Romany Malco

Romany Romanic Malco Jr., born November 18, 1968, is an American actor, rapper, and music producer whose career has moved across hip-hop, film, and television. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and his family is from Trinidad and Tobago. As a young boy, he moved to Baytown, Texas, where he attended Ross S. Sterling High School. Before his work in entertainment became widely visible, Malco served in the United States Marine Corps from 1987 to 1991, an early chapter that sits apart from, but alongside, the creative life that followed.

After high school, Malco formed the rap group R.M.G. The group moved to Los Angeles and signed with Virgin Records in 1991, then changed its name to College Boyz. Their single “Victim of the Ghetto,” from the 1992 album Radio Fusion Radio, reached number two on the rap charts. Malco is also known for writing the rap lyrics for MC Skat Kat in “Opposites Attract,” the Grammy Award-winning duet associated with Paula Abdul. He has often been mistakenly credited with performing one of the raps, but in a 2013 interview with Wendy Williams, he clarified that he wrote the rap and that Derrick “Delite” Stevens performed it.

Malco’s move into acting began while he was working as a music producer on The Pest. John Leguizamo, impressed by Malco’s dynamic personality, encouraged him to pursue acting. After several film and television appearances, his breakthrough came in 2005 with supporting roles in Judd Apatow’s comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin and the Showtime dark-comedy series Weeds. On Weeds, he portrayed Conrad Shepard, a role that became one of his best-known television parts during the show’s run from 2005 to 2012.

In film, Malco is best known for roles in The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Baby Mama (2008), Think Like a Man (2012), Think Like a Man Too (2014), and The DUFF (2015). He also appeared in Blades of Glory, The Love Guru, A Little Bit of Heaven, Gulliver’s Travels, and Last Vegas, where he played a concierge alongside Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, and Michael Douglas. On television, he appeared in the ABC drama No Ordinary Family in 2010 and later played Rome Howard on ABC’s A Million Little Things from 2018 until the series ended in 2023.

Malco’s work has earned nominations from several major entertainment organizations. He received NAACP Image Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Weeds in 2007 and 2008. In 2006, he was nominated for MTV Movie Awards for Best Breakthrough Performance and Best On-Screen Team for The 40-Year-Old Virgin, sharing the latter nomination with Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and Seth Rogen. In 2007, he was part of the Weeds ensemble nominated by the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Outside his screen work, Malco has made personal choices that show a strong pull toward place and family. In 2008, he married former ice skater Taryn Dakha, the stunt and body double for Jessica Alba, after they met on the set of The Love Guru. In 2015, while filming Mad Dogs in Puerto Rico, he decided to move there, later saying on ABC’s The Chew that he “couldn’t leave” and felt he was “living the dream.” He has a son, born in 2021. For a quotes site, his line, “One of my biggest lessons in life is that we heal at the speed of our forgiveness,” fits the steady mix of candor and warmth that runs through his public voice.