A lithe, attractive player who paid her dues with day work on soaps while studying her craft in New York City, Melissa Sagemiller made her feature film debut in James Toback's gritty, mostly improvised feature "Black and White" (1999), a Manhattan-set look at upper class white teens who appropriate black hip-hop culture. Sagemiller made her television debut the following year on an episode of the NYC-filmed series "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC) before returning to the big screen with her first featured role in "Get Over It" (2001). Playing Allison, the girl who dumps lovestruck
