Melissa Haiden

Biography

Born on 4 March 1987, she started her acting career while still at school, being cast as a village girl in an episode of The Adventures of Sinbad (1997). Having matriculated from Pinelands High School in Cape Town and then studied drama at the University of Cape Town, finishing with a BA (honours) in Theatre and Performance in 2009, she went on to a full-time career in theatre, film and television.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Theatre productions she has performed in include The Birds, directed by Roy Sargeant; Waiting For Godot, directed by Frankie Nassimbeni; Sexual Perversity in Chicago, directed by Chris Weare; Cock, directed by Paul Griffiths; Fred Abrahamse's production of Othello at the Maynardville open air theatre, in which she played Desdemona; and The Vagina Monologues, directed by Marlise Doubell.

Feature films include Konfetti, The Siege of Jadotville, Bypass and Finders Keepers; and among the short films have been Bound, Adrift, Unspoken and Savage Ivy.

She has appeared in a number of foreign television series shot on location in South Africa, including the BBC's science fiction series Outcasts and its comedy-drama The Wrong Mans, Black Sails, Saints & Strangers, Origins: The Journey of Humankind, Troy: Fall of a City and Hear No Evil.

In 2017 Melissa was cast as "Taryn" in the SABC3 local comedy-drama series Taryn and Sharon, followed by roles in other local series, such as Dam and Desert Rose.