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Melissa Joan Hart Online
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QUICK FACTS

Birth Name: Melissa Joan Catherine Hart
Birthdate: April 18, 1976
Birthplace: Smithtown, New York
Height: 5' 3" (160cm)
Occupations: Actress, Producer, Director
Quote: "With Clarissa, I just kind of went in and did it. I was just saying the lines. Now I concentrate more on the jokes, timing and acting." --Los Angeles Times, December 1996
Claim to Fame: Starred in title role on the Nickleodeon series Clarissa Explains It All (1991-94)
Zodiac Sign: Aries
Eyes: Her eye color is beautiful blue but she also has a "lazy" right eyelid, which means that her right eye is unable to open as wide as her left eye.

Family:
Father: William Hart, shellfish supplier; divorced from Hart's mother
Mother: Paula Hart, agent, TV producer; partner in Hartbreak Films; remarried
Stepfather: Leslie Gilliams, TV executive
Brother: Brian Hart, born 1984
Sister: Emily Hart, born 1986
Half-sister: Alexandra Hart Gilliams, born 1993
Half-sister: Samantha Gilliams, born 1996

Awards:
2000: Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Movie Actress (Drive Me Crazy)
1998: Young Artist Award Best Performance in Comedy Series (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch)
1997: Young Artist Award: Leading TV Comedy Young Actress Series (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch)
1993: Young Artist Award: Best Young Actress Starring in a Cable Series, Clarissa Explians It All
1992: Young Artist Award: Best Young Actress Starring in a Cable Series, Clarissa Explians It All

Factoids: Has own production company called Hartbreak Films
Education: New York University, New York, New York; attending via correspondence courses

Contact Melissa:
Melissa Joan Hart
c/o Sabrina the Teenage Witch
WB Network
4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91522

BIOGRAPHY

Melissa Joan Hart literally grew up on television — she booked her first commercial before she started preschool. She later found prime-time fame on the TV show "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch."

Hart was born in Smithtown, New York, the first child of Billy and Paula Hart, a young hippie couple of modest means who worked odd jobs to pay the bills. Hart stood out as the most precocious of the couple's children, and when she announced that she wanted to become a TV star, her mother took a chance and found her daughter an agent. In 1980, at the age of four, Hart booked her first commercial for a bathtub doll named Splashy. Within four months, she had taped 20 commercials that aired nationally. At 13, Hart became the youngest member of New York City's famed theater troupe Circle Repertory, where she caught the eyes of producers looking to cast the lead role in a new Nickelodeon show called "Clarissa Explains It All." Winner of numerous Youth in Film awards for her work, Melissa was nominated for a CableACE award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for Clarissa Explains It All. In addition to Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Hart has appeared on such series as Just Shoot Me and That '70s Show and co-hosted the American Music Awards with Brandy. The girl-power series, Clarissa, debuted in the spring of 1991 and was a smash hit, proving that a spunky female character could carry a kid's show. But unfortunately, Hart's life was not going as well. Her parents got divorced, and she and her seven siblings moved into a small apartment in Manhattan with their mother.

After "Clarissa" went off the air, Hart and her mother shopped the idea for "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" around Hollywood. After a bidding war, ABC picked up the show, which premiered in the fall of 1996. It garnered great ratings, thanks to its quirky, charismatic star. In her downtime, Hart worked on other projects, including the 1999 movie "Drive Me Crazy." After movie producers pressured Hart to lose weight, she began popping diet pills and starving herself. She also got herself into trouble by posing for a racy spread for Maxim magazine. But despite the downturns in her life, Hart has emerged unscathed. She continues to do good work both on-screen and off-screen with her production company, Hartbreak Films.

Melissa and Paula Hart's Hartbreak Films, in addition to producing the Sabrina, the Teenage Witch franchise - which has grown to include the series, books, CD-ROMs, toys, soundtracks and an animated series - is known for producing all types of quality family entertainment. Their many projects have included the television movies Up, Up and Away, Doomrunners, Two Came Back, Silencing Mary, The Right Connections, Sabrina Goes to Rome and Sabrina Down Under. In May 2001, Hartbreak Films produced a television movie based on Shirley Temple Black's autobiography, Child Star, which aired on The Wonderful World of Disney, with Ms. Black consulting on the project. On Hartbreak Films' feature film development slate are such projects as an update of Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Jacob's Hands, based on a recently discovered manuscript by renowned authors Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood, Not Kappa Material, Dropped Eggs and a feature with Nickelodeon set in Africa. Hartbreak Films will also produce two talk shows for television, MTV's Soul Sessions with Melissa Joan Hart and Planet Yumthing for Fox Family Channel. Currently living in Los Angeles, Calif., Hart recently added a new facet to her career, directing episodes of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Hart works actively for a variety of charities, most particularly those that benefit children.

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