Melissa Joan Hart

Melissa Joan Hart (born April 18, 1976) is an American actress.

Other early television work included a small role in the miniseries Kane & Abel in 1985, a guest-starring role in an episode of The Equalizer in 1986, and a starring role alongside Katherine Helmond in the Emmy Award-winning TV film Christmas Snow, also in 1986.

She appeared on the April 22, 1986 episode of the NBC daytime soap opera Another World.

She also auditioned for the lead role Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, losing the role to Danielle Harris.

In 1989, she became an understudy in a Broadway production of The Crucible starring Martin Sheen.

That same year, she appeared in an off-Broadway production of Beside Herself with William Hurt and Calista Flockhart.

Her parents divorced in the early 1990s, and she moved with her mother and siblings to New York City.

She had starring roles as the title characters in the sitcoms Clarissa Explains It All (1991–1994), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996–2003), and Melissa & Joey (2010–2015).

In 1991, Hart landed the starring role on the Nickelodeon series Clarissa Explains It All, a comedy about a teenaged girl in everyday situations, which was successful during its four-year run.

The show brought her four consecutive Young Artist Award nominations, winning three.

Her role in the series also led to her starring in the FMV video game Nickelodeon's Director's Lab as a tour guide who takes the player around a film studio.

Initially, after first being recognized in public, Hart felt embarrassed to be acting in a children's show while being a teenager.

Nevertheless, she was enthusiastic about the role, and "all [she] hoped for that [she] would get to do it for a while."

Hart also recorded two albums as Clarissa: This Is What 'Na Na' Means and a recording of Peter and the Wolf.

Hart appeared on Nickelodeon's anthology show Are You Afraid of the Dark?, in the Season 2 episode "The Tale of the Frozen Ghost" (1993).

After the television series ended, Hart attended New York University.

In 1994, her mother married television executive Leslie Gilliams, who is best known for his appearance on Season 5 of MasterChef in 2014, when he finished in 3rd place.

Hart has three half-sisters: Alexandra, Samantha, and Mackenzie.

Hart was named after the Allman Brothers song "Melissa", while her middle name, Joan, came from her maternal grandmother.

She chose Catherine as her confirmation name when she was in the eighth grade, but does not use it professionally.

Hart's career began at age four when she made a television commercial for a bathtub doll called Splashy.

From then on, she appeared regularly in commercials, making 25 of them before the age of five.

In 1995, a year after the end of Clarissa Explains It All, Hart filmed a pilot episode for a spin-off show featuring a college-aged Clarissa explaining it all about her foray into the professional world as an intern at a newspaper.

As its musical theme, the show featured a slow, jazz version of its predecessor's theme song, and also starred Robert Klein as her boss.

However, she dropped out after she earned the title role for the 1996 TV film Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which was followed by the television series of the same name, which lasted seven seasons on ABC and The WB.

She later collaborated on an animated version that featured Hart voicing the two aunts Hilda and Zelda, and Hart's younger sister Emily starring in the title role.

She also guest-starred on the series Touched by an Angel and starred in several TV films.

She guest starred on the Boy Meets World episode "Witches of Pennbrook" as her character Sabrina Spellman; the episode also guest starred Hart's closest friend Candace Cameron Bure as a witch named Millie.

In 1998, Hart had a small role in the film Can't Hardly Wait; shortly afterwards Hart began working on a theatrical film project titled Next to You, in which she acted alongside Adrian Grenier.

Britney Spears released a remix of her song "(You Drive Me) Crazy" to promote the film's soundtrack.

To capitalize on the song's success as a top-ten hit, the name of the film was changed to Drive Me Crazy.

To promote the film, both Hart and Grenier appeared in the song's music video.

Around the same time, Spears made a guest appearance as herself on Sabrina, in the season four episode "No Place Like Home".

She has also appeared in the films Drive Me Crazy (1999), Nine Dead (2009), and God's Not Dead 2 (2016).

On October 17, 2021, she became the first celebrity to win the $1 million top prize for her charity, Youth Villages, on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and the fourth overall million dollar winner on Wheel of Fortune.

Hart was born in Smithtown, New York, the first child of Paula Hart (née Voje), a producer and talent manager, and William Hart, a carpenter, shellfish purveyor, oyster hatchery worker, and entrepreneur.

Her maternal grandfather, Stanley John Voje, was a Navy veteran and Catholic.

Hart grew up in Sayville, New York.

Hart's parents had four other children after Melissa: Trisha, Elizabeth, Brian, and Emily, who are all in acting.

She appeared as Liz in No Good Nick (2019).