Biography
Missy was born Melissa Leigh Hayduk in Pittsburgh, PA on June 25th. From an early age she had a flair for expressing herself through fashion, music and art. She was awarded "best dressed" in the 1st grade wearing pink leggings, shoulder pads and a mini skirt. After seeing the movie Grease on TV at age 6, she became obsessed with the 1950's and re-enacted every song while forcing her Grandfather to watch. This also led to her asking for hot rollers for Christmas so she could have curls in her hair like Olivia Newton John. The "re-enacting" of her favorite movies and TV shows did not stop there. Throughout her childhood, The Bodyguard, The Wizard of Oz, Dirty Dancing, I Love Lucy, and Baywatch were all huge influences. In middle school she began to put together theatrical plays- Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty- in which she acted in, created wardrobe, cast, and directed using the kids in her neighborhood as the talent. The plays were performed in the neighborhood pool clubhouse where she got her fist taste of the spotlight. She was hooked. From here she had her mom enroll her in community-theater acting classes.
Fascinated by the TV show, Baywatch, she became intrigued by California life. Upon hearing about a competition through the portrait studio, "Glamour Shots" where the winner got a walk-on part on Baywatch, she begged her mother to let her take photos at Glamour Shots so that she could then submit her shots for the competition. At 12 years old, she took 2nd place in the competition. Though she didn't get her dream of a walk-on role of her favorite show, she was picked up by a modeling agency. Through middle and high school she modeled locally in Atlanta where her family had re-located. In high school, she took drama class as an elective. He first assignment was to choose a celebrity, study their life, and create a monologue to present to the class as the person you chose. Missy took on the life of Lucille Ball and highly impressed her Drama teacher with her re-enactment of the "Vitameatavegamin commercial" from the famous I Love Lucy episode. This motivated her to begin auditioning for school plays and being involved in the Drama Club. At a regional high school competition she took "Best Actress" for her portrayal as a Marilyn Monroe wannabe in the one act play, Kennedy's Children. This made her realize she had some talent and she began to think she could possibly pursue acting as a career.
She left for NYC at 18 years old where she enrolled in Marymount Manhattan College on the Upper East Side to study theatre. For the next 5 years she lived all over Manhattan, but found the West Village closest to her heart. After 5 years, she walked away with a BA in Theatre Arts as well as studying intensively at a Meisner acting Studio.
Missy left NYC and moved back home to Atlanta for several years before visions of Los Angeles and dreams unfulfilled led her to quit her retail job and hop on a plane with 2 suitcases and her black cat. Jobless, she slept in her friend's living room in West Hollywood till she got settled. She quickly found an acting class to enroll in at Jocelyn Jones Acting Studio, and decided that a career as an actress was the only thing that she has wanted since she was a little girl. She currently resides in Hollywood.
