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Melinda McGraw
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Melinda McGraw

Melinda McGraw recently appeared, on television, as Dan Aykroyd's love interest on the ABC series Soul Man. She also appeared as Garry Shandling's opportunistic girlfriend on The Larry Sanders Show, played the police detective partner to The Commish for several seasons and had a recurring role as Dana Scully's psychic sister Melissa on The X-Files.

While studying at Vermont's Bennington College, McGraw realized that she really wanted to focus on acting and she promptly applied to London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (whose alumni includes such luminaries as Sir John Gielgud, Albert Finney, Glenda Jackson, Sir Richard Attenborough and Alan Bates). Winning acceptance as one of only seven women admitted to the Academy that year, McGraw spent the next three years immersing herself in classical and modern training.

After winning the Beerbohm Tree Prize awarded by British agents and casting directors, she was offered the role of Mariah in Twelfth Night, touring Great Britain with the production and eventually ending up in an extended run in London's West End. McGraw's subsequent theatrical credits include a number of regional productions and Don Carlos, directed by Nicholas Hytner (The Madness of King George).

It was McGraw's performance in the play The Foreigner that led to an offer to appear in Clifford Odets' The Big Knife opposite Peter Gallagher for American Playhouse on PBS, then being filmed in London. She then returned to the U.S., where she landed a guest-starring role on the popular Quantum Leap series. She also guest-starred on Seinfeld and became a series regular on both The Pursuit of Happiness and The Human Factor with Eriq LaSalle and John Mahoney. More recently, she appeared in the mini-series House of Frankenstein with Adrian Pasdar and C.C.H. Pounder, and in Albino Alligator, Kevin Spacey's directorial debut, starring Matt Dillon, Faye Dunaway, Gary Sinese and Joe Montegna.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2002.

Melinda McGraw Facts

Birth Name Melinda Leigh McGraw
OccupationActress
BirthdayOctober 25, 1963 (59)
SignScorpio
BirthplaceNicosia, Cyprus
Height5' 7" (1m70)  How tall is Melinda McGraw compared to you?

Selected Filmography

Inconceivable (2005) tv as Suzanne Cohen (breakthrough)
Center of Universe (2004) as Lily Barnett
Nutty Professor II (2000) as Leanne Guilford
Wrongfully Accused (1998) as Cass Lake
Albino Alligator (1996) as Jenny Ferguson
The X-Files (1994) tv as Melissa Scully
The Commish (1992) tv user recommendation as Det. Cydavia Madison
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