Biografia
Melinda Augustina is an actress, author and creative producer living in Los Angeles. Melinda was born in the mid-west. Surrounded by 8 co-stars (brothers and sisters) an opera singing mother, and a Hollywood-handsome father, everything looked like production to her, so she earned her BA in Theater.
Dozens of acting credits include numerous stage roles in mid-west regional theaters from Kansas City to Chicago to Dallas, Texas to critical acclaim. Awards followed, most significantly Best Actress for playing the intensely dramatic role of the armchair Nazi "Lemon" in Wallace Shawn's "Aunt Dan and Lemon".
Melinda played the role of the wise and sly Store Manager in the short play "Three-Fifty" on stage with theater company Apartment A in Venice, California before producing it into a short film. Critics called her performance "...especially hilarious..."and "screamingly funny".
Now an award-winning film "Three-Fifty" charmed international television audiences for 7 years. Three-Fifty played over 45 film festivals and was honored with special screenings at Cannes Film Festival's Short Film Corner as well as LACMA and Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. With humorous physics references in the script, Three-Fifty was also chosen by physicists to screen in the theater that sits atop the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. International TV distribution included cable in France, Switzerland, Africa, Spain, Poland, Asia, NBC/Universal in Italy as well as DVD distribution with Stephen Simon's Spiritual Cinema Circle. "Three-Fifty" is now distributed by Network Ireland-TV.
In Dallas, Melinda was lead writer on television show "Net Talk Interactive", one of the first shows to be broadcast on radio, TV and Internet simultaneously. She penned 13 scripts. The show went on to win WorldFest's Platinum Telly Award in Family/Children Television. She was also co-author and producer of numerous live sketch comedy shows produced as comedy shows + after-parties.
While living in Chicago, Melinda worked with the acclaimed Remains Theater Company, Footsteps Theater Company and Chicago Dramatist's Workshop. She studied Shakespeare with Barbara Gaines of the Chicago Shakespeare Rep and trained in Master Classes of First Folio techniques with Patrick Tucker of London's Original Shakespeare Theater.
In Kansas City, Melinda worked with Hallmark's Coterie Theater, the Unicorn Theater and others.
Melinda lives in Los Angeles and is married to former sports producer Barry Evan Sloan. Her father-in-law, the late Melvin Sloan was a documentary film-maker and one of the famous "Unholy Five" credited with building the USC School of Cinematic Arts. At USC for over 50 years, the elder Sloan guided such film luminaries as George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Woody Omens and many more.
