Biography
Melissa Leo (born September 14, 1960) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in 1985, for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Ingenue/Woman in the Drama Series “All My Children”. Her most notable role as was as Det. Sgt. Kay Howard on “Homicide: Life on the Street” for the show's first five seasons from 1993–1997. Following several films, Leo received critical acclaim and national attention in earning several nominations and awards, including an Oscar nom...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Guns Up
2025
as Michael
When a job goes horribly wrong, an ex-cop and family man who moonlights as a mob henchman has one night to get his family out of the city.

King Ivory
2025
as Ginger Greene
Based on extensive research involving law enforcement and gang members, a never-before-seen, authentic look inside the underworld of fentanyl traffick...

AFTER: Poetry Destroys Silence
2024
Can poetry bring the dead back to life? Follow contemporary poets as they perform and examine the role of art in responding to the Holocaust and genoc...

Long Gone Heroes
2024
as Olivia
Gunner, a special forces soldier who has witnessed the darkest side of country and combat, is forced back into the field of battle to save his niece, ...

The Clean Up Crew
2024
as Siobhan
When a crime scene clean up crew discovers a briefcase full of money, they must out smart a criminal kingpin and corrupt FBI agents who want it back.

The Knife
2024
as Detective Carlsen
All Chris wants is to build a promising future for his wife, Alex, and their two daughters—a young family chasing the American Dream. But one fateful ...

The Equalizer 3
2023
as Susan Plummer
Robert McCall finds himself at home in Southern Italy but he discovers his friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly,...

Bonnie
2022
as Self
A portrait of casting director Bonnie Timmermann.

Jane
2022
as Principal Rhodes
When Olivia gets deferred from her dream college, she begins to spiral. In an attempt to regain control, she embarks on a social media-fueled rampage ...

Alone Together
2022
as Deborah
Strangers June and Charlie wind up double-booked in the same upstate New York Airbnb during the start of COVID-19. Exasperating the situation, the loc...

Coast
2022
as Olivia
Desperate to escape the trappings of her small coastal farming town, 16-year-old Abby falls for the lead singer of a touring rock band and must decide...

Measure of Revenge
2022
as Lillian
Theater actress Lillian Cooper's son dies mysteriously. When the investigating officer rules the cause of death an accidental overdose, Lillian conduc...

Ida Red
2021
as Ida ‘Red’ Walker
Ida Red may not survive her 20-year prison sentence for armed robbery. She turns to her son, Wyatt, for one last job and a chance to regain her freedo...

Thunder Force
2021
as Allie
In a world where supervillains are commonplace, two estranged childhood best friends reunite after one devises a treatment that gives them powers to p...

Body Brokers
2021
as Dr. White
Utah and his girlfriend Opal, are drug addicts living on the streets in rural Ohio. After getting recruited by body broker Wood and offered treatment ...

Unlovable
2018
as Maddie
A sex and love addicted woman learns what real intimacy is when she starts making music with a reclusive man.

The Equalizer 2
2018
as Susan Plummer
Robert McCall, who serves an unflinching justice for the exploited and oppressed, embarks on a relentless, globe-trotting quest for vengeance when his...

The Parting Glass
2018
as Al
A family dealing with their sister's death travel across country to collect her belongings and piece together their memories of the woman they lost.

Mabel, Mabel Tiger Trainer
2018
as Narrator
A story of the world's first female tiger trainer who claimed her love for her tigers was so great she wanted to die in the ring. Raised in poverty i...

Furlough
2018
as Joan Anderson
In between caring for her mother, a young woman works part time at a prison. The rookie guard gets a chance to prove her mettle when she's tasked with...

Furlough
2018
Producer
In between caring for her mother, a young woman works part time at a prison. The rookie guard gets a chance to prove her mettle when she's tasked with...

The Ashram
2018
as Chandra
After receiving a cryptic message, American skeptic Jamie travels to the Indian Himalayas to pick up on the trail of his disappeared girlfriend. There...

The View from Up Here
2017
Claire and Lila are neighbours. They both live in the same building, they see each other every day but they hardly know each other's names. Until toda...

Novitiate
2017
as Reverend Mother
In the early 1960s, during the Vatican II era, a young woman training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, sexuality and the changing churc...

The Most Hated Woman in America
2017
as Madalyn Murray O'Hair
The true story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair -- iconoclast, opportunist, and outspoken atheist -- from her controversial rise to her untimely demise.

Snowden
2016
as Laura Poitras
CIA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.

