Melissa Crystal O’Neil was born on the 12th of July 1988 in the city of Calgary, Alberta. There is nothing to indicate that the actress has siblings. She attended Terry Fox Junior High School as well as Lester B. Pearson High School.
Melissa O’Neil hails from a diverse ethnic background. Her father’s name is Tim O’Neil and he is Irish-Canadian. Her mother’s name is Alison Yeung and she is Chinese. O’Neil’s ancestry can, therefore, be traced to Irish, Chinese and Canadian backgrounds. Her ethnicity is however listed to be of mixed ethnicity while her nationality is Canadian.
O’Neil started singing from a very tender age. At first, it was somewhat of a hobby. But when her parents noticed that she was quite talented, they encouraged her to perform in public. From giving public performances, O’Neil subsequently auditioned for the Canadian Idol in 2005. Despite experiencing various hiccups and setbacks during the show, she held her nerves and scaled through all the rounds to emerge victorious on the 14th day of September 2005.
O’Neil did not allow the euphoria of her victory to distract her. Rather, she got to work and released her first album on the 22nd of November 2015. The album featured a total of 12 songs including hits such as Let it Go and Alive.
Melissa commenced her acting career in the theatre in 2007, before moving on to TV. She has appeared in several productions such as ‘Dirty Dancing’, ‘High School Musical’, ‘Camelot’ etc. She has also appeared in movies and series such as ‘iZombie’, ‘A Simple Favour’, ‘This Life’, ‘Rogue’, ‘Second Jen’, ‘Dark Matter’ and ‘The Rookie’. The Rookie is a crime drama series about a middle-aged man who joins the police, thus becoming a rookie at an old age. In the series, Melissa O’Neil plays the role of Lucy Chan, a fellow rookie cop who has to deal with an overbearing superior.
Since delving into acting, O’Neil has somehow relegated her singing to the background. She, however, has no regrets as singing and acting are both different forms of creative arts.
Boyfriend and Dating
The actress/singer has been romantically linked with some individuals in the past. She reportedly dated Matthew Rossoff, a yoga instructor, between 2011 and 2013. She regularly shared cozy pictures of them together on her Instagram and described him as ‘my love’. However, it is not clear whether they are still together. O’Neil was also romantically linked to a guy named Daniel Birnbaum after she posted pictures of them together. It, however, turned out that he is her agent.
