Melissa Rivera

Completed a Masters in Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in May 2019.

Melissa was born into a creative family that includesmusicians, writers, photographers, and entrepreneurs. She was interested inperformance from an early age. At age 4, she would use her school lunchtime toprepare for music class with the Cepeda Brothers - a famous Puerto Rican folkmusic group -and remembers rushing her mother to school at age 5 for aperformance done standing on a chair. She continued to seek out performing rolesthroughout her school years. She studied music and drama at the University of Puerto Rico - majoring in music -while she continued to act and perform in plays, musical theater, andtelevision. Her primary training was in voice, but she also developed a knowledge ofpiano, saxophone and guitar. Her talent for singing, along with years of training,took her to the Mexican TV hit singing competition "La Academia" in 2009. Melissahas also trained in ballet, jazz dance, and salsa. After graduating Melissa moved to Los Angeles in order to pursue a career in acting. She developed her talents by training with highly respected acting and vocalcoaches, including Larry Moss and Arthur Mendoza for acting, and Seth Riggs andBrett Manning for voice, and continues to take classes at The Groundlings. Melissa stage credits include leads as Maria in West Side Story, as Dolly in HelloDolly, and as Adela in the Spanish stage classic La Casa de Bernarda Alba (The Houseof Bernarda Alba).

Is fluent in Spanish, English and Italian. As of September 2007 was learning Portuguese.