Melissa Bell (actor)

Bell's first major television appearance was the guest role of Janine in the soap opera E Street in 1990.^[2] She joined the main cast of Neighbours as the third actress to play Lucy Robinson in early 1991.^[3] After 18 months of playing Lucy, Bell decided to leave Neighbours. She filmed her final scenes in June 1992.^[4] Bell then returned to E Street in the new role of eco-crusader Bonnie Tait, who became a love interest for Bruce Samazan's Max Simmonds.^[4] Bell cited homesickness as her reason for leaving Neighbours, which was filmed in Melbourne. She returned to Sydney for E Street and to be closer to her family.^[4] After E Street ended Bell made several brief returns to Neighbours.^[2] Due to her popularity in the UK, Bell appