[link=/name/nm6675440]Lily-Rose Depp[/link], [link=/name/nm2864252]Mason Gooding[/link], and more stars who are on the rise in 2025.

Top Stars to Watch in 2025

<a class="ipc-md-link" href="/name/nm6675440?ref_=nmpub_eds_right-3_lk">Lily-Rose Depp</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link" href="/name/nm2864252?ref_=nmpub_eds_right-3_lk">Mason Gooding</a>, and more stars who are on the rise in 2025.

See these famous faces in some of their first breakout roles in Hollywood.

Before They Were Famous: Actors' Early Roles

International award-winning actress, singer and writer, Melissa Mars received major notice after appearing alongside John Travolta in From Paris with Love (2010) produced by Luc Besson - La Femme Nikita (1990), Lucy (2014)-, winning a best supporting actress award for her performance in The Cabining (2014), multiple best actress awards for her "heartfelt, spectacular and vulnerable" performance in the drama Polly (2019) and having her song "Beautiful" be included in Coca-Cola's "52 Songs of Happiness" worldwide music compilation.

A singer by accident...

Mars started acting at the age of 13, but she is well-known in France for her pop music career. She became a singer by accident: after being called to personally meet the renowned French Filmmaker André Téchiné to discuss his next project (he had launched Juliette Binoche's career among others), the absence of chemistry with the director killed all Mars' dreams, but led to her encounter with a renowned French songwriter and producer. After a few months of doubts and fears to accept life's calling, she recorded demo songs, signed with Polydor-Universal Music, whom she released 3 solo albums with, toured and was praised in the press and described as "singular, fairy and rock n'fun" (W magazine, Elle, Madame Figaro, Le Monde...). She has been featured on many duets, including "1980", a hit that reached #5 in the charts. She is also well known for her leading role in the smash hit musical Mozart L'Opéra Rock (2010) that sold more than 1,500,000 tickets, directed by Olivier Dahan - La Vie En Rose (2007)-, and for which she received with the lead cast a best ensemble NRJ award and a diamond record.

Multi-talented & Self-taught

Mars is a multi-talented, self-taught artist, when she's not on set or in the studio, Melissa dedicates her time to her other passions: photography, graphic design, filmmaking and screenwriting. She started writing and filming at the age of 13 anything and everything that caught her eye and imagination until 2007, when she officially directed her first short film. She was the creative director for her own music videos: Melissa Mars: Love Machine (2007), Army of Love (2008)... produced by Universal Music. Mars has also held an exhibition in Paris which was a series of photographs called Children of China to promote children's rights, the exhibition was praised in both Elle magazine and Metro Daily.

Currently settled in New-York, Mars travels between Los Angeles and Paris, balancing her worlds of music and film. She can recently be seen on Amazon Prime, in the original comedy Puzzled (2019) which features "Hors La Loi" an original song of hers in the opening credits. As well as the horror thriller Texas Zombie Wars: Titan Base (2019), the multi-awarded science fiction feature 2047: Virtual Revolution (2016). Mars had her American TV debut on Lifetime in Deadly Delusion (2017), a thriller alongside Haylie Duff - Napoleon Dynamite (2004)- and Teri Polo -Meet the Parents (2000)... She is rewriting her first feature film, a romantic comedy, in addition to a separate high concept dystopian story she's been developing since the end of 2018 that unexpectedly and strangely reminds of our current world in 2020...

Publicity listings

Melissa Mars

Interview

Article

Pictorial

Magazine Cover

Contribute to this page

More from this person

More to explore

Recently viewed