Like many of the MK actors at the time, she was employed at Lakeshore Athletic Club in northern Chicago when Midway came calling in 1992 in search of martial artists willing to shoot digitized footage of the game's characters. Following fans' requests for a female character during early beta testing of MK, she was brought on board by Midway to play Sonya, who was a last-minute addition to the game. Malecki was replaced by Kerri Hoskins as Sonya in Mortal Kombat 3. She has maintained a relatively low profile since then.