Melissa starred with 1981 Miss America Susan Powell and Broadway's Nat Chandler in Show Stoppers, 80 Years of Broadway Favorites That Brought Down The House at the Valentine Theater in Toledo, Ohio. Melissa has become some what of a regular at the beautiful fully restored 900 seat Valentine Theater after playing Winnifred in their inaugural production of Once Upon a Mattress and aside from Show Stoppers also played Nellie Forbush in the 2006 Season's South Pacific.

Melissa has lived in Chicago for 12 years and has had the pleasure of working with many off loop theater companies such as The Boxer Rebellion Ensemble, Theater Building Chicago, The Bailiwick, The BackStage Theater Company, White Horse Theater Ensemble and Open Eye Productions, to name a few. She has acted and directed many productions during her Chicago stay and even took the original play Me, The Devil and Other Friends by Fannon Holland to the New York International Fringe Festival in the summer of 2003.

Melissa is a member of the Chicago Cabaret Professionals and has been writing Cabaret showcases for years. Her first one woman show The Life and Times of a She Devil premiered at Davenports Cabaret Bar in January of 2004. Her Cabaret, Songs That Got Me Through premiered at Davenports on April 13th, 2007 and ran every Thursday in July of that same year. Most recently her show Redheaded Broadway full hits from Broadways favorite Redheads was a smash success both here and at her New York debut at the Duplex.

This summer, Melissa will return to the Duplex and Davenports with her long anticipated show Lucky Star: Madonna at 50- a birthday tribute, Original Takes on an Original Artisit.

Know for her power belt and comedic timing, she has had the honor of being the special guest of the great Stephen Kimbrough at the Gentry on Halstead in Chicago before if closed this past summer.