Malcolm Jae O'Shea

Malcolm Jae O'Shea was born as Richard Dean Johnson in McHenry IL. Inspired by his oldest brother who was quite a thespian, Malcolm started acting & singing in grade school with any opportunity he could find. When he moved to GA at the age of 16 his new High School didn't have after school play rehearsals, but instead required students to be in a class during the day in order to be in the play. So during his Senior year of High School Malcolm took his English/Comp & History classes at a special night school so he could attend the Dramatical Theatre class and Musical Theatre class during the day, and therefore act in all the plays. He then went on to earn a Bachelor of Theatre Arts at LaGrange College. While in his final year of college he met his wife Emily, and decided to move back to the Chicago suburbs, and take a break from acting in order to start/support his new family. Things were going well but Malcolm was missing acting and a chance to express himself working at an office job. Then tragedy struck when he and his wife found out their third son was to be born with half a heart(Hypo-Plastic Left Heart Syndrome). Even though the odds were stacked against his survival James Shea Dean Johnson was born Sept 2008. James spent the first six months of his life in a hospital ICU unit and had two open heart surgeries all before he ever got to come home. Once home the family had an amazing year taking care of him and spending time together. In the fall of 2010 James needed another open heart surgery to help him continue to develop, unfortunately his little body was not strong enough to handle the procedure and he passed away in hospital on Nov 2010. The O'Shea in Malcolm's screen name is a tribute to James. After James' death Malcolm and Emily were determined to stay together and keep their family strong, and they had two more kids by the fall of 2015. Their youngest being their first daughter was born on her brother James' birthday. Malcolm now having four children depending on him, buried himself in his office job, working over 70 hours a week most weeks on a salary. This was not good for him and the lack of a creative outlet made it impossible. In a moment of weakness, being overwhelm and missing James; Malcolm attempted suicide and was hospitalized. He tried to resume office work afterwards but his employer continued to demand long hours. Ultimately he walked away from that world and decided to pursue acting full time feeling that if he was going to be forced to live he would do it on his own terms. He started auditioning and working on productions at his local community theatres, and some not so local(he crossed the state line to perform a handful of roles in Wisconsin). With his confidence restore Malcolm then took Improv, acting, stand-up and other classes at The Second City in Chicago. He also worked on a few student & independent films in Chicago. Then in the fall of 2019 he decided to shoot his shot; he moved out to Los Angeles where he signed up at Central Casting, and started taking classes at both Upright Citizen's Brigade & L.A. Connection Comedy Improv. He has been in a few pilots since moving to Los Angeles but has mostly done background work. Malcolm got into SAG-AFTRA when Jordan Peele gave him Taft Hartley on the set of NOPE. His scene did not make the theatrical cut but he can still be seen in the background of the film, and he is very proud to have had any part in NOPE. He still lives in the L.A. area, and is currently(2024) working his own script with some friends while he waits for his big break.