Melissa Austin

Melissa is an only child born in Austin, TX and raised in Houston, TX, whom comes from a long line of German Texans dating back to the time before the Texas Revolutionary War, making her an official Daughter of the Republic of Texas. Melissa may look the quintessential Texan and in many ways she is, having spent almost 18 yrs in dance, Finishing School, many years on the Texas pageant circuit, Homecoming Court in HS and even a few years of tennis under her belt. However, family life wasn't exactly perfect for her. As an only child of a single mother and a father that was an Executive of oil engineering companies and later Aerospace engineering companies, perfection was expected from her at all times. As we all know, perfection is not something any of us can keep up with much less, a child. However, perfection would be the least of many more challenges within her family life. As a way to cope, she used dance for expression of sadness, confusion and anger. At 14 she added running, at 16 the gym. Fitness became a very large part of her life from there and she has become a quite accomplished Spartan obstacle course racer and marathoner. She found herself at a place where she felt her life was falling apart. Melissa decided to reevaluate her life and figure out what her greatest dream was. She thought, it has to be acting. It's the one thing she was always scared to death to do. Something she always wanted so bad, but was afraid she wouldn't be good enough. She decided it was time. After a few years of weekly classes and her and her teacher working hard to figure out how to dig out her emotions from her past so she could put them to use through her characters, she's become an Actress known for getting lost and allowing space for characters to live, breathe and speak their truth. Drama is her favorite way to show her full strength of expressing all her locked up emotions and living for longer periods of time within her characters. Even, falling in love with them. Though, a naturally goofy person, comedy and timing are two things that come naturally to her. This process of studying, learning about her characters, who they are, what their pain is, what truly makes them happy and over a time, becoming them, has been so rewarding and just an entirely clarifying process.