​Melissa Harlow

         Melissa Harlow was born and raised in St. Louis, MO.  She always loved to act.  Her parents have VHS proof of her passion with her late '80s, one woman rendition of The Breakfast Club.  Throughout her childhood, Melissa performed in hundreds of community, church, and school musicals, dramas, improvisations, talent shows, madrigal dinners, yadda, yadda yadda,.

 

        At age 16, Melissa booked her first professional acting job with Six Flags over St. Louis.  That same year, she joined the Ritenour Jazz Band, performing as the vocalist in the greater St. Louis area and touring Germany.

 

        Melissa graduated Cum Laude from Southwest Baptist University with a B.A. in Theatre and Communications.  She was an active performer on the SBU stage and holds numerous titles from Pi Kappa Delta and National Forensic League Competitions across the U.S.

 

        Upon graduation she moved to downtown St. Louis and began working at the Christian Activity Center, a non profit youth center in the Gomper Housing Projects of East St. Louis, IL.  There, she spent 7 years creating the fine arts program, while also teaching and supervising all fine art, recreational, and life enhancement programming.  She was also the Director of Programming, and the Violence Prevention/Teen Employment Initiative.  Her work at the CAC has been featured on Fox2News, STLToday, KMOV News, Word & Way, St. Louis Post Dispatch, and KPLR News.

 

       In August 2012, Melissa and her husband Kerry, moved to the NYC area, where she could pursue theatre full time. Since the move she has been in lots of shows, performed in lots of states, popped out a kid, joined the board of Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries, and started Stomping Ground Theatre Co. with co-founder Angela Shultz in Hell's Kitchen, NY.