Melissa Molinaro (born June 4, 1982) also credited or known as Melissa S. or Melissa Smith is a Canadian, pop singer, actor, choreographer and model. She is perhaps best known for her reality TV appearances on Making The Band 3 and Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search For the Next Doll. She is currently recording her debut pop/dance album scheduled for 2011 release, recently co-starred in Dolph Lundgren's action film, Command Performance, and had a major role in Honey 2 (2011). She adopted her mother's maiden name Molinaro as her professional name. Melissa has received notable attention from her appearance in Old Navy's "Super C-U-T-E" commercial in 2011. The video for "Dance Floor", the first single from Melissa's debut album "The Love/Dance Project" features choreography by JaQuel Knight had its debut on YouTube on 24 February 2011.
Born Melissa Ann Smith in Toronto, her family moved to Rochester Hills, Michigan when she was 13 years old. She began figure skating at the age of 3, gymnastics at age 5 and soon began attending Deborah's Stage Dance Door Performing Arts Academy. She was cast as the lead in on-stage productions like "Cinderella", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Cabaret".
At the age of 18, Melissa auditioned for the girl pop group, "Goddess", and became its lead singer. She was signed to a production deal with Interscope Records, and made her first recording demo. While Goddess never achieved greatness, Melissa continued to work consistently as an actor, dancer and model, appearing in several films, television shows, music videos and commercials.
Her early credits include feature film High Crimes and The Hillz; TV series Happy Family, Rodney and Grounded for Life and the unaired WB pilot Prep; music videos for Celine Dion and JC Chasez and The Black Eyed Peas Instant Def webisode. She has appeared in many commercials and done promotional modeling for Miss Fitness, Detroit Automotive Show, Sports By Brooks, Microsoft, Xbox, Sketcher, Nappytabs, Nivea and Dickies Girls.
She auditioned for MTV's Making The Band 3 and almost won a spot in the group Danity Kane. She made the final eleven girls but when it came to the finale of the show, the final slot came down to Melissa and Aundrea Fimbres and Fimbres made the cut. She later took part in another music-themed reality TV show called Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search For the Next Doll in which she competed to become the next member of The Pussycat Dolls. She won many challenges and finished as the 3rd runner up. She went on to host the Detroit auditions for Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious for CW 50.
She recorded her debut solo single "I Believed" with producer Rex Rideout, which was released independently with 4847 Records in 2008 on iTunes. Her music video to I Believed has collectively received nearly one million views on YouTube.
She landed a lead role in an action movie starring and directed by Dolph Lundgren, Command Performance in which she plays Venus, a massive music star who becomes a hostage after a Moscow charity concert turns bloody. She performs a song called Lost In Love in the film, which is commercially available on the 2008 compilation album Soul By The Pound from Fluid Music USA Inc. She guest starred on Slavi's Show to promote "Command Performance" which premiered at the Ischia Film Festival on July 19, 2009 and was then released on DVD on November 3, 2009.
She landed the role of Carla in the dance sequel Honey 2 due for release in 2011. In addition to Honey 2, her debut album is expected to be released by mid-year and features collaborations with multiple producers and songwriters. In 2009, she appeared in the Fox sitcom Brothers and on Jimmy Kimmel Live at the Los Angeles premiere of the film Michael Jackson's This Is It. In 2010, she appeared in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
In early 2011, Molinaro was featured as the lead performer in the smash hit Old Navy advertisement "Super C-U-T-E" that garnered over 1.7 million views on YouTube within the first week of release. The advertisement also received notice from entertainment outlets such as People and E! News for Molinaro's purported resemblance to Kim Kardashian in the shoot. She also released her single Dance Floor on 25 February 2011 and the music video has over 200 thousand views on YouTube.
She is currently dating Reggie Bush of the NFL's New Orleans Saints.
Labels:
Hollywood,
Melissa Molinaro
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