Malina is the only major character from that series that has not previously appeared in either The Emperor's New Groove or Kronk's New Groove. She is Kuzco's friend and an almost-love interest. However, he has a not-so-secret crush on her (he often calls her "a hottie hot hottie" or " the hottiest hot hottie in hottie-ville").

Malina is a cheerleader and the school council president who also is very smart. She prints the Academy's news scroll. She is a straight-A student, which is apparently a requirement for the cheerleading squad (a twist to most stereotypical "airheaded" cheerleaders). She is driven to excel almost to the point of having a nervous breakdown if she does not do everything perfectly perfect (a prime example of a Type A personality), and has a very high moral mindset which the show uses as a foil against Kuzco's wild intentions.

Malina also has an incredibly strong sense of winning every contest she enters by any means, which first appeared in the episode "The Emperor's New Tuber" in which Malina was determined to fill all the spots on the Whack-A-Weasel arcade game on the high score board with her name (the last person on the list was Yzma). Also, both her devil and angel sides encouraged her to cheat in the potato growing contest despite her angel side was supposed to "tell her not to do it", in which she responded that she was not about to lose her perfect record.

In the 2nd season, Malina shows that she is not as perfect as most people think. For example, Malina is sometimes bossy, and shows greed, mentioned by Kuzco in the episode "Gold Fool's". Malina is also very serious and has a serious face referred to as 'The Stare' by Kuzco and Kronk.