Melissa Biggs spent the first nine years of her life in a log cabin with her family outside of a small town in Oregon. Her father was a general contractor and her mother was a legal secretary. After the family left that rural existence they moved frequently, and Melissa attended 14 grammar schools before finally settling down at Chico State University, where she studied English and drama. She had done some modeling work in Portland, Oregon, as a child, but it wasn't until high school that she decided that her dream was to become an actress, and she was encouraged in that pursuit by an English teacher who was impressed by her exceptional reading and speaking skills. She has since appeared in such TV shows as Alerte à Malibu (1989), made-for-TV films as The Disappearance of Nora (1993) and films including Rush Hour 2 (2001).