1. Melissa O'Neil was born on July 12,1988 and is a Canadian actress and singer.
23 Facts About Melissa O'Neil
1. 2.
In 2005, O'Neil won the third season of Canadian Idol.
3.
Melissa O'Neil was born in Calgary, Alberta to a Chinese Canadian mother from Hong Kong and an Irish-Canadian father.
4.
In early 2005, while in high school, Melissa O'Neil auditioned for the third season of Canadian Idol.
5.
Immediately after her win on Canadian Idol, Melissa O'Neil received a congratulatory phone call from the Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.
6.
Melissa O'Neil then signed a recording contract with Sony BMG Canada and released her first single, "Alive", which hit stores on October 4,2005, and debuted at number one on the Canadian singles chart, a position it held for four weeks.
7.
On November 22,2005, O'Neil's self-titled debut album, Melissa O'Neil, was released on Sony and debuted at number sixteen on the Canadian albums chart.
8.
On February 7,2006, Melissa O'Neil embarked on her first solo tour in North Bay, Ontario, named the Let It Go Tour after her second single.
9.
Melissa O'Neil's support act was her Canadian Idol runner-up, Rex Goudie.
10.
The third single release from Melissa O'Neil's album was "Speechless", which peaked at number thirty-one.
11.
On September 16,2006 Melissa O'Neil returned to the Canadian Idol stage during the grand finale of its fourth season.
12.
In 2007, Melissa O'Neil was nominated for a Juno Award as New Artist of the Year, alongside Neverending White Lights, Tomi Swick, Patrick Watson, and Eva Avila ; however, Swick took home the award.
13.
In 2009, Melissa O'Neil became the lead vocalist for the Toronto funk band God Made Me Funky.
14.
Melissa O'Neil released a best-selling disc and then promptly began doing musical theatre, with roles in Dirty Dancing, High School Musical and the acclaimed Stratford production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
15.
Melissa O'Neil was featured as a lead in the Stage West Calgary production of "British Invasion" alongside former lead singer of The Guess Who, Terry Hatty, and made an appearance in Camelot.
16.
Melissa O'Neil played Eponine in a sit-down production of Les Miserables in Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre, which ran from September 2013 through February 2014.
17.
Melissa O'Neil won the Dora Award for Outstanding Female Performance for that role.
18.
In March 2012, Melissa O'Neil made her Broadway debut in Jesus Christ Superstar, where she played Martha, Maid by the Fire and worked as understudy to the role of Mary Magdalene.
19.
In March 2014, Melissa O'Neil returned to Broadway in a revival of Les Miserables, where she was a member of the ensemble and worked as understudy for the roles of Eponine and Fantine.
20.
Melissa O'Neil has had recurring roles in the 2015 CBC TV drama called This Life that was set in Montreal, the Cole Hauser TV crime series Rogue, and the musical drama web series, Lost Generation, which was set in Berlin.
21.
In 2018, Melissa O'Neil played the role of Suki in The CW procedural crime drama iZombie created by Rob Thomas and had another recurring role in the thriller Condor, a TV remake of Three Days of the Condor.
22.
In October 2018, Melissa O'Neil was cast in the role of LAPD Officer Lucy Chen and Sava Wu in the ABC television police drama series The Rookie, where she plays a fellow rookie police officer opposite Nathan Fillion.
23.
At the time when she was competing in Canadian Idol, Melissa O'Neil was said to be able to speak Cantonese, but not fluently.