Mel Harris is an American actress, writer and director, best known for her portrayal of Hope Steadman on the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning series Die besten Jahre (1987), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination as best Actress in a Drama Series. She starred in the NBC comedy Diesmal für immer (1996) and the My Network drama series Saints and Sinners (2014). Her most recent role has been as Nadine Davies on Hulu's new series Shut Eye (2016)
Mary Ellen Harris was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and raised in New Jersey. Her mother was a high school science teacher and her father a football coach at Princeton University. She spent 12 years in the modeling world living in New York and Europe before stumbling into the acting business. She starred in numerous miniseries and telefilms including Vom Haß besessen (1989), Unter der Last der Beweise (1992) and Kampf um Georgia (1992), as well as appearances on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), and as Senator Rafferty on The West Wing: Im Zentrum der Macht (1999). Among her feature film credits are Brian De Palma's Mein Bruder Kain (1992) , Mein Partner mit der kalten Schnauze (1989) (opposite Jim Belushi), Suture (1993), Der Pagemaster - Richies fantastische Reise (1994), and Gesucht - Tot oder lebendig (1986).
She made her New York stage debut at the Circle Repertory Company in the world premiere of John Bishop's Empty Hearts, for which she received a 1992 Theater World Award. In addition to her acting, in the last few years, she has focused on writing with her partner and husband, Emmy Award winning writer/producer, Bob Brush, under their shingle Topanga Moon Productions.
