Melissa George Biography

Date of Birth: August 6, 1976

Born in Australia, Melissa George was a competitive roller skater who dropped out of high school when she was 16 to pursue a modeling career. Voted Western Australia's Teenage Model of the Year, she decided to try her hand at acting when she was 17 and wound up with a role on the popular Australian soap Home & Away.

Playing the role of Angel Brooks on the show for three years, George became a household name in her country and twice won Golden Logies (Australia TV awards). In 1997, she made her feature debut in the U.S. film Dark City, starring Kiefer Sutherland and filmed in Australia. After appearing in several more films and TV series in her homeland, George decided to take a chance on Hollywood, where she soon landed roles in films such as Sugar & Spice (2001) starring Mena Suvari and Mulholland Dr. (2001), starring fellow Aussie Naomi Watts.

Next, George traveled to Toronto to film a lead role in the ABC-TV crime drama Thieves (2001), co-starring John Stamos. When it folded after only 10 episodes, she landed a starring role in the TV pilot Lost in Oz (2002) for Warner Bros. Television. When it didn't make it as a series, George instead returned to film with a supporting role in Down with Love (2003), starring Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger.

That same year, she made guest appearances on hit series such as Friends, Monk and Charmed before being asked to play the supporting role of Lauren Reed on the 2003/2004 season of the hit series Alias. The role not only gave George recognition in the U.S., but she won a 2004 Cinescape Genre Face of the Future Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.

Opting not to stay with the series for another season, she accepted a role in the major motion picture The Amityville Horror (2005), playing the mother/wife of a family that buys a house where several murders were committed. Next, she played a wife whose husband (played by Clive Owen) pays a big price when he cheats in Derailed (2005).

George lives in the Los Angeles area with her director husband Claudio Dabed.

Filmography:

30 Days of Night (2007)
Waz (2007)
Music Within (2007)
Turistas (2006)
Derailed (2005)
The Amityville Horror (2005)
Down with Love (2003)
New Port South (2002)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Sugar & Spice (2001)
The Limey (1999)
Dark City (1998)