Melinda Clarke began her acting career at age 18, when she moved to Los Angeles. She made her on-screen debut on the daytime soap Days of our Lives alongside her father, John Clarke. In 1994, she became a regular in the short-lived series Heaven Help Us. In between, she took guest roles in several television shows, and was also active in movies such as Return of the Living Dead III and Mulholland Falls.
In 2001, Clarke made her first of many appearances on the crime drama CSI, appearing as dominatrix Lady Heather - one who would share a special, if not tricky, relationship with William Petersen's Gil Grissom. In 2003, she received her biggest break when she joined the cast of The OC; her role, socialite Julie Cooper-Nichol, was only supposed to run for a few episodes, but fan reaction led producers to promote her to a regular.
When The OC finished its run, Clarke took recurring roles in Eli Stone and Entourage (where she played a fictionalized version of herself). In 2010, she took a recurring role in the CW series The Vampire Diaries; later that year she joined the cast of another CW series, Nikita.
- She is the daughter of John Clarke, who was part of the cast of the daytime soap Days of our Lives.
- Catalonian International Film Festival, Best Actress, 1996 (for La lengua asesina)
FILM:
- Hot Under the Collar (1991)
- Out for Blood (1992)
- Young Goodman Brown (1993)
- Return of the Living Dead III (1993)
- Return to Two Moon Junction (1995)
- Mulholland Falls (1996)
- La lengua asesina (1996)
- Critics and Other Freaks (1997)
- Spawn (1997)
- Dynamite (2002)
- .com for Murder (2002)
- Cold Sweat (2002)
- The Animatrix (voice, 2003)
TELEVISION:
- Days of Our Lives (regular, 1989-1990)
- Heaven Help Us (regular, 1994)
- Xena: Warrior Princess (recurring, 1997)
- Soldier of Fortune, Inc. (recurring, 1997-1999)
- CSI (recurring, 2001-2008)
- The District (recurring, 2002-2003)
- The OC (regular, 2003-2007)
- Entourage (recurring, 2005-2009)
- Eli Stone (recurring, 2008-2009)
- The Vampire Diaries (recurring, 2010)
- Nikita (regular, 2010-present)