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Melissa's Biography

Melissa was born in Manhattan where her family lived several years before moving to Manhasset, Long Island. In grammar school, actually kindergarten, she met her now-husband Patrick McEnroe who was her older brother's best friend. Also about this time, age 5, she took her first ballet lesson, but the next year discovered cartwheels, and began to train in gymnastics. While growing up, Melissa had her sights set on a run as a competitive gymnast, and though she did compete in regionals, a knee weakness made this impossible. Melissa got her first taste of acting when she was asked to step in for sick Brownie and play a cockroach in the local Girl Scout's musical "La Cucaracha."

An arts camp solidified Melissa's interest in the theater, and also a trip to see ON YOUR TOES on Broadway when she was 11 years old. To see Natalia Makarova light up the stage dancing to steamy jazz rhythms was enough to inspire her for life!

From that point on, much of Melissa's life was spent on the Long Island Rail Road, as she commuted to the city for lessons in dance and voice. Eventually, she auditioned for such shows as the original LES MISERABLES and TV's Junior Star Search. Melissa joined a teen performance group and sang at hospitals, old age homes, Bloomingdale's, Central Park and once in the middle of Port Authority Bus Terminal. She participated in school plays, and by the end of high school, was dancing with Lee Theodore's "American Dance Machine," a professional dance company. She spent a summer as an apprentice at a fringe theater at the Kings Head Pub in London, helping out backstage, learning about costume design, being a barmaid and a spotlight operator for late-night comedy acts; she interned with The New York Stage and Film Co., spending a summer performing the role of Martha in Frank Wedekind's controversial play "Spring Awakening," starring David Strathairn.

During her freshman year at Yale, Melissa won the role of Cosette in the First National Touring Company of LES MISERABLES. She interrupted her studies for three semesters but went back to New Haven and graduated. She studied acting at Oxford in a Shakespeare and Chekhov program. Melissa withdrew from the Yale Drama graduate school when she was cast as Kitty in the Broadway musical ANNA KARENINA at Circle in the Square.

Melissa has gone on to star on Broadway in MY FAIR LADY, HIGH SOCIETY, AMOUR and DRACULA, been in plays by Wilde, Shaw and Wally Shawn off-Broadway, and appeared in television and film. She makes regular concert appearances in New York, made her debut album for Manhattan Records/EMI, and developed a strong relationship with her musical idol, the 4-time Oscar-winner, jazz musician, composer and conductor Michel Legrand. Her second studio recording will be with Michel Legrand and produced by the legendary Phil Ramone in 2005. She is married to Patrick McEnroe, tennis player, commentator and US Davis Cup team captain. They live in Manhattan.

Melissa comes from a very close and artistic Italian family, you could call them eccentric. For more on Mike, Melanie, Mom and Dad, come over to OUR HOUSE.

Lucky to know them, and hear their stories, Melissa thanks her MENTORS.