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ABOUT BELLAMY YOUNG
Actress and singer Bellamy Young is notable for her starring and award-winning role as Mellie Grant on ABC/Shonda Rhimes’ Peabody Award-winning series, “Scandal.”
Young’s critically praised performance as the politically ambitious First Lady has earned her a Best Supporting Actress statue from the Critics’ Choice Television Awards, Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Best Characters on TV, #15 on Entertainment Weekly’s 50 Best TV Scenes of the Year, NY Post’s Top 10 TV Actors and she earned TV Guide Magazine’s Fan Favorite Award. Rolling Stone Magazine described Young’s portrayal as “the most badass first lady in TV history” and E!’s resident TV critic Kristin Dos Santos described Young as her “favorite character on TV ever.”
Young’s extensive television resume has included recurring roles on CBS’ long-running series “Criminal Minds,” alongside Thomas Gibson and Joe Mantegna; ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money,” alongside Donald Sutherland and Jill Clayburgh; portraying ASA Monica West on “CSI: Miami”; and she appeared alongside Zach Braff on the hit-comedy, “Scrubs.” Young made her television debut as Dr. Courtney Evans on the long-running NBC soap opera “Another World.”
On the big screen, Young recently appeared in Disney and Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time.” She also starred alongside Lou Diamond Phillps in the crime thriller “Night Stalker,” and appeared in Zoe Cassavetes’ film “Day Out of Days.” Young has appeared alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest stars in films, such as Randall Wallace’s “We Were Soldiers,” with Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe and Greg Kinnear; JJ Abrams’ “Mission Impossible: III,” alongside Tom Cruise, Laurence Fishburne and Philip Seymour Hoffman. She has also appeared in a number of independent films, including the Sundance favorite “The Freebie,” starring Dax Shepard, and she produced and starred in “A Country Remedy,” which was filmed in her home state of North Carolina.
Young began her acting career on stage starring on Broadway in Cy Coleman’s “The Life” and in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along.” Young’s additional credits have included the first run of Randy Newman’s “Faust” and the first run of Pulitzer-prize winning playwright, Landford Wilson’s “Book of Days.”
A trained singer, Young released her debut album, Far Away So Close, a collection of contemporary covers influenced by her North Carolina roots. In 2015, Young performed Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song” at the White House Christmas Tree Lighting in Washington DC for President Obama and his family.
Through her philanthropic work, Young serves as the national spokesperson for the Humane Society of The United States’ campaign, The Shelter Pet Project, a project promoting animal adoption from shelters and rescue groups. Young has also used her notoriety to bring awareness to Operation Blankets, a donation based foundation that repurposes pillows and blankets for animal shelters across the country. Young also serves as the Ambassador for The Trust for The National Mall, alongside Chelsea Clinton.
Born in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, Young graduated from Yale University with dual degrees in English and Theater Studies; she also holds a certificate from Oxford University in England.
