About Melissa

A lover of adventure, Melissa Kurland is not a big fan of repeats.

Having created photo art, (often predominantly as the subject) for over 10 years, alongside top New York-German photographer Udo Spreitzenbarth, Melissa has absorbed and realized that she is also a true visual artist.

Melissa assisted in production, styling, and setting up shots for art shoots. She often worked long nights retouching images which would end up on billboards, magazine covers & editorials.

The struggle to accept the term "artist" comes from having grown up in a small town of Burlington, Connecticut. As an only child with parents who worked hard every day, Melissa raised herself to believe that she didn't have much of an imagination. Thinking that for some reason, the choice to love "real people" shows over popular cartoons, meant that she's not a creative type. 

What a very wrong belief that that turned out to be. 

An avid writer since she was 8 (she still remembers the first novel she tried to write then... Having fun with creating chapters..), Melissa ended up writing for 3 sections of her university's weekly newspaper.  

Since the age of 14 (then residing in Richmond, VA), she told her mother that she wanted to work so that she could help people. She knew it wouldn't be possible to work for pay, so she asked if she could join the American Red Cross. Her initial intention was to eventually be working in disaster services. However, due to her age, she was enlisted as a Youth Volunteer. Eventually she went to summer certification programs for the ARC in Louisville, Kentucky. She became certified in blood donation services, domestic abuse awareness, drug/alcohol education, and more. 

At the completion of high school, she was awarded a scholarship for the American Red Cross' - Richmond Chapter “Youth Volunteer of the Year”.

While attending the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Melissa majored in psychology. During the winter months, she would drive 2 hours each weekend to teach skiing in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Greensboro is also home to Melissa’s mother model agency, Directions USA.

Melissa began modeling as a way to travel to various countries. After graduation, she began working full time as a model in Singapore, Hong Kong, Hamburg & Paris. Eventually, she moved to NYC and joined Elite Model Management and then New York Models.

While in New York, Melissa pursued method acting, studying with top acting coach Sheila Gray. She booked commercial work and music videos, most notably, Maxwell’s “Pretty Wings“ (with over 43 Million views).

Wanting to pursue acting and filmmaking more full time, Melissa now resides in Los Angeles. She has written and produced short films shot in Paris & Turkey.

She began studying imagination based work with Warner Loughlin Studios and improv with The Groundlings.

She continues modeling with LA Models and LA Talent. Theatrically, she is managed by Jean-Louis Diamonika at Invictus Entertainment.

Currently, Melissa is filming in a feature alongside “the Basco brothers” by Filipino-American director, Francis Dela Torre.