Melissa Leo

Melissa Leo is an American actress who has appeared on television and in films such as 21 Grams, Righteous Kill and Frozen River. She won a Spirit Award for her performance in the Frozen River, which also received nominations at the 2008 Academy Awards. In 2009, Leo received a Best Actress Oscar nomination her role in Frozen River.http://www.oscar.com/nominees/ 2009

In 2010, Leo won her first a Golden Globe Award at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards that took place on January 16, 2011. She was honored as Best Supporting Actress in a motion picture for her performance in the film The Fighter. It was Leo's first Golden Globe nomination in her career.http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/

Leo got her start in acting with a role in 1984-1985 on the ABC soap opera All My Children. In 1984, Leo also made her film debut, appearing in the movie Streetwalkin'.http://www.filmreference.com/film/95/Melissa-Leo.html Later in her career, Leo appeared in award-winning films such as Frozen River and The Fighter. She also appeared in movies such as Mr. Woodcock and The Space Between.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0502425/

Frozen River won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Courtney Hunt, the film tells the story of two upstate New York women—one white (Melissa Leo), and one Native American (Misty Upham)—who conspire to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States. In the film, Melissa Leo portrays Ray Eddy, a mother of two whose husband has run away with the money for the down payment on the family's soon-to-be-delivered new trailer home. Desperate for cash, Eddy stumbles into a lucrative immigrant smuggling opportunity. Determined to get the new trailer and to be able to afford Christmas gifts for her children, T.J. (Charlie McDermott) and Ricky (James Reilly), Eddy decides to use one of her few remaining possessions—her beat-up car—to drive acros the frozen St. Lawrence River.http://www.sonyclassics.com/frozenriver/main.html The film received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Actress and the other for Best Original Screenplay.http://www.oscars.org/awards/81academyawards/nominees.html

• "I'm not a girl that grew up dreaming of having a white dress and being in a fancy wedding, and I'm not an actor that grew up thinking I would walk a red carpet at such prestigious events as have been mentioned in many a review. I will wake up each morning as I have these last few months and see what the day holds, take it in with joy, every second of it, and use it for all it's worth, and go for the ride just as far as it goes. Whatever happens come later this year, I'll be acting till the day I die."http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/oscars/la-en-leoqa12-2008nov12,0,504743.story?track=rss

• "There were not enough women like Kay on TV and now there are none."http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/melissa_leo.html