Melissa has worked steadily throughout her career in televisión and film. She has had recurring guest roles on Showtime’s Billions and Cinemax’s The Knick, with dramatic scenes opposite Damien Lewis and Clive Owen and directed by Steven Soderbergh. She has also starred in independent films including Patrimony with Robert Vaughn, and Mockingbird Don’t Sing with Sean Young and Kim Darby.
In 2021, she appeared in Sophia Coppola’s On The Rocks and in the upcoming The Magnificent Meyersons with Kate Mulgrew and Richard Kind.
Melissa played large supporting roles in feature films alongside Angelina Jolie and Dennis Quaid, worked with her friends Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick on their film Loverboy, as well as in major pilots and television development with Jon Favreau, Larry Charles, Ed Burns, Noah Emmerich, Spike Lee, Tom Fontana, Bobby Cannavale, Kelsey Grammer, and more. Melissa had her first network lead in Darren Star’s Central Park West on CBS before working with him many times thereafter. Her television career began at age 12 in a Muppets spin-off.
film
The Magnificent Meyersons
2021
Written and directed by Evan Oppenheimer
A complicated New York City family as they discover on one extraordinary day that although life-and family-can sometimes shock you - it can also lead to miraculous new places.
Watch Melissa as Ilaria Meyerson in the trailer here
On the Rocks
2020
Written and directed by Sofia Coppola
A young mother reconnects with her larger-than-life playboy father on an adventure through New York.
Patrimony
2011
Written and directed by: Donald Marcus
Melissa co-starred with Robert Vaughn in a film about a woman whose husband dies in a tragic accident and the issue of his father’s will, and an unexpected family secret.
Loverboy
2005
Directed by Kevin Bacon | Writing credits: Victoria Redel (novel), Hannah Shakespeare (screenwriter)
A neglected daughter becomes a possessive mother in an emotional journey into the heart and mind of a woman who loved too much. Melissa plays Miss Silken, a boy’s first school teacher whose mother (Kyra Sedgwick) despises and maliciously confronts because she envies every minute that anyone spends with her son.
Life or something like it
2002
Directed by: Stephen Herek | Writing credits: John Scott Shepherd, Dana Stevens
A reporter, Lanie Kerrigan (Angelina Jolie), interviews a psychic homeless man (Tony Shalhoub) for a fluff piece about a football game’s score. Instead, he tells her that her life has no meaning, and is going to end in just a few days, which sparks her to action, trying to change the pattern of her life… With support of her best friend Andrea (Errico), she tries to change the pattern of her life…
Mockingbird Don't Sing
2002
Directed by: Harry Bromley Davenport | Writing credits: Daryl Haney
Based on the actual events of one of the most horrific cases of child abuse ever to be documented, this haunting drama tells the tale of a young girl that was locked in a room for over 12 years. Melissa plays a Linguistics specialist who became the child’s teacher, best friend and inspiration.
Frequency
2001
Directed by Gregory Hoblit | Writing credits: (WGA), Toby Emmerich
What if you could reach back in time? What if you could change he past? What if it changed everything? An accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son (Caviezel) tries to save his father’s (Dennis Quaid) life, but then must fix the consequences. In the end, he is able to heal his own life and begin anew with his estranged girlfriend (Errico).
Picture This
1999
Directed by: Lisa Albright | Writing Credits: Neena Beber
Eve Weidegger, twenty-something and terminally single, runs a small business as a wedding photographer. She spends her days off roaming the city, taking photographs and secretly nurturing her true passion of becoming a real artist. She meets a musician backstage at an East Village club after a show. They have a brief romance, before Eve realizes she cannot give up her independence and will not bend to his whimsical plans.
Bury the Evidence
1999
Written and directed by: J. Greg De Felice
Bury the Evidence, a modern noir tale. It follows a mute man (played by Andrew Miller of Blue Man Group) who lives under the sink, and who has been given a list of things he has to do. With a unique series of encounters, invasions and needy visitors (Melissa Errico as The Wife/Karen Black as Mother), he is able pursue the completion of his list, but not without terrifying and claustrophobic dangers. Spiritual enlightenment awaits within and without the walls.
