Melissa Leo Movies and Career Information

Melissa Chessington Leo (born September 14, 1960), also known as Margaret May II or Margaret May, is an American actress best known for playing Det. Sgt. Kay Howard on the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street from 1993–1997. She has also been a regular on All My Children, The Young Riders and Treme. Feature films she has appeared in include A Time of Destiny, Last Summer in the Hamptons, 21 Grams, Confess, and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. In 2009, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role at the 81st Academy Awards for her role in Frozen River. Lawrence Toppman of The Charlotte Observer hailed her as "one of America's most underrated character actresses". Leo was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, the daughter of Peggy, a teacher, and Arnold Leo, an editor at Grove Press, fisherman, and spokesman for the East Hampton Baymen's Association. She has a son with actor and former boyfriend John Heard named John Matthew Heard (born 1987). Leo was raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She is a former resident of Putney, Vermont and now lives in Stone Ridge, New York. In 1985 she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy at the