Marco was born January 9th, 1970 in Los Angeles and raised in Palm Desert. He is the youngest of four children and of Cuban descent (his parents came to the US in the 1960s). It was in Palm Desert that he began the road toward professional acting by performing in productions during both junior high and throughout high school. In 1988, at age 18, he returned to LA to attend the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA. In 1990 Marco began his professional career, landing the role of a 'mischievious high school student' on Knots Landing. The role became a reoccurring one, lasting for five episodes and enabling Marco to pay for his two remaining years at UCLA.
After graduating in 1992 with a B.A. in theater, he then landed the role of Colley Whitebird in Gunsmoke: The Long Ride. This was soon followed by his most well-known role as Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz in seaQuest DSV. On his role as Ortiz, Marco said that he was glad for once to be playing an upstanding and intelligent latino instead of the typecast hoodlums and that he hoped Ortiz would serve as a positive role model.
Following seaQuest Marco did small parts in such shows as Married With Children, Murder She Wrote, and Pacific Blue. 1997 saw him in the role of Officer Carlos Sandoval for the Walker, Texas Ranger two-hour episode "Sons of Thunder." The character worked so well that Marco appeared in four more episodes in 1998. In 1999 the Norris Brothers who produce Walker, spun off Carlos and Trent (James Wlcek) into their own series called Sons of Thunder. The show featured Marco as one half of a private eye team, and they filmed six episodes in the hopes it would rate well enough for CBS to pick up. Unfortunately it did not get picked up for the fall season. During the year he also made guest appearances on several other shows including J.A.G.
In his spare time Marco is just as active, enjoying such sports as volleyball, rollerblading, baseball and horseback riding. On a more laid-back vein, Marco also enjoys drawing and painting and learning to play the guitar.
Of his time on seaQuest, Marco says the best thing to come out of it is the friendships he has with fellow cast members. Marco keeps in contact with Michael & Peter DeLuise, Ed Kerr, Don Franklin and Ted Raimi on an almost daily basis and on occassionally speaks with Rosalind Allen, Kathy Evison and Johnathon Brandis as well.
Yet still you ask, what is the real Marco like? Well the best i can offer is a quote from Stephanie Beecham that appeared in her 1996 STARLOG. In reference to Marco she described him as "the Val Kilmer / Jim Morrison of the group."
