Melissa Joan Hart
Melissa Joan Hart (born April 18, 1976)[1] is an American actress. 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). She appeared as Liz in No Good Nick (2019). 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.[2]
Melissa Joan Hart
April 18, 1976
Sayville High School (1994)
Actress
1985–present
3
Paula Hart (mother)
Emily Hart (sister)
Early life[edit]
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.[3][1] Her maternal grandfather, Stanley John Voje, was a Navy veteran and Catholic.[4] 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. Her parents divorced in the early 1990s, and she moved with her mother and siblings to New York City. 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.[1]
Hart was named after the Allman Brothers song "Melissa", while her middle name, Joan, came from her maternal grandmother.
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
Hart's career began at age four when she made a television commercial for a bathtub doll called Splashy.[1] From then on, she appeared regularly in commercials, making 25 of them before the age of five. 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[5] in 1986, and a starring role alongside Katherine Helmond in the Emmy Award-winning TV film Christmas Snow,[1] 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.[6] That same year, she appeared in an off-Broadway production of Beside Herself with William Hurt and Calista Flockhart.[7]
Personal life[edit]
On July 19, 2003, Hart married musician Mark Wilkerson, having met at the Kentucky Derby in May 2002.[56] The preparations for the ceremony, which took place in Florence, Italy, were documented in a television miniseries titled Tying the Knot, produced by Hart's production company Hartbreak Films and aired on ABC Family. Hart and Wilkerson have three sons, Mason (born January 2006), Braydon (born March 2008), and Tucker (born September 2012).[57][58][59] They lived in Westport, Connecticut, until 2019, when they moved to Lake Tahoe and then in 2020, they moved to Nashville.[60][61][62]
Hart and Wilkerson were featured in People magazine's April 7, 2008 issue, introducing their second child Braydon.[63] Hart wrote a diary, including video entries, to document potty training her son, Mason, for Huggies Pull-Ups brand diapers.[1]
Hart and her family are Presbyterians.[64] In an interview, she stated that they attend church every Sunday and pray every night and before every meal.[65]
Hart was near The Covenant School in Nashville when a mass shooting occurred there in March 2023 and helped escort some of the fleeing children to safety.[66][67] She later recounted the experience on NewsNation and her social media accounts, while noting that she and her children were also in proximity to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.[66]
Hart has expressed her support for some Republican candidates, such as voting for Bob Dole during the 1996 election.[68] On November 5, 2012, the day before that year's Election Day, she tweeted that she was endorsing Mitt Romney for president.[69][70][71] Hart has expressed support for increased gun control, marching in a Moms Demand Action demonstration in Brooklyn in May 2016.[72] On August 16, 2016, in the run-up to that year's presidential election, she donated to Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson's campaign.[73] On August 28, 2016, she joined Johnson's campaign as its Connecticut chairperson.[74] On August 21, 2023, she marched with Moms Demand Action in Nashville.