Melissa grew up in Sayville, New York. Her acting career started at the age
of four when she did a commercial for a bathtub toy called "Splashy".
Her mother, Paula Hart, has been her agent from the beginning. Melissa has five
younger sisters, Trisha, Elizabeth, Emily, Alexandra and Samantha, and one younger
brother, Brian. All but the youngest sibling, Samantha, have been "in the
business" in some capacity; Elizabeth, Emily and Brian have appeared on
Melissa's current TV series, "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch". Melissa
performed in two plays as the youngest member of New York's Circle Repertory
Lab Company: "Beside Herself" in 1989 (starring Lois Smith and William
Hurt) and "Imagining Brad" in 1990. She was also in the National Actors
Theatre production of "The Crucible" on Broadway with Martin Sheen
(as understudy to three of the children in the play). Melissa cites Shirley
Temple and Audrey Hepburn as early acting inspirations. She still collects Shirley
Temple memorabilia. For the past few years, she has been juggling acting and
attending New York University. She's now living in the Los Angeles area, starring
in the ABC TV series "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" (1996), which is
produced by Hartbreak Films, the production company run by her and her mother.