Melissa Joan Hart- Forever a Teenage Icon

Melissa Joan Hart has been on our screens and in our hearts since the 90’s. A true teenage icon who had a quirky sense of style and filled our days with laughs and a warm fuzzy feeling. She has starred in some of the most iconic roles that are still very relatable to the teenagers these days.

But did you know that she started her television career much earlier than most of us thought? Read on as we ‘explain it all’.

Melissa Joan Hart’s Journey to Fame

Most of us will remember Melissa Joan Hart starting her television career on Nickelodeon, but it actually started much earlier than that. In fact Melissa started her career in the 80’s appearing in commercials when she was only four years old, the first one being for a bathtub doll called splashy. Before she was five years old she had been in a whopping twenty five commercials.

Melissa Joan Hart also landed a few minor roles such as in a miniseries called Kane and Abel and had a guest appearance in The Equalizer. She starred in a TV film called Christmas Snow which was an Emmy- Award winning show.

It’s safe to say that Melissa Joan Hart has got an impressive filmography below her belt, much more than we originally thought and this was before she rose to fame as a teenage icon.

Did you know she even dabbled in Broadway as well?

Eventually in 1991 Melissa Joan Hart landed one of her most iconic roles that she will be remembered for in ‘Clarissa explains it all’. It was a great series and very popular as it focused on a teenage girl and the everyday situations they have to deal with. It was very popular during its four years running.

Awards, Albums and another appearance

The ‘Clarissa explains it all’ series was so popular that Melissa Joan Hart even got her nominated for four consecutive Young Artist Awards and she won three of them.

She recorded two Albums as Clarissa, ‘That’s what Na Na means’ and ‘Peter and the Wolf’.

Melissa also had another appearance in one of my most favorite shows of all time, ‘Are you afraid of the Dark’ in the episode called ‘The Tale of the Frozen Ghost’.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Whilst she is fondly remembered for her role in Clarissa Explains it all, she is very much remembered for her role in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, where she played Sabrina.

Sabrina came to our screens in 1996 and the show spanned for seven years and had seven seasons. It shows a young Sabrina finding out that she is a witch and then trying to make it through her everyday and perfectly average teenage life being a witch and learning to control her powers.

Melissa Joan Hart Portrayed this role perfectly and was very relatable to teenagers who didn’t think they were normal. She made mistakes, was rebellious and was just trying to be a good person all the while hiding her secret that she was a witch.

The series was super fun and will always hold a dear place in our hearts. One of the lessons we learned from this series is that nobody is perfect and that it is perfectly okay to be different.

Not only did Melissa star in Sabrina the Teenage witch but she also loaned her voice in the animated series, where she took on the role of the aunties and her younger sister played the main role of Sabrina.

Fun Facts about Melissa Joan Hart

Time for a few fun facts about Melissa Joan Hart

1. Melissa has a younger sister Emily Hart who she is very fond of and has worked together with
2. She has three children
3. She has directed a short film starring her younger sister ‘mute’ and even a few episodes of popular shows including an episode of Young Sheldon.
4. Melissa used to own a Candy Shop which was a childhood dream called ‘Sweetharts’
5. King of Harts is a fashion line owned by Melissa and her Husband
6. She competed in season 9 of ‘Dancing with the stars’ and made it to number 6 out of a possible 10 eliminations.
7. Not only did she compete in ‘Dancing with the Stars’ but she was also in the ‘Masked Singer’ as ‘Lamp’.
8. She started hosting her own podcast show with her friend ‘What Women Binge’
9. In 2021 she was the first celebrity to ever win the $1 million top prize for her charity in Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
10. Melissa still directs and acts to this day

What is your favorite thing about Melissa Joan Hart? Was there something you didn’t know before? Let us know in the comments below