Melora Hardin Net Worth

Early Life

Melora Hardin was born Melora Diane Hardin on June 29, 1967, in Houston, Texas. Her mother, Diane, is an acting manager/coach and a former actress, and her father, Johnny, is an actor. Melora’s brother, Shawn, is the former CEO of the web browser company Flock. The family moved to California when Hardin was 5 years old, and they lived in Santa Monica before moving to the San Fernando Valley. Melora attended Patrick Henry Junior High School and Ulysses S. Grant High School, then earned a degree from Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

Career

Hardin made her television debut in a two-part episode of “Police Story” in 1976, then she starred as Cindy Prescott on “Thunder” from 1977 to 1978. Her first feature film was 1978’s “The North Avenue Irregulars,” and that year she also guest-starred on “The Love Boat.” In the early 1980s, Melora appeared in the TV movies “Haywire” (1980) and “Little House: Look Back to Yesterday” (1983), was a series regular on the CBS series “Secrets of Midland Heights” (1980–1981), and guest-starred on “Diff’rent Strokes” (1980), “Little House on the Prairie” (1981), “Quincy, M.E.” (1982), and “Magnum, P.I.” (1983). She appeared in the films “Iron Eagle” (1986), “Soul Man” (1986), and “Big Man on Campus” (1989), and she played a South Seas singer in the 1991 Disney movie “The Rocketeer.” Hardin played Frances “Baby” Kellerman in the “Dirty Dancing” TV series (1988–1989), then she guest-starred on “Quantum Leap” (1992), “Murder, She Wrote” (1994), “Matlock” (1994), “Friends” (1995), and “Diagnosis: Murder” (1995; 1999). She co-starred with Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman in 1997’s “Absolute Power” and played the mother of Rachel McAdams in 2002’s “The Hot Chick.”

Personal Life

Melora married actor Gildart Jackson on June 4, 1997. They have two daughters, Rory Melora (born in 2001) and Piper Quincy (born in 2005), and Hardin chose to give birth at home. She told “American Baby” magazine, “I wanted to have a completely natural birth. Everybody feels really safe and comfortable somewhere, and for me it wasn’t at the hospital.”

Awards and Nominations

During Hardin’s time on “The Office,” the cast received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, winning in 2007 and 2008, and they won a Gold Derby Award for Ensemble of the Year in 2007. Melora has earned three Young Artist Award nominations, taking home the prize for Best Young Supporting Actress in a Daytime or Nightime Drama for “Two Marriages” in 1985; she was also nominated for Best Young Actress in a Drama Series for “The Family Tree” (1984) and Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress Starring in a Feature Film – Comedy or Drama for “Papa Was a Preacher” (1987). She received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for “Transparent” in 2016, and the series also earned her an Online Film & Television Association Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2015. In 2020, Hardin received a Women’s Image Network Award nomination for Outstanding Film/Show Directed by a Woman for “The Bold Type.”

Real Estate

In 2005, Hardin and Jackson paid $719,000 for an 1,800 square foot home in the Glendale area of Los Angeles. They sold the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home for $855,000 in 2016.