Australian Actress and Athlete Melissa George

Melissa Suzanne George (born August 6, 1976) is an Australian actress and athlete who has worked in Australia and the United States in film and television.

Biography

George was born in Perth, Western Australia, daughter of Pamela, a nurse, and Glenn George, a construction worker. The second of four children, George 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. George 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.

Career

George started modeling in her early teens and in 1992 she was named Western Australia's Teenage Model of the Year. At age 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. George 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.

George 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.

George got her breakthrough in 2003 when she landed the role of Lauren Reed on the ABC series Alias. Also in this year, she became Rachel's nanny in American sitcom Friends.

Her first starring role in a movie was as Kathy Lutz in the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror. In 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 Waz, opposite Stellan Skarsgård, and the movie adaptation of the graphic novel 30 Days of Night, directed by David Slade and co-starring Josh Hartnett. George will make her return to television in 2008 in the HBO's half-hour drama In Treatment, co-starring Gabriel Byrne and Dianne Wiest. In 2006 it was announced that George is the new face and spokesperson for cosmetics company Napoleon Perdis and the Australian jewelry company Linneys. She has also been appointed as an official ambassador for the 2007 52nd World Artistic Roller Skating Championships.

Personal life

George lives in Los Angeles with her husband Claudio Dabed and his daughter Martina (born 1995). She and Dabed met in Bali in 1998 and married on September 22, 2000.

Awards

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films

* 2004: Winner: Cinescape Genre Face of the Future Award

Australians In Film

* 2005: Winner: Breakthrough Award

Logie Awards

* 1995: Winner: Most Popular Actress - Home and Away
* 1994: Winner: Most Popular New Talent - Home and Away


source www.wikipedia.org