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Melissa Natalie Tkautz (born 24 January 1974) is an Australian actress, singer-songwriter and model. As an actress Tkautz had the role of Nikki Spencer on the popular Australian TV soap opera, ''E Street'', from September 1990 to May 1993. During the early 1990s she had a solo music career, performing mononymously as Melissa, and had top 20 hits on the ARIA Singles Chart with "Read My Lips" (No. 1, June 1991), "Sexy (Is the Word)" (No. 3, September) and "Skin to Skin" (No. 16, April 1992). Her debut album, ''Fresh'', was released in June 1992 and peaked at No. 15 on the ARIA Albums Chart. After her stint on ''E Street'', Tkautz has appeared on ''Paradise Beach'' (1993–94), ''Pacific Drive'' (1996–98), ''All Saints'' (2001–02, 2004), ''Swift and Shift Couriers'' (2008, 2011) and ''Housos'' (2011). Her modelling career has included early child modelling, then as a teen in various pop entertainment magazines and from 1996 on fashion and men's magazines. On 4 December 2005, she issued her second solo album, ''Lost & Found'', which provide a single, her cover version of "The Glamorous Life", which appeared in the top 40. In August 2011 she issued a compilation album, ''The Hits and More''. In February 2009 Tkautz married a finance businessman, Kwesi Nicholas, her partner of five years; outside her performance career she uses her married name, Melissa Nicholas. ==Television career== Tkautz was born in Sydney in 1974. According to Tkautz "I had very strict parents ... I wasn't allowed to do anything". Her father, Stefan Tkautz, is from Austria and her mother's family are Maltese. As a young child she studied drama, dance and singing; she began modelling and appearing in commercials. By the age of 17, she had appeared in over 160 television and print commercials.〔 Some of these included ads for QANTAS and Cadbury.〔 She started modelling and then began acting in TV soap operas, ''Richmond Hill'' and ''Home & Away'' in the late 1980s.〔〔 In 1989 she entered the Miss Teen Australia contest. In September 1990, at the age of 16 years, Tkautz was cast in the role of Nikki Spencer on the popular Australian soap opera, ''E Street''.〔〔 She described her role, "Nikki is everything I don't want to be ... She smokes and she's really the sort of girl most parents would be horrified to have their daughters associating with".〔 Tkautz soon became one of the show's main stars due to the popularity of her character. During this time, she attended the Australian Academy of Dramatic Art in Sydney, graduating in 1991.〔〔 During that year she appeared on numerous Australian editions of magazine covers including ''Vogue'', ''Cosmopolitan'', ''TV Week'', ''Smash Hits'' and ''Dolly''.〔 In 1991 readers of ''TV Hits'' voted her as the Hottest Woman on Earth.〔 Tkautz also had a supporting role in the mini-series, ''The Girl from Tomorrow'' (1992).〔 Due to her popularity, the producers of ''E Street'' decided to have Tkautz record a song, which would be used in the show as part of a dream sequence, where her character imagines she is a pop star.〔 This resulted in a recording career for Tkautz, she later recalled "I loved singing and I had trained as a singer, but everything happened so quickly, it was just a crazy whirlwind. One minute I'm watching ''E Street'' in my lounge room, the next minute I’m starring in ''E Street'' and I've got a number one single in the charts".〔 However, in November 1991, due to the pressures of juggling two full-time careers, and a conflict with the producer, Forrest Redlich, Tkautz left ''E Street'' to concentrate on her music career.〔 At the ''TV Week''-sponsored Logie Awards she was nominated for Most Popular New Talent in 1992. By November 1992 Tkautz had returned to ''E Street''.〔 However, the network decided to axe the series in May 1993.〔 In 1993 and 1994, Tkautz appeared on ''Paradise Beach'',〔 playing Vanessa Campbell, the manipulative ex-girlfriend of Sean Hayden (played by Ingo Rademacher). Tkautz described her character "()he's a bit of a psycho, a real bitch ... She is nothing like Nicki in ''E Street''. This one's a real troublemaker".〔 In 1995, she had a role in ''Echo Point''. In 1996, Tkautz joined the series ''Pacific Drive'',〔 where she played a model, Bethany Daniels.〔 This role had a major effect on Tkautz, who played the first long-term HIV positive character on Australian TV. She described how "I did a lot of research on the role and a lot of charity work with HIV (), especially young kids who had contracted the disease".〔 The series later gained a cult following.〔 When ''Pacific Drive'' was cancelled in 1998, Tkautz joined the cast of ''Medivac'' (1998) as Nurse Evie Morrison. Tkautz later appeared in the series, ''All Saints'' (2001–02, 2004). From 1996, Tkautz modelled for fashion and men's magazines ''Black+White'', ''Australian Playboy'', ''Ralph'' and ''FHM''.〔〔 In 2001 she appeared on the Myer Intimacy Apparel runway, modelling underwear, and followed with a stint at the Australian Fashion Week, that year.〔〔 In late 2008, Tkautz starred in ''Swift and Shift Couriers'' (created by the same crew that created ''Fat Pizza''), which aired on SBS ONE.〔 Filming took place in early 2008, with some episodes being shot in Thailand and Egypt. The first season had eight episodes that aired on TV during October–November 2008. She returned for a second season in 2011.〔 Tkautz was also a guest star in controversial comedy series, ''Housos'' (from October 2011), residents of housing commission units wanted the show banned.〔 In May 2012, Tkautz was interviewed by Sonia Kruger and David Campbell on ''Mornings'' and described her career after ''E Street'' in the segment, "Where Are They Now?". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Melissa Tkautz」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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