Melissa Benoist Biography

Melissa Marie Benoist (born October 4, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her portrayal of the title character in the CBS/CW superhero drama series Supergirl.

Benoist rose to prominence for her portrayal of Marley Rose on the Fox musical comedy-drama television series Glee (2012-2014), and has appeared in a number of television series including Homeland, The Good Wife and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She has also appeared in films such as Danny Collins (2015), The Longest Ride (2015), Patriots Day (2016), Lowriders (2017), and the Oscar-winning film Whiplash (2014).

Early life

Benoist was born in Littleton, Colorado the daughter of Julie and Jim Benoist, a physician. She has two sisters, Jessica and Kristina. She started dance classes at the age of three and when she was four years old her aunt put her in a church play she was directing.

As a teen, Benoist performed anonymously at Disneyland for three summers with the Academy of Theatre Arts a musical theatre school located in Littleton, Colorado run by Paul Dwyer and Alann Worley. She performed locally in productions including Cinderella and Bye Bye Birdie at Town Hall Arts Center, and Evita at the Country Dinner Playhouse. In 2006, The Denver Post named Benoist one of Colorado"?s five "Can't Miss Kids". She graduated from Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, in 2007, and from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City in 2011 with a Bachelor of arts in theatre arts.

Career

Benoist's first film was in singer Mariah Carey's Tennessee in 2008.

In May 2012, she auditioned for Glee in New York at the Roundabout Theatre Company, singing a different song for each of her five auditions including: "Fidelity" by Regina Spektor, "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles, a Colbie Caillat song, and several musical theater pieces. In July, she had two screen tests in California for series creator/writer, Ryan Murphy, the casting directors, and executive producers. She and Glee co-star Darren Criss appeared with Josh Duhamel in the opening of the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards. That same year, she was selected as an ambassador for Coca-Cola's new product, P10 300 ml Coke Mismo. In June 2013, they were flown to Manila, Philippines, to endorse the product by visiting various malls and meeting with fans.

In the summer of 2013, Benoist and her then husband Blake Jenner held a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the production of their movie Juvenile. The project has reached its $100,000 goal. Benoist played Nicole, the love interest of Miles Teller's Andrew Neiman, in the 2014 film Whiplash, which won top prizes (Grand Jury and Audience awards) at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. In June 2014, Benoist joined Nicholas Sparks' film adaption The Longest Ride as Marcia.

She had a role in the 2015 film Danny Collins, starring Al Pacino. She played the part of Jamie, a desk clerk at a hotel frequented by one of Jamie's all-time favorite rock stars. In May 2015, it was announced that Benoist would be playing Lorelai in the film Lowriders, replacing Lily Collins and Nicola Peltz, who were in talks for the role previously. In August of that year, she landed the leading role in the Screen Gems drama feature film Oxford, with Sam Heughan as her leading man.

In October 2015, the superhero adventure series Supergirl, with Benoist in the lead role of Kara Zor-El, premiered on CBS. The second season of the series moved to The CW. She reprised her role in crossover episodes of The WB's Arrowverse collection of series.

She appeared as a presenter in the 42nd People's Choice Awards, which aired on January 6, 2016, on CBS, and at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards, broadcast January 10, 2016, she presented along with The Flash star Grant Gustin. In June of that year, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the 2016 Orlando gay nightclub shooting; in the video, Benoist and others told the stories of the people killed there.

In May 2016, Benoist was cast as Katherine Russell, the widow of deceased Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in Patriots Day.. In June of that year, it was announced that she was set to start alongside Michael Angarano in the comedy-drama film Sun Dogs.

In May 2017, Benoist was cast as Rachel Koresh, the legal wife of Branch Davidian leader David Koresh in Paramount Network's Waco.

Personal life

Benoist married her former Glee co-star Blake Jenner in 2015. She filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, in late December 2016.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Tennessee	Laurel
2014	Whiplash	Nicole
2015	Danny Collins	Jamie
2015	The Longest Ride	Marcia
2015	Band of Robbers	Becky Thatcher
2016	Patriots Day	Katherine Russell
2016	Lowriders	Lorelai
2017	Juvenile	Jennifer
2017	Sun Dogs	Tally Petersen

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Jessalyn Kerr	Episode: "Delicate"
2010	Blue Bloods	Renee	Episode: "Privilege"
2010	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Ava	Episode: "Wet"
2010	The Good Wife	Molly	Episode: "Nine Hours"
2011	Homeland	Stacy Moore	Episodes: "Grace", "Clean Skin"
2012-2014	Glee	Marley Rose	Recurring: season 4; main: season 5 (35 episodes)
2013	MasterChef	Herself	Episode 4.10
2015-present	Supergirl	Kara Danvers/Supergirl	Lead role
2016-present	The Flash	Kara Danvers/Supergirl	Episodes: "Invasion!", "Duet"
2016	Arrow	Kara Danvers/Supergirl	Episode: "Invasion!"
2016	Legends of Tomorrow	Kara Danvers/Supergirl	Episode: "Invasion!"
2018	Waco	Rachel Koresh	Miniseries

Web

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	Freedom Fighters: The Ray	Kara Danvers/Overgirl	Voice role (Earth-X version of Supergirl)

Stage

Theatre roles

Year	Title	Role	Venue
2000	The Sound of Music	Brigitta von Trapp	Country Dinner Playhouse
2003	The Sound of Music	Liesl von Trapp	Littleton Town Hall Arts Center
2006	Bye Bye Birdie	Kim McAfee	Littleton Town Hall Arts Center
2006	A Month in the Country	Vera Aleksandrovna	Littleton Town Hall Arts Center
2006	A Chorus Line	Bebe Benzenheimer	Littleton Town Hall Arts Center
2007	Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella	Cinderella	Littleton Town Hall Arts Center
2007	Footloose	Ariel Moore	Littleton Town Hall Arts Center
2007	Evita	Pern's Mistress	Country Dinner Playhouse
2009	Thoroughly Modern Millie	Millie Dilmount	Marymount Manhattan College
2009	As You Like It	Rosalind	Marymount Manhattan College
2011	The Unauthorized Biography of Samantha Brown	Kelly	Goodspeed Musical production

Soundtrack performances

Year	Songs	Album
2012	"Born to Hand Jive", "Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)", "You're the One That I Want"	Glee: The Music Presents Glease
2012	"New York State of Mind", "Holding Out for a Hero", "Some Nights"	Glee: The Music, Season 4, Volume 1
2012	"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "The First Nol"	Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 3
2012	"Chasing Pavements", "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)", "Don't Dream It's Over", "Locked Out of Heaven", "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend"/"Material Girl", "Anything Could Happen", "A Thousand Years", "You Have More Friends Than You Know", "You're All I Need To Get By"	Glee: The Music - The Complete Season Four
2012	"Crazy"/"(You Drive Me) Crazy", "Everytime", "Womanizer"	Britney 2.0
2013	"Mary's Boy Child", "Love Child", "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"	The Christmas Album Volume 4
2017	"Moon River", "Super Friend"	The Flash - Music from the Special Episode: Duet

Awards and nominations

Year	Nominated work	Association	Category	Result
2013	Glee	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Breakout Star
2016	Supergirl	Saturn Awards	Breakthrough Performance Award
		Saturn Awards	Best Actress on a Television Series
2017	Supergirl	Saturn Awards	Best Actress on a Television Series
		Teen Choice Awards	Choice Action TV Actress