All the Way
2016
as Lady Bird Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson's amazing 11-month journey from taking office after JFK's assassination, through the fight to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and his...

Burn Country
2016
as Gloria
A former war journalist now writing for a paper in Northern California is drawn into conflict at home.

London Has Fallen
2016
as Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan
In London for the Prime Minister's funeral, Mike Banning discovers a plot to assassinate all the attending world leaders.

The Big Short
2015
as Georgia Hale
The men who made millions from a global economic meltdown.
Damnation: The Flashback
2015
as Noda Marra
In the swinging Appalachian town of Damnation, when the local mortician dies in the arms of 'the other woman', his widow enacts a simple but satisfyin...

After the Spill
2015
as Narrator
Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Louisiana. Five years later the Deepwater Horizon exploded and spilled more than 200 million g...

The Butterfly, The Harp, and The Timepiece
2015
as Papillon
In this magic shop, no matter who you are, you get what you need.

She's The Best Thing in It
2015
as Self
Mary Louise Wilson is the most accomplished character actor you've never heard of. While teaching skeptical young students, she examines whether her l...

The Ever After
2015
as Penny
Ava and Thomas live--to outside eyes--the good life, complete with a child and a lovely home in Los Angeles, but something is lost. Ava has placed her...

The Equalizer
2014
as Susan Plummer
McCall believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets Teri, a young girl u...

The Angriest Man in Brooklyn
2014
as Bette Altmann
After learning that a brain aneurysm will kill him in about 90 minutes, a perpetually unhappy man struggles to come to terms with his fate and make am...

Dwegons and Leprechauns
2014
as Grandma Fitz / Butterfly McDweg / Mrs. Fitzgerald
Family inherits an old house and to their surprise, finds the home filled with wonderful colorful creatures that brings the family together.

Prisoners
2013
as Holly Jones
Keller Dover is facing every parent’s worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minute...

Letters to Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy
2013
as Narrator (voice)
Revisits President John F. Kennedy's presidential legacy through 21 of the more than 800,000 condolence letters written to Jackie Kennedy after JFK's ...

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film
2013
as Robin
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

Bottled Up
2013
as Fay
A solitary woman (Melissa Leo) earning her living by delivering mail and body piercing, makes every attempt to help her volatile adult daughter (Marin...

Bottled Up
2013
Producer
A solitary woman (Melissa Leo) earning her living by delivering mail and body piercing, makes every attempt to help her volatile adult daughter (Marin...

Oblivion
2013
as Sally
Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war wit...

Olympus Has Fallen
2013
as Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan
When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former President...

Charlie Countryman
2013
as Kate
While traveling abroad, a guy falls for a Romanian beauty whose unreachable heart has its origins in her violent, charismatic ex.

Flight
2012
as Ellen Block
Commercial airline pilot Whip Whitaker has a problem with drugs and alcohol, though so far he's managed to complete his flights safely. His luck runs ...

Francine
2012
as Francine
Francine is released from prison and settles down in a small town. She is unable to regain a foothold in society and turns to animals for comfort.

Why Stop Now?
2012
as Penny
When a college piano prodigy tries to check his mother into rehab, he is taken hostage by her drug dealer and swept along on a wild adventure.

The Space Between
2011
as Montine
Montine McLeod, a world-weary flight attendant, and Omar Hassan, a prematurely wise 10-year-old Pakastani-American boy connect with one another amidst...

Seven Days in Utopia
2011
as Lily
Talent can only get you so far. For golfer Luke Chisholm, that turns out to be Utopia, Texas -- where he's left stranded after blowing his pro debut.

Red State
2011
as Sara
Set in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter Christian fundamentalists with a much more si...

The Sea Is All I Know
2011
as Sara
When an estranged couple come to the aid of their dying daughter, the experience sends them spiraling into spiritual crisis and brutal heartbreak.

The Fighter
2010
as Alice Ward
Boxer "Irish" Micky Ward's unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turn...

Queen of the Lot
2010
as Aunt Bee
An electronic ankle bracelet and being under house arrest aren't about to stop up-and-coming actress Maggie Chase (Tanna Frederick) from the two thing...

Welcome to the Rileys
2010
as Lois Riley
Years after their teenage daughter’s death, Lois and Doug Riley, an upstanding Indiana couple, are frozen by estranging grief. Doug escapes to New Orl...

Conviction
2010
as Nancy Taylor
When Betty Anne Waters' older brother Kenny is arrested for murder and sentenced to life in 1983, Betty Anne, a Massachusetts wife and mother of two, ...

