Melanie Paxson
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Melanie Moore Paxson (née Moore; born September 26, 1972Melanie Paxson
Buddy TV
) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Jaclyn in '' Cupid'', Sara Brennan in '' Happy Family'' and as Julie in ''
Notes from the Underbelly ''Notes from the Underbelly'' is an American sitcom that was aired on ABC from 2007 to 2008, originally debuting as a mid-season replacement. The series is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Risa Green, and was produced by Eric and Kim T ...
''. Paxson also appeared in a number of Gladware television commercials in the early 2000s.


Life and career

Paxson was born in
Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metro ...
, and grew up in Mahomet, Illinois. She graduated from the
University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...
with a bachelor's degree in Theatre.About Melanie
/ref> She received training in acting at Second City Chicago and performed with the
Steppenwolf Theatre Company Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on ...
. Paxson later became involved with "The Crew on the U" on Chicago's WCIU-TV. The Crew was made up of a group of young actors (including WCIU personality George Blaise) that appeared in promos for the station shortly after WCIU became a full-time general English language station after Univision (its former affiliate) bought WGBO-TV. Paxson also appeared as Velma in promos for WCIU's Scooby-Doo episodes the station aired on weekday mornings. Paxson was still seen on WCIU and WWME-CD, WFBT (The Chicago low power station that was first home to MeTV in 2003) in disclaimers for E/I Children's programming as late as the mid 2000s. Paxson by that time had become relatively famous on a national level. She pursued a screen career. In 1997, she had an uncredited role in the series ''Early Edition''. Her first notable screen role was a recurring role as Jaclyn in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC series '' Cupid'' from 1998 to 1999. She went on guest star in the series ''The Drew Carey Show'', ''Quintuplets'', ''Joey (TV series), Joey'', ''Related'', ''Kitchen Confidential (TV series), Kitchen Confidential'', ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', ''Surviving Suburbia'', ''Rules of Engagement (TV series), Rules of Engagement'', ''Medium (TV series), Medium'' and ''The Exes''. From 2003 to 2004, Paxson had a regular role in the NBC sitcom '' Happy Family'' as Sara Brennan. From 2007 to 2008, she co-starred as Julie in the ABC sitcom ''
Notes from the Underbelly ''Notes from the Underbelly'' is an American sitcom that was aired on ABC from 2007 to 2008, originally debuting as a mid-season replacement. The series is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Risa Green, and was produced by Eric and Kim T ...
'', the series aired for two seasons. From 2009 to 2010, she had a recurring role as Doris Madigan (née Aidem) on the Nickelodeon sitcom ''True Jackson, VP''. She is also the spokeswoman in Red Robin's burger commercials. Paxson's film credits include ''Ready to Rumble'' (2000), ''Slackers (film), Slackers'' (2002), ''Saving Mr. Banks'' as Dolly (Dolores Vought), Disney's secretary (2013), and starring as Joyce DeWitt in the television film ''Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company'' (2003). She has appeared in television commercials for General Mills#Grain snacks, Fiber One, Target Corporation#Target, Target, Yoplait, Red Robin, Glad Trash Bags, Hotels.com and Serta mattresses. From 2015 to 2019 she starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie franchise ''Descendants (2015 film), Descendants'' with its sequels, ''Descendants 2'' and ''Descendants 3''. She played the Fairy Godmother from ''Cinderella (1950 film), Cinderella'' now serving as the Headmistress for the school, Auradon Prep. She also played a mother of a schoolchild in a second season episode of the ABC comedy ''Speechless (TV series), Speechless'', which played on October 4, 2017.


Personal life

Paxson is married to Andy Paxson, co-owner of Los Angeles restaurants Sushi Note and Melanie Wine Bar. They have a son Miller and daughter Winifred.


Filmography


Film


Television


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Paxson, Melanie 1972 births Actresses from Illinois American film actresses American stage actresses American television actresses Living people People from Champaign, Illinois University of Missouri alumni 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses