Melissa O’Neil is a Canadian actress and singer born on July 12, 1988. O’Neil was the first Canadian to win the third season of Canadian Idol in 2005. She is best known for her appearances as Officer Lucy Chen on the ABC police procedural drama series The Rookie and as Two/Rebecca/Portia Lin on the Syfy science fiction series Dark Matter.

Melissa O’Neil Early Years

O’Neil was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her father is Irish while her mother is Hong Kong Chinese. O’Neil attended Terry Fox Secondary School.

Melissa O’Neil’s Canadian Idol Career

O’Neil tried out for the third season of Canadian Idol in early 2005 while still in high school. She placed in the top 100 because the judges were amazed by her singing performance.

On the first day, she once again wowed the judges by singing Martina McBride’s “Concrete Angel” a cappella, but on the final day of the competition, she froze and forgot the lyrics. However, she managed to make it to the top 32 as the judges were still so moved by her song.

O’Neil earned a spot in the top 10 after garnering the most votes in her semi-final group, this time with “Concrete Angel”.

O’Neil received exceptional praise from the judges, but suffered significant defeats in the top 10 and top 9 of the finale, being voted into the bottom three and bottom two respectively. The judges were shocked by this and recommended the audience vote for contestants like Melissa who had the greatest singing skills.

After consistently excelling from that point on, O’Neil never finished in the bottom three again. Judge Zack Werner even said she was “a threat to win it all.”

On September 14, 2005, during the broadcast of the grand finale results, O’Neil defeated Goudie to become the third Canadian Idol, the first female winner and the youngest champion in the show’s history (at age 17). .

O’Neil immediately received a call from Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, who congratulated her on winning Canadian Idol. She then signed a recording contract with Sony BMG Canada and released her debut single “Alive” on October 4, 2005, which debuted at the top of the Canadian charts and remained at that position for four weeks. The CRIA later awarded the song a quadruple platinum certification.

Melissa O’Neil’s self-titled debut album was released on November 22, 2005 by Sony and peaked at number 16 on the Canadian Albums Chart. “Let It Go”, the second single from their album, was released in late 2005 and reached the highest position on the singles chart at number seven.

O’Neil began his first solo tour on February 7, 2006 in North Bay, Ontario; after their second single it was called “Let It Go Tour”. Canadian Idol finalist Rex Goudie served as the opening act. “Speechless”, the third single from O’Neil’s album, reached number 31 on the charts, well below his first two singles but still commendable.

Her first hit, “Alive”, was covered by Becki Ryan in the film Flicka, and her debut album received a Gold certification from CRIA in March 2006 for 50,000 units shipped. On September 16, 2006, O’Neil returned to the stage of Canadian Idol for the season’s grand finale. The gold-certified presentation CD of their first album surprised them there.

Along with Neverending White Lights, Tomi Swick, Patrick Watson and Eva Avila (the latter replacing her on Canadian Idol), O’Neil was nominated for a Juno Award for New Artist of the Year in 2007; However, Swick won the prize. O’Neil debuted in 2009 as the lead singer of Toronto funk band God Made Me Funky.

After winning the third season of Canadian Idol, according to Glenn Sumi of NOW Toronto, “O’Neil released a hit CD and quickly began doing musical theater, with roles in Dirty Dancing, High School Musical and the acclaimed Stratford Production. ยป by Jesus Christ Superstar.

Melissa O’Neil’s acting career

O’Neil has been a performer since 2015. She appeared in repeat episodes of the Montreal-based CBC television series This Life in 2015, the Cole Hauser crime drama Rogue, and the Berlin-based online musical drama series Lost Generation. The narration and music for the program, originally titled Pulse, was written by Duncan Sheik.

On the Syfy Space Opera television show Dark Matter, O’Neil played the lead role of Two/Rebecca/Portia Lin in December 2014. She appeared in this role throughout the series’ three seasons from 2015 to 2017.

O’Neil had a recurring role in the thriller Condor, a television adaptation of Three Days of the Condor, and played the character Suki in Rob Thomas’ crime procedural drama iZombie on The CW in 2018.

In October 2018, O’Neil starred as police officer Lucy Chen in the ABC crime drama series “The Rookie”, in which she played a new police officer alongside Nathan Fillion, a larger ensemble role.

Melissa O’Neil Personal Life

Her Chinese name, meaning “lady-like”, was given to her by O’Neil’s maternal grandfather. Reportedly, at the time she was competing on Canadian Idol, O’Neil spoke Cantonese, although not fluently.