Melinda Patrice Clarke, also called Mindy, was born on April 24, 1969 in Dana Point, in the Orange County area, California (USA).
Her father John Clarke is an actor, known for his role of Mickey Horton in the soap Days of Our Lives and her mother Patricia is a ballet dancer and dance teacher.

Melinda grows up in Dana Point with her two older siblings, brother Joshua and sister Heidi. The latter dies in 1994 from a rare heart tumor.

She begins training ballet, tap and jazz at her mother’s studio at the age of four. Throughout her teen years she performs in her high school plays and musicals and participates at workshops at the South Coast Repertory as well as summer camps at the Idyllwilde School of Music and the Arts. She also has many years of extensive voice training and is a coloratura soprano.

At 18, after graduating from high school and with her parents’ blessing, she moves to Los Angeles to start her career and takes acting classes. A half year later she lands her first role as Faith Taylor in the soap Days of Our Lives. Although her father also stars in the soap the two will never share any scenes together. She plays this role from 1989 to 1990.
Melinda is also interested in stage work and performs in a lot of plays such as Vicious, The Elephant Man, Lie of the Mind, Dark of the Moon as well as musicals The Music Man, Oklahoma, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Hello Dolly and The Fantastiks.

She makes her movie debut as Monica in the B-Movie Hot Under the Collar in 1991, has a minor role in Out For Blood as Laura in 1992 and plays Faith Brown in Young Goodman Brown in 1993.
The same year she becomes the famous Julie Walker in the zombie movie Return of the Living Dead III.
She stars as Savannah Delongpre in Return to Two Moon Junction in 1994, Candy in The Killer Tongue in 1996 and Jessica Priest in Spawn in 1997.
She also as starring roles in the independent films Critics and Other Freaks in 1997 as Mrs. M and Cold Sweat in 2002. These movies are written and directed by her husband.
Melinda also has a cameo in Mulholland Falls in 1996.

She also works a lot in television and guest-stars in Jake and the Fatman in 1991, The George Carlin Show in 1994. She has a lead role in an Aaron Spelling show called Heaven Help Us in 1994 which runs for 13 episodes.
She plays in Strange Luck in 1996, Xena: Warrior Princess, Sliders, Nash Bridges and Seinfeld in 1997.

In the fall of 1997, Melinda becomes Margo Vincent in Soldier of Fortune, Inc., the first series by the producer Jerry Bruckheimer. She is the only woman in a cast of four men. The show lasts two seasons.

After the end of Soldier of Fortune, Inc., she appears in the television shows The Pretender and Nash Bridges in late 2000, Enterprise in 2001, First Monday, Charmed, Everwood, The District in 2002 and Tremors and Firefly in 2003. She also plays in the movies for television Family Under Siege and .com for Murder in 2002 and lends her voice to the animated series The Animatrix and Avatar.

Melinda is hired to guest-star in the successful show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as the S&M madam Lady Heather, she appears in the episodes Slaves of Las Vegas of the season 2 in 2001 and in the special 90 minutes episode of the season 3 Lady Heather’s Box in 2003.

Still in 2003, she starts in a new show called The O.C. where she plays Julie Cooper. The show which revolves around the residents of Newport Beach in the Orange County area becomes an instant phenomenon. Coincidentally Melinda is hail from Orange County.

While filming The O.C., she appears in Entourage twice, in 2005 and 2006.
In 2006, she reprises her famous role of Lady Heather in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for one episode.

At the beginning of 2007, The O.C. is cancelled after a short fourth season of 16 episodes.

Right after the end of The O.C. Melinda tapes a pilot for a new show for CBS called The Man. But this project by the creator of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is not picked up by the network.

Meanwhile Melinda reprises again the role of Lady Heather in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

During the summer of 2007, she heads to Toronto in Canada to film the made-for-television movie She Drives Me Crazy. This television movie is also produced by her ex co-star from The O.C. Kelly Rowan. Melinda plays Blithe Meacham.

Later this same year, she plays in the show Reaper as the devil’s mistress.

In 2008, she lends her voice to the animated series King of The Hill for one episode.

She plays the Russian spy Sasha Banacheck in the episode 2 of the second season of Chuck in October 2008. Josh Schwartz, the creator of The O.C. is also the creator of Chuck.

In November of 2008, she plays Lady Heather again for the fifth time in the 5th episode of season 9 of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

She also appears in a three-episode story arc as the Dr. Lee on Eli Stone, in late 2008.

She guest-stars again as herself on the television show Entourage in a episode of the sixth season.

She is reportedly said to star on an independent film called Mate, which release date hasn’t been announced.

As of April 2010, she has completed her four-episode story arc on the CW’s hit show The Vampire Diaries playing Kelly Donovan, Matt and Vicki’s irresponsible, hard-drinking absentee mother.

She can currently be seen in the CW’s Nikita, co-starring alongside Maggie Q, Shane West, Lyndsy Fonseca and Xander Berkeley, premiering this fall.

In 1991, she meets her future husband while working as Nancy on the play Vicious, his name is Ernest “Ernie” Mirich and he plays Sid.

On June 28, 1997, the two wed in a small, private ceremony with family and close friends. Her best friend, actress Charlotte Ross, whom she met on the set of Days of Our Lives in 1989, is one of her bridesmaids.
The reception is held at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point with about 200 guests.

On January 4, 2000, Melinda gives birth to her first and only child, a girl named Catherine Grace.

As of 2010, Melinda and her husband have separated and she lives with her daughter in Los Angeles.

© Melinda-Clarke.Org
Last Updated on May 23, 2010