Loose Women
1997
Directed by: Paul F. Bernard | Written by: Sherry Ham-Bernard
Loose Women is the story of three young roommates’ trials and tribulations living in Manhattan. Gail (Melissa Errico) has the biggest secret of them all. She plays a chirpy confident second-grade teacher. Gail has a bad rapport with her mother (Robin Strasser) and we learn that her father is a famous and respected judge. After hours, Gail’s roomantes lived a late-night wild life. A certain bartender (Charlie Sheen) and a homeless man (Stephen Lang) repeatedly offer sage advice on survival in the big city.
Television
The Jim Gaffigan Show
2016
Written and executive produced by comedian Jim Gaffigan and his wife Jeannie Gaffigan, Gaffigan stars as a fictionalized version of himself as a stand-up comedian raising five children in a two-bedroom New York City apartment.
Melissa appears as Gloria in the season 2 premiere episode "The Calling."
Billions
2016
Emmy® and Golden Globe® winners Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis star in a complex drama about power politics in the world of New York high finance.
Melissa appears as June Raichlein in season one episodes: Pilot and Episode 3.
the Knick
2014
Melissa appears as Catherine Christiansen in the Steven Soderbergh Cinemax series The Knick.
Set in downtown New York in 1900, The Knick is a Cinemax drama series from Academy Award and Emmy-winning director Steven Soderbergh. It is centered on the Knickerbocker Hospital and the groundbreaking surgeons, nurses and staff who work there, pushing the bounds of medicine in a time of astonishingly high mortality rates and zero antibiotics.
Blue Bloods
2013
Melissa guest stars on Blue Bloods Season 3, Episode 14: "Men in Black."
When the Hasidic Grand Rebbe passes away and appoints his youngest son Levi to the office, everyone is shocked moments later when Levi is found murdered. Danny and Mack work on the case with Detective Wolf Landsman, a former Hasid.
The Good Wife
2013
Melissa guest stars on The Good Wife Season 4, Episode 15: "Going for the Gold."
Elsbeth takes the fight to A-USA Josh Perotti as she defends Eli Gold, Peter needs advice as he debates Maddie Hayward, and Alicia faces hard choices in her first role as equity partner.
A Gifted Man
2011
Melissa guest stars on A Gifted Man Season 1, Episode 7: "In Case of Exposure."
When Michael finds out a patient with a malignant brain tumor committed a horrible crime, he struggles with whether to save the man’s life. Meanwhile, a female firefighter who appears to be disoriented is brought to Holt Neuro for evaluation.
More TV
In March 2012 Melissa was featured on Martha Stewart Living for an entire episode of comedy, cooking and a solo musical segment to promote her CD, Lullabies & Wildflowers.
| 2006 | SIX DEGREES | ABC | Sarah | Recurring Role |
| 2003 | LAW AND ORDER | NBC | “Lindsey” (the manipulated daughter of the famous Mom) | Episode: B*tch |
| 2003 | MISS MATCH | NBC | “Laurel" | Episodes: Season Premiere and episode #2. |
| 2003 | ED | NBC | “Liz Stevens, the ex-wife” (yes, who slept with the mailman!) | Episode: “The ex-wife returns” |
| 2000 | THE NORM SHOW | ABC | “Kim Catino” (Norm’s old sweetheart and now hot date) | Episode: “Norm vs. Homelessness” |
| 1995-96 | CENTRAL PARK WEST | CBS | “Alex Bartoli Fairchild” | Series Regular |
| 1995 | THE COSBY MYSTERIES | - | “Tricia Scott” (the crazy understudy who killed the star) | Episode: “Dial ‘H’ for Murder” |
| 1987 | AS THE WORLD TURNS | - | “Rebecca” (babysitter for Craig) | Guest Star - Episode: 1987 |
Major Pilots
In the 2006-2007 TV season, Melissa filmed a television pilot called M.O.N.Y. for NBC produced by Tom Fontana and directed by Spike Lee. She playing the Mayor’s wife (Bobby Cannavale). Melissa also starred in the network pilots The Fighting Fitzgeralds with Ed Burns and Brian Dennehy, Smog with Jon Favreau and Noah Emmerick (produced by Larry Charles), and was fired by Kelsey Grammer in her own NBC sitcom called Neurotic Tendencies (produced by Grammer), which was created to tell the story of his odd-ball relationship with his (now former) wife Camille. The plot began when a young, funky, downtown actress met an older man when they both hailed the same taxi.