Melisa Annis
Actress and Playwright
Melisa Mai Annis was born at St David's Hospital, Cardiff -- into a family that is arguably one of the most connected in Welsh and British acting. Her mother is Sue Roderick, the Welsh actress well known for her roles in S4C and BBC Wales productions. Her father is Quenton Annis, who was head of floor managers at HTV Wales and Quenton's sister is none other than Francesca Annis, the distinguished actress renowned for her roles in Lillie, Dune, Wives and Daughters and Cranford. Melisa is Francesca Annis's niece. Her stepfather is the Welsh director Paul Turner, who directed Hedd Wyn (1992) the first Welsh language film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Showbusiness runs deep in the Annis blood.
Melisa trained as an actress in Wales and built her early career through Welsh language television and film. She is a fluent Welsh speaker. Her credits include Pobol y Cwm, S4C's long-running Welsh language soap opera; Hedd Wyn (1992), directed by her stepfather Paul Turner; People of the Valley; and Branwen (1995). She also worked with the National Theatre of Wales, completing a tour before making a decision that would define the next chapter of her life - she moved to New York City.
In New York she worked initially as an actress - at The Looking Glass Theatre, an off-Broadway feminist theatre company, in short films including one starring Joan Rivers, and in Eugene O'Neill's one-act play Thirst. But it was as a playwright and director that she found her fullest voice. Her plays, radio plays and musicals have been developed and presented at some of the most prestigious theatre organisations in New York and beyond - including Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, The Lark, Parity Productions, Rattlestick Theater, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and many others.