All About That Melissa Girl

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It has been Melissa's passion since the age of 5 to be a professional actor. Melissa has always loved the spotlight and the camera. She started acting professionally at the age of 12, with a small role in the Lifetime episode, "Real Witches: An Intimate Portrait" about the Salem, MA witch trials where she played Abigail,  the girl who started the name calling.  All throughout school Melissa took acting classes as well as performed in community theater. 

In 2003 Melissa auditioned and was accepted into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood, CA where she studied theater, dance, voice and film acting. She graduated in 2005 with her Associates Degree in Theater. In 2006, Melissa moved back home to Washington where she starred in several independent feature and short films as well as webseries.  In 2007, Melissa, with two other fellow AADA Alum, created the production company Inspireworks. They wrote and produced their first feature film that Melissa also starred in, entitled Shaniko. Shaniko won "Best Local Filmmaker" and "Best Director" at the Washougal International Film Festival in 2008. In 2009, the film Melissa co-starred in, The Bicyclists, won "Best of the Festival" at the Columbia Gorge International Film Festival.

In 2011 Melissa auditioned for the nationwide talent search 'Breakthrough Star'. Out of several hundred to thousand that had auditioned, Melissa made it through each round and was  chosen for top 5 where she auditioned for Diverse Talent Group in Los Angeles. The winner was given a yearlong contract with the agency. 

In 2013, Melissa created, produced and starred in the SAG webseries, My Sister. In 2018, Melissa moved to the San Francisco bay area where, thanks to the Lord, her focus started to shift to directing.  Most recently in 2020,  Melissa re-created Inspireworks Productions as a Christian based production company with her friend and business partner, Bob Leone. Inspireworks produced a teaser trailer for Bob's book, 'They Don't Cast Shadows' that Melissa turned into a screenplay and directed. The teaser trailer was made to raise funds for the feature film that Melissa directed in July 2021 in Georgetown, CA. 'They Don't Cast Shadows' wrapped post production in January 2022 and is currently hitting the festival circuit, having already won over 16 awards within the first 4 months including Best Feature and Best Director. 

Inspireworks Productions is in pre-production on their second project which is currently set to film in July 2022 called 'His Unfaithful Heart', a Hallmark type dramedy/rom-com. Keep a look out on Inspireworksproductions.com for more info on their second feature and to keep an update for Melissa's directorial debut on "They Don't Cast Shadows". 

You can check out Melissa's IMDb page here:  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2409364/