Daughter to veteran actress Mariani and niece to the legendary star Saloma is an award winning actor who has appeared in films & television since she was just 6 years old. She started her career at the very young age in tv commercials and soon made her ways in films and television dramas including in RTM’s most famous soap opera series of the 80’s – “P.J.” which honoured her as “the most promising actor” at RTM SRI ANGKASA AWARD 1984.She earned two nominations for the “Best Actress” category at Festival Filem Malaysia 1994 for PENGHUJUNG MALAM and Anugerah Skrin TV3 2001 for her role in ORANG GAJI SEMENTARA.
She was offered to cut a singing album at the age of 16 after an “impromptu stint” on a radio interview session. She then furthered to record another 3 albums which include “GENERASI” in 1994, under her own production company Marimaliss Production that sees collaborative works from noted artistes and musicians from Malaysia (Paul Ponnudurai, Azmi Hairudin, Zahid Ahmad, Steve Thornton, etc) Singapore (Bani Farouk, Shah Tahir) and Indonesia (Budi Bhidun, Mus Mujiono).
Melissa Saila started acting in theatre by chance in 1998 for replacing another actor and soon found herself very much in love with theatre and has since been involved in many Malay and English theatre productions to date. Her stage credits include a recent performance – WITHIN/WITHOUT-TWO SIDES REVEALED (May’07) by KLPAC which saw Melissa in a solo performances of an adaptation of ALFIAN SAAT’s MADU II directed by Reza Zainal. Other theatre performances include THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by Adlin Aman Ramlie, VISITS by Ida Nerina, 7 TEN by Krishen Jit, BANGSAWAN TENGKU ANUM, ANUGERAH by Rosminah Tahir, NYONYA, MENCARI JUITA, A.P.I. by SITI ROHAYA ATAN and SAKSI by Adlin, Uwei, Rosdeen, Aida Redza, Khir Rahman and herself. She was one of the nominees in the category of BEST ENSEMBLE IN THEATRE CATEGORY for 7 TEN (Five Arts Centre, Krishen Jit) at 2003 Boh Cameronian Arts Awards 2003.
Her directorial efforts include a short film entitled PUTAOW vs BAKPAO which was selected and screened at the prestigious SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 1999.Her latest venture in directing can be seen in “KONGSI DALAM GELAP” a satire comedy short film which was one of the top ten finalist in the BMW SHORTIES 2007 and also voted the 1st audience favourite at MALAYSIAN SHORTS 2007 March edition respectively.
p/s:- credit to PRamleeTheMusical.Com
A Day in My Life 