Melissa Suzanne George is an Australian-born film and television actress who has worked in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. George is best known in Australia for her role as Angel Parrish on the Australian soap opera "Home and Away" (1993–1996), in television series "Friends" (2003), "Alias" (2003–2004), "In Treatment" (2008), "Grey's Anatomy" (2008–2009) and "Lie to Me" (2010).
Background
She is the second of four children. George initially expressed interest in various forms of dance rather than acting. During her childhood, George studied tap, ballet, and jazz, later transitioning into professional rollerskating - similar to figure skating on ice.
Career
By age 16, George had won several awards at various National Rollerskating Championships in Australia, and subsequently began modeling after dropping out of high school. George met a casting agent while doing modeling work, and was given a role on the popular Australian soap opera "Home and Away" (1988).
George moved to Sydney and worked on the show for three years until deciding to pursue other projects.
In 1996, George left Australia and moved to Los Angeles in search of bigger roles. She garnered various supporting parts in films such as "Dark City" (1998) and Steven Soderbergh's crime thriller "The Limey" (1999), before landing a key part in David Lynch's acclaimed neo noir mystery film, "Mulholland Drive" (2001).
The early 2000s would have George playing bit parts in several American television shows, including "Friends" (1994) and "Monk" (2002), ultimately landing a recurring role on the hit "Alias" (2001) alongside Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan.
Through the later part of the decade, George had roles in various horror and thriller films, beginning with the 2005 version of "The Amityville Horror" (2005), as well as the commercially-successful thriller Derailed (2005) alongside Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston and Vincent Cassel.
George finished the decade with several more horror films, including "Turistas" (2006) and "30 Days of Night" (2007), as well as independent horror titles such as "WΔZ" (2007), "The Betrayed" (2008) and "Triangle" (2009).
George was also active in television work, landing a role on the popular medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" (2005). Her greatest critical success would come with a role on "In Treatment" (2008), playing the love interest of Gabriel Byrne, which would garner her a Golden Globe nomination in 2009.
Though a veteran of television in both Australia and the United States, George has achieved considerable success in her film career, which has hardly spanned over a decade.
Her most recent credits include the thriller "A Lonely Place to Die" (2011), the Australian drama series "The Slap" (2011), for which she won a Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress, and the British-American spy drama series "Hunted" (2012).