Melanie Neilan

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Melanie NeilanBiography

Born and raised in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, IL, Melanie's ancestry is Hungarian, Russian, Lithuanian, Irish and French. At the age of ten, she earned a purple belt in Karate, at which time she began to study ballet seriously. She subsequently performed in a number of principal roles for the Stella/Makkai Youth Company, most notably The Dying Swan and The Nutcracker. At thirteen, she became a founding member of the esteemed A Red Orchid Theatre Youth Ensemble-where actor Michael Shannon was also a founder of the adult ensemble-and made her theatrical debut in A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, followed by Chopin Theatre's 10th Annual Sketchbook Festival in x = exponential, and many others. At eighteen, Mel”