5 Things You Didn’t Know About Melissa Joan Hart
You know her, you love her, and you just might have grown up watching her on TV.
Whether gracing your screens as typical teen Clarissa Darling in the 1991-94 Nickelodeon teen sitcom Clarissa Explains It All (pictured below) or as witchy woman Sabrina Spellman in the fantasy sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which aired from 1996-2003 across ABC and The WB, Melissa Joan Hart has been one of television’s most familiar faces for over 30 years.
Nickelodeon/Courtesy Everett Collection
The actress recently chatted with us about her career longevity, which often can be a rarity in show business for child stars to successfully continue finding work into adulthood. Her next project is the Lifetime original movie Killing the Competition, which premieres Saturday, March 1, 2025, at 8pm ET. The film, inspired by real events, finds Hart playing a murderous mom. It’s a continuation of a move into more dramas that the star has made in recent years.
“I was always terrified of doing drama,” Hart says. “And then somehow with Clarissa Explains It All and becoming known for comedy, it became a thing that I couldn’t do. I can’t cry like Demi Moore or Lacey Chabert. I’m an ugly crier, and I kind of bought into that.”
Courtesy Lifetime
When Lifetime asked her to do a 2022 movie called Dirty Little Secret about being a hoarder, she was nervous. “I worked so hard and had so much fun diving into the kind of psychology of hoarding behavior. I loved putting those pieces together and it felt so raw and authentic and I just was like, ‘Oh, maybe I can do drama.’”
Since then, Hart has produced (in conjunction with Hartbreak Films, the family-friendly production company she and her mom, Paula Hart, launched years ago) and starred in multiple successful dramas, the latest of which is Killing the Competition.
So it’s been an interesting career trajectory for the actress. She recently opened up with some more things you might have not known about her.
1 She didn’t always think show business would be her permanent career
“Well, at that time, I’d heard a lot of stories about child stars. There was a lot of news about Drew Barrymore, and I had worked with her when I was 9 or 10. She had written a book and I was hearing a lot about child stars that just got caught up in the industry — their parents steal their money, they go to drugs and alcohol, all this stuff — but mostly that a lot of them didn’t make the transition to becoming adult actors. So I just thought that doesn’t really happen for child stars. I became convinced that I had to find something else [as I grew up].”
Remind 2 She studied abroad in Italy
“It was really a big deal to me to go to college, as my education had suffered because of my work. I took my studies very seriously, but it was very hard to work 70-hour weeks and get good grades. I did the best I could to get into college. I only wanted to go to NYU.
“I was enrolled for seven years, but never got to graduate because I went to L.A. and did Sabrina when I was 20. But the whole time I’m like, ‘What am I going to do with my life when this ends? What’s my backup plan?’
“I studied sociology and child psychology. I went to Italy for a summer abroad to learn about architecture and art in Italy, and I was just trying to figure out where I was. I still didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. But with this career, it’s not a typical career where you climb the corporate ladder to the corner office and get the big promotion. With this career, there’s an up and there’s a down, and then there’s another up and there’s another down.”
3 She’s a saver and constantly reinvents herself
Ali Gilliams/Lifetime TV/Courtesy: Everett Collection
“You’re constantly kind of reinventing yourself: ‘What’s the next thing?’ ‘Are people sick of me?’ ‘Have I been gone too long?’
“It’s a really delicate balance, but I’ve realized that as long as I save my money and I’m cautious about the projects I pick and I keep active, I can keep working in this industry. I’ve transitioned to producing and directing, to just be able to have some diversity inside of the business, as well. … I’ve realized that I like entertaining people. I like telling stories whether I’m directing or acting or producing. Or I’ll do craft service on set, I don’t care. I just want to be on set. So I realized that I’m here now. I’m in it.”
4 Her favorite shows growing up were comedies from the 1960s
“Shows I loved growing up, which weren’t even my generation’s shows, were I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched, which were shows with escapism. And escapism is always a popular way to entertain because it can take a person in a good mood and keep them in a good mood or put them in a better mood. It can take a person in a bad mood and put them in a better mood. It can take a person who’s sick in the hospital or struggling to make friends or lonely or feeling isolated and it can give them a friend, and Sabrina did that for so many people.
George Lange/© Viacom/Courtesy Everett Collection
“I’ve heard from so many fans saying Sabrina taught them a language, it gave them a career path. It still is such an internationally loved show. My No. 1 markets on Instagram are places like Lima, Peru; Santiago, Chile; Mexico City and all South American and Latin American countries. It’s wild, and there are huge populations in the U.K., Australia and Germany that love the show.
“Magic is always going to be a universal theme where people can try to blink or snap or nod their head or wiggle their nose and get out of a situation or into a situation. That’s something that’s timeless, and I think that magic is just always going to be loved.
5 She loves her fans!
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Lifetime
“We’ve been so lucky over these years that [Sabrina] still resonates with people. They love the characters. They feel seen. They feel like she’s their best friend. I was in people’s homes every Friday night for seven years. That’s a big deal. So I didn’t really appreciate it maybe at the time as much, but I certainly do now with all the stories I’ve heard and all the people that I’ve met.
“Conventions are really great for that connection with the fans … to meet the people and see and hear the stories. It’s funny, because you take pictures of people when you put your arm around their back, they’re shaking a little bit and I’m like, ‘Gosh, am I like Santa Claus to little kids?’
“It’s so powerful and moving that that show had such an impact on people. I mean, it had a huge impact on my life, obviously. But to be able to entertain and bring people joy for so long … God, what a gift, huh? I mean the show just kind of keeps living on; I hope it continues to bring people joy.”
Melissa Joan Hart next stars in Killing the Competition, which premieres Saturday, March 1, 2025, at 8pm ET on Lifetime.
Where Are They Now? Child Stars and Teen Idols
June 2024
What happened to those teen idols and child stars we swayed to, swooned over and watched as they grew up (while we grew up as well)?
Buy This Issue