The Dry Land
2010
as Martha
A U.S. soldier returning home from war struggles to reconcile his experiences abroad with the life and family he left in Texas.

Everybody's Fine
2009
as Colleen
Eight months after the death of his wife, Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at...

According to Greta
2009
as Karen
Dumped on her grandparents for the summer by her indifferent mother, acerbic and self-destructive teenager Greta disrupts the elderly couple's staid l...

Dear Lemon Lima
2009
as Mrs. Howard
After being dumped by Philip, her one true love, the infatuated Nessa enrolls at his private school in the hopes of winning him back.

Veronika Decides to Die
2009
as Mari
After a frantic suicide attempt, Veronika awakens inside a mysterious mental asylum. Under the supervision of an unorthodox psychiatrist who specializ...

Don McKay
2009
as Marie
Everything appears off-kilter when a man returns to his hometown after 25 years to visit his former lover.

True Adolescents
2009
as Sharon Mitchell
At 34, struggling Seattle musician Sam finds himself broke, jobless and losing touch with the person he wants to become. When his girlfriend kicks him...
Stephanie's Image
2009
as Stephanie
A documentary filmmaker investigates the murder of a former model and finds that everything she's been told about her death is false.

The Alphabet Killer
2008
as Kathy Walsh
Based on the true story of double killings occurring in Rochester, NY during the 80’s and the troubled police officer determined to solve them, with o...

Righteous Kill
2008
as Cheryl
Two veteran New York City detectives work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; i...

Frozen River
2008
as Ray Eddy
After her husband deserts her, working-class mother Ray Eddy is in great need of money to find a home. Lured by the possibility of easy cash, she join...

Santa Mesa
2008
as Maggie
Following his mother's death, Hector arrives in Manila to live with his grandmother. Unable to speak Tagalog, Hector falls in with a street gang befor...

Lullaby
2008
as Stephanie
An American mother receives word that her drug addled son has been kidnapped by a drug lord operating in South Africa.

Black Irish
2007
as Margaret McKay
In South Boston, where Irish roots run deep and Catholic tradition reigns, two brothers face similar hardships but lead far different lives. While old...

Mr. Woodcock
2007
as Sally Jansen
Taken aback by his mother's wedding announcement, a young man returns home in an effort to stop her from marrying his old high school gym teacher, a m...

Racing Daylight
2007
as Sadie / Anna
RACING DAYLIGHT is a spooky murder mystery as well as a supernatural love story that transcends time. The film captures the journey of Sadie Stokes (M...

I Believe in America
2007
as Soto
Three generations of one family, all involved at different levels with the Puerto Rican underground movement for independence, struggle with their nee...

Hollywood Dreams
2007
as Aunt Bee
The tale of a young girl fresh off the bus from Iowa, who falls in love with a sexy and promising young actor, though their relationship threatens to ...

The Cake Eaters
2007
as Ceci Kimbrough
The death of the Kimbrough family matriarch affects the three male survivors of the clan. Widower Easy tries to reconnect with his old flame, Marg. El...

Dear Lemon Lima
2007
as Mrs. Howard
A lonely girl with a vivid imagination struggles to plant seeds of love after her narcissistic sweetheart breaks her heart.

Stephanie Daley
2007
as Miri Daley
Stephanie collapses in a pool of blood while on a school skiing trip. A doctor discovers that the blood is the after-effects of giving birth. Soon aft...

Midnight Son
2007
as Rita
Mild-mannered professor Edward leaves his wife, Rita, one night to meet a stranger from an Internet chat room. It is only during his journey that we b...
Bomb
2007
What starts as an innocent flirtation between teenagers on the edge of an old bombing range turns askew when a trip home reveals a chaotic adult world...
One Night
2007
as Wendy
Fifteen New Yorkers go into a Friday night unaware of the fact that their lives are about to change.

The House Is Burning
2006
as Mrs. Miller
One day. One night. A group of teenagers struggles to find their way in a world that offers them few choices.

The Limbo Room
2006
as KC Collins
When an on stage rape scene sparks an offstage affair, the line between reality and fiction becomes blurred.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
2005
as Rachel
When brash Texas border officer Mike Norton wrongfully kills and buries the friend and ranch hand of Pete Perkins, the latter is reminded of a promise...

American Gun
2005
as Louise
Seemingly disparate portraits of people -- among them a single mother, a high school principal, and an ace student -- Distinctly American -- all affec...

Runaway
2005
as Lisa Adler
Michael Adler has run away from his suburban home with his little brother Dylan. Hiding out in a quiet, rural town, Michael's convinced he can make a ...

