 2013, Malco told Wendy Williams that he wrote the rap, but did not perform it. He mentioned running into Paula Abdul and asking her, "Who keeps telling people that I'm the cat?" and she responded, "I do, it makes a better story." Malco said that Derrick "Delite" Stevens was the one that rapped the duet with Abdul.
Acting career
Malco was working as a music producer on The Pest when John Leguizamo, impressed by his dynamic personality, encouraged Romany to pursue acting. He went on to play Jay in Judd Apatow’s 2005 filmThe 40 Year Old Virgin and as Conrad Shepard in the Showtime television series Weeds. He played supporting roles in films such as Blades of Glory, The Love Guru, and Baby Mama. He appeared in 2011's A Little Bit Of Heaven and the Gulliver's Travels adaptation. In the fall of 2010, Malco appeared as a member of the ABC primetime one-hour drama No Ordinary Family. He also appeared as a guest host on the popular YouTube series, "Equals Three", on the episode T-Painful. In 2013, he played a concierge in the movie Last Vegas, alongside Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, and Michael Douglas. Romany currently plays Rome Howard on the ABC Series A Million Little Things.
Criticism of the media
On July 17, 2013, Malco wrote a piece for the Huffington Post on the Trayvon Martin Verdict. In it, he chastised the media for sensationalizing the verdict to improve their ratings. He stated "Hundreds of blacks die annually without even a blurb. Trayvon isn't in the mainstream news for any reason other than ratings and profit. The news coverage on the Zimmerman case almost implies that the killing of this young black man is somehow an anomaly and I resent that." Malco criticized the negative images of blacks by the same media that now purported to side with Martin. Malco called for an end to reinforcing negative stereotypes from within the black community and suggests that "Education, introspection, self-love and excellence are the only ways to overcome the wrath of ignorance."
