Melissa George Biography / Pictures

Melissa George (born 6 August 1976) is an Australian Golden Globe-nominated actress who has worked in Australia and the United States in film and television.

Biography

Melissa was born in Perth, Western Australia, the daughter of Pamela, a nurse, and Glenn George, a construction worker. The second of four children, Melissa developed an interest in dancing and began studying jazz, tap, ballet, and modern dance at the age of seven. Her enthusiasm for dance eventually evolved into a passion for roller skating. Melissa was an Australian national roller skating champion and won bronze medals in the National Championships in 1989 and 1990. She also won a silver medal at the Junior World Championship in 1991.

Melissa started modeling in her early teens and in 1992 she was named Western Australia's Teenage Model of the Year. At the age of sixteen she was discovered by casting agent Liz Mullinar and got the role of Angel Parrish alongside Dieter Brummer on the popular Australian soap Home and Away. Melissa left Perth and moved to Sydney to start her acting career. After three years on the show she decided to leave to try find other acting challenges. Melissa was featured nude in Australian Playboy and also in celebrity photo magazine Black + White shortly after leaving Home and Away.

Melissa made a health and fitness video, Mind, Body and Soul (1996), created a sleepwear line named "An Angel at My Bedside" and had a recurring role on the short-lived television series Roar (1997), opposite Heath Ledger, before leaving Australia to move to Los Angeles to try her luck in the US. After moving to Los Angeles, she scored small roles in several films, including Dark City, The Limey, Mulholland Drive and Down with Love. She also starred in several TV pilots that were never aired on television, such as Lost in Oz. She had brief success in 2001 with the cancelled ABC drama-comedy Thieves, co-starring John Stamos. She also starred in the WB hit series Charmed for the sixth season premiere.

Melissa achieved a significant breakthrough in 2003 when she landed the role of Lauren Reed on the ABC series Alias. Also that year, she became Rachel's nanny in the American sitcom Friends.

Melissa George's first starring role in a feature film was Kathy Lutz in the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror. The same year, she played Deanna Schine in the thriller Derailed, co-starring Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston.

2006 was a busy year for George, who filmed three new movies; the drama Music Within, opposite Ron Livingston, the thriller WΔZ, opposite Stellan Skarsgård, and the film adaptation of the graphic novel 30 Days of Night, directed by David Slade and co-starring Josh Hartnett. Also this year, she starred in the horror-thriller Turistas. Melissa made her return to television in 2008 in the HBO half-hour drama In Treatment, co-starring Gabriel Byrne and Dianne Wiest. In 2006, it was announced that Melissa would be the new face and spokesperson for cosmetics company Napoleon Perdis, and the Australian jewelry company Linneys. Melissa George has also been appointed as an official ambassador for the 2007 52nd World Artistic Roller Skating Championships.

In September 2008, it was announced that she was joining the cast of Grey's Anatomy for 11 episodes as Sadie Harris, a bisexual intern. In January 2009, it was announced that Melissa was leaving Grey's Anatomy due to a mutual agreement between her and the show's producers.

Melissa lives in Los Angeles with her husband Chilean film director, Claudio Dabed, who best known for his 2006 film Pretendiendo, and his daughter from a previous relationship, Martina (born 1995). She and Dabed met in Bali in 1998 and married on 22 September 2000. George became a naturalized American citizen in 2008. Melissa now has dual Australian/US citizenship.