Hide and Seek
2005
as Laura
David Callaway tries to piece together his life in the wake of his wife's suicide and has been left to raise his nine-year-old daughter, Emily on his ...

Confess
2005
as Agnes Lessor
A young ex-hacker, disgruntled with his life, lashes back at those deemed responsible, uploading unfavorable video footage of them on the internet.

From Other Worlds
2004
as Miriam
FROM OTHER WORLDS is a sci-fi comedy about a depressed Brooklyn housewife who sleepwalks through her life until she encounters an alien force in her b...

21 Grams
2003
as Marianne Jordan
Paul Rivers, an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to an English émigré; Christina Peck, an upper-middle-class suburban housewife and mother of t...
Fear of Fiction
2000
as Sigrid Anderssen
This road movie explores the nature of the bond between twins by focusing on a love affair between a man and a woman, each of whom has a twin brother.

Homicide: The Movie
2000
as Kay Howard
Retired police lieutenant Al Giardello is running for mayor when he is suddenly shot at a press conference. All of the detectives, past and present, c...
Code of Ethics
1999
as Jo DeAngelo
The administrator of a medical company is forced to match wits with a serial killer, who targets people who commit insurance fraud with the State's Me...

The 24 Hour Woman
1999
as Dr. Suzanne Pincus
Grace tries to be the perfect mother and TV producer but finds trouble in juggling both.

Who Is Henry Jaglom?
1997
as Self
Hailed by some as a cinematic genius, a feminist voice and a true maverick of American cinema, dismissed by others as a voyeuristic fraud and the "wor...

Last Summer in the Hamptons
1995
as Trish Axelrod
Helena Mora, the head of an eccentric theatrical family, has decided to sell her large estate in the Hamptons because of her recent money troubles. Be...

In the Line of Duty: Hunt for Justice
1995
as Carol Manning
When a state trooper is gunned down on a New Jersey highway, his friend and colleague sets out to track down the killers. Realizing the murder is conn...

The Ballad of Little Jo
1993
as Beatrice Grey
After being thrown out of her home, a young woman decides to disguise herself as a man to survive the ruthless Wild West.
By a Thread
1992
as Helen
Television journalist Quentin Springer has two obsessions: first, he wants to help his schizophrenic nephew by making video recordings of his life; an...

Immaculate Conception
1992
as Hannah
Alistair, a British representative for a wildlife conservation agency based in Karachi and his Jewish-American wife Hannah have been unsuccessful at c...

Venice/Venice
1992
as Peggy
Dean is a maverick American film director surprised that his most recent film has been chosen as the Official U.S. Entry at the Venice Film Festival. ...

Carolina Skeletons
1991
as Cassie
After a long time in the army, an Afro-American soldier returns to his hometown, where, years ago, his brother was executed for the rape and murder of...

The Bride in Black
1990
as Mary Margaret
A Brooklyn widow (Susan Lucci) traces the past of her boxer/sculptor husband (David Soul), gunned down on their wedding day.

Nasty Boys
1989
as Katie Morrissey
When a narcotics team sent to bust some drug dealers are massacred. The police department form a special unit of undercover cops whose identities are ...

A Time of Destiny
1988
as Josie Larraneta
World War II provides the setting for a melodramatic tale of love and revenge.

Deadtime Stories
1986
as Judith 'MaMa' Baer
A babysitting uncle tells his charges three horror stories: about a killer witch; Little Red Riding Hood and a werewolf; and Goldi Lox and the three b...

Silent Witness
1985
as Patti Mullen
The marriage of a young working-class woman is jeopardized when she witnesses her brother-in-law's participation in a gang rape of an intoxicated woma...

Always … But Not Forever
1985
as Peggy
A middle-aged couple, on the verge of proceeding with a divorce, find themselves questioning their decision to separate when fellow friends and neighb...

Streetwalkin'
1985
as Cookie
Cookie is a teen runaway who escapes her abusive stepfather and heads for the Big Apple with her younger brother. When she arrives at the Port Authori...

I'm Only There...
1984
as Maggie
Rare short film starring Oscar winner Melissa Leo in her first screen role, written and directed by Sundance award winner A. Dean Bell.
Passenger
N/A
A few weeks into their van life adventure, a young couple witness a horrific accident that leaves the driver dead. Soon they’re being pursued by a dem...

Ron Forever
N/A
as Hilda
One arrest away from foster care, a ten-year-old with mental superpowers must choose to repeat her mom's path of self-destruction or channel her traum...