Melissa Joan Hart #2
Melissa Joan Hart #2
Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Clarissa Explains It All
Melissa Joan Hart is known worldwide for her title characters in Sabrina The Teenage Witch and Clarissa Explains It All but she has a long list of credits from the start of her thespian days at the age of 4. She has been seen in every format for every genre, from Broadway to the Silver Screen. She has produced film and TV with her company, Hartbreak Films, and has directed as well.
Melissa was born on April 18, 1976 in the town of Smithtown, NY. She was raised in Sayville (on Long Island) but moved to Florida at the age of 14 to begin filming Clarissa Explains it All. When filming completed, she returned to New York City where she began attending New York University.
Melissa and her family enjoyed reading Archie Comics. Noting that the character Sabrina had a resemblance to Melissa, her mother Paula Hart drew on her experience as a manager/casting director to begin production on a movie entitled Sabrina the Teenage Witch and at the same time created their production company called Hartbreak Films. Sabrina was a great success, and the family uprooted once more to Los Angeles to begin filming Sabrina the Teenage Witch for ABC which ran for 7 seasons (163 episodes, 1996-2003). During this time, she also filmed many television movies and sitcom parts, as well as small appearances in feature films.
In May 2009, she celebrated the grand opening of her candy store called Sweet Harts in Sherman Oaks, California. This was the realization of a lifelong dream! Visit her store and try some of Melissa's favorite pistachio frozen yogurt or gelato.
Early this year, Paul Lee, president of ABC Family, announced the pick-up of Melissa & Joey. The series has been given a 10-episode order and is scheduled to premiere in the summer of 2010. This half-hour multi-cam comedy with Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence executive producing and starring, finds Hart portraying Mel, the grown-up former wild child of a political family who is now a local politician herself. When her sister ends up in prison and brother-in-law flees after a scandal hits, Mel must take responsibility for her teenaged niece Lennox and pre-adolescent nephew Ryder. Spread too thin to manage by herself, help comes in the unlikely form of Joe (Lawrence) who, desperate for a job, moves in and becomes the family's "manny."
Melissa Joan Hart will be part of Nora and Delia Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore at the Westside Theatre. She'll be appearing on stage 8 shows a week from April 1-25, 2010. The theatre is located at 407 West 43rd Street in Manhattan.
Melissa is very proud of her theatrical career. She writes: "I was the youngest member of the Circle Rep Company around the age of 9. I did a bunch of workshops and was on stage doing a wonderful play called Beside Herself starring William Hurt, Calista Flockhart and Lois Smith at the age of 10. By 11, I was starring in a play written by Peter Hedges (Gilbert Grape, Dan in Real Life) and first time director Joe Mantello (Wicked and million other amazing Broadway plays). In that play called Imagining Brad there was a 30 minute intro monologue that I delivered in what we called The Valerie of Now. It was the role of Valerie that landed me the many auditions for the show Clarissa Explains It All and so the snowball rolls!" Read more at her blog.
See Melissa in her first "thriller" role in the just released on DVD film Nine Dead.
She is currently married to Mark Wilkerson (since 2003), with whom she has 2 sons (Mason and Braydon), and they now reside in Connecticut, USA. Melissa is delighted with her acting career, but her family has always come first. Her greatest accomplishment (so far) is being a mother. She also loves her pets (3 dogs), and is very active in numerous charities, especially for children.
Melissa Joan Hart's Official Website