ROMANY MALCO

Date of Birth: November 18, 1968

Romany Malco began his career in the spotlight at the age of seven, when he picked up a microphone and started rapping, calling himself "Kid Nice." When he was a teenager, he formed R.M.G., which became the most popular rap group in his hometown of Baytown, Texas. In the early 1990s, Malco and the group moved to Los Angeles where they were signed by Virgin Records and changed their name to College Boyz. Their first big hit was Victim of the Ghetto, which went to number one on the rap charts. In 1997, Malco was working as a music producer on actor/producer/writer John Leguizamo's movie The Pest when Leguizamo, impressed by Malco's gift of gab, encouraged him to pursue acting.

Malco made his acting debut the next year with a guest role on the hit television series Touched by an Angel. A guest appearance on the WB television series For Your Love followed. In 1999, Malco made his big screen debut in Urban Men (1999), starring Snoop Dogg and Ice-T, who had become his friends during his rapping days. More roles in Ice-T/Snoop Dogg features followed, and in 2000, Malco landed a recurring role as a technology-savvy member of the secret service in the UPN series Level 9, filmed in Vancouver.

The same year, he got a chance to show off his comedic talents when director Jesse Peretz cast Malco in his comedy The Château (2002). Malco and Peretz first met on a commercial shoot, when Malco was working in craft service. The two quickly became friends. "I just thought he was the funniest guy on Earth," said Peretz. Although Malco originally auditioned for a smaller role in The Château, the producers were so impressed by him that they decided to make one of the brothers black, casting Malco in the co-starring role opposite Paul Rudd.

In 2001 Malco's rapping background came in handy when he was chosen to play the lead in the TV movie Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story. His first role in a major Hollywood feature soon followed with a supporting role in Jackie Chan's The Tuxedo (2002). Since then, Malco has appeared in several other big films, such as The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), Blades of Glory (2007)and Think Like a Man (2012), to name just a few. He's also starred in television series like Weeds, No Ordinary Family, The Good Wife and Unsupervised.