Melissa DiMarco continues to attract Hollywood's attention
- Globe and Mail News
Melissa is talented
...she lights up the screen
- ABC Entertainment
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About Melissa DiMarco
STAR
Host, Journalist, Actress, Producer
Melissa is the face and force behind Out There with Melissa DiMarco. Melissa is a dynamic, multifaceted entertainment personality, intimately involved with everything from acting, producing, interviewing, hosting, and crafting stories and plots, at her two production companies, Out There Productions Inc. and DiMarco Entertainment Inc.
Aside from Out There, Melissa is perhaps best-known for playing Daphne Hatzilakos (aka “Ms. H”), teacher and later Principal of Degrassi Community School, for eight seasons on the acclaimed teen drama, Degrassi: The Next Generation. The series is seen across Canada, in over 43 million U.S. households, and in syndication in over 150 countries.
When she’s not acting, Melissa draws on her deep experience as an award-winning journalist, producer, and director. She’s directed and produced the documentary Dreamseeker: Nia Vardalos (Winner of the U.S. International Film and Video Festival’s Gold Camera Entertainment Award), the docudrama The Critical Eye, the short The Mirage of Change, as well as full-length documentary specials for Canada’s largest music festival, Canadian Music Week, an event she also covers as a journalist. Melissa has also been a story producer and host on OMNI.1’s Nite Life, an entertainment show that focused on the nightclub, bar, and concert scene, on Jump Cut, an innovative award-winning magazine show, as well as hosting the special, An Evening with Oliver Stone.
Melissa’s film credits include acclaimed performances as Pete Rose’s wife, Carol, in Hustle: The Pete Rose Story, directed by the legendary Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon) and starring opposite Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan, Heat) as Pete Rose, and as the female lead in Duct Tape Forever, the film adaptation of the beloved Canadian comedy series, The Red Green Show.
Her TV credits included a starring role on the CBC primetime soap, Riverdale, and numerous guest spots on U.S. and Canadian series. Her theatre credits include leads in Euripides’ Medea, John Pielmeier’s Agnes of God, Joseph Bologna and Renée Taylor’s Lovers and Other Strangers, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley’s Am I Blue.
Melissa is a Dean’s Honour Roll graduate of the Fine Arts Program at Toronto’s York University. She’s a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Academy of Canadian Cinema, and WIFT-T (Women in Film & Television Toronto).