Melora Walters (born October 21, 1959) is an American actress and filmmaker, best known for her starring roles as Wanda Henrickson on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

's ''

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'' (2006–2010) and Kathy Kone on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

's '' PEN15'' (2019–2021). She has frequently collaborated with Paul Thomas Anderson, earning two

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

nominations for her work in '' Boogie Nights ''(1997) and '' Magnolia'' (1999), respectively. Her other film credits include '' Dead Poets Society'' (1989), '' Eraser'' (1996), '' Matchstick Men'', '' Cold Mountain'' (both 2003), ''

The Butterfly Effect ''The Butterfly Effect'' is a 2004 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber. It stars Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Eric Stoltz, William Lee Scott, Elden Henson, Logan Lerman, Ethan Su ...

'' (2004), '' Short Term 12 ''(2013), '' Cam'', ''

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'' (both 2018), and '' Offseason'' (2021). Walters' directorial credits include '' Waterlily Jaguar'' (2018) and '' Drowning'' (2019), both of which she wrote and co-produced.

Career

Film

Walters made her screen debut with a small part in the 1988 film ''Underground'', which she followed with the more substantial role of Gloria, a school student, in Peter Weir's critically acclaimed '' Dead Poets Society'' (1989). Following roles in various features throughout the early-mid 1990s, such as ''

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

'' (1992),

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...

's '' Ed Wood'' (1994), and the commercially successful '' Eraser'' (1996), Walters began a professional partnership with Paul Thomas Anderson when she appeared in his directorial debut, the 1996 crime drama '' Hard Eight''. She earned praise for her work in his subsequent films '' Boogie Nights'' (1997) and '' Magnolia'' (1999), with '' Variety'' critic Emanuel Levy describing her portrayal of drug addict Claudia in the latter as "superlative". For her performance in ''

Doubting Thomas A doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience—a reference to the Gospel of John's depiction of the Apostle Thomas, who, in John's account, refused to believe the resurrected Jesus had appeared to ...

'' (2018), Walters was named Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Door Film Festival.

Television

On television, Walters has appeared in guest roles on series such as '' Roseanne'', ''

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'', ''

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'', '' CSI'', '' Desperate Housewives'', '' Californication'', '' The Mentalist'', '' NCIS'', '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', and '' American Gigolo''. She also starred as Felicity on '' L.A. Doctors'' (1998–1999), Wanda Henrickson on ''

'' (2006–2010), and Kathy Kone on '' PEN15'' (2019–2021). She also played a waitress in one episode of The Wonder Years Season 4,Episode 16-Road Trip (1991).

Personal life

Walters has two children from her marriage to Dylan Walsh; they divorced in 2003. She was previously married to actor Christopher Scotellaro between 1990 and 1994. Walters married cinematographer Alex Vendler on June 21, 2008. She filed for divorce from Vendler in 2010, citing irreconcilable differences.

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Walters, Melora 1959 births Actresses from Illinois American film actresses American stage actresses American television actresses Living people Lake Forest Academy alumni People from Lake Forest, Illinois 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses People from Dhahran American expatriates in the Netherlands American expatriates in Saudi Arabia Film directors from Illinois Screenwriters from Illinois 21st-century American women writers Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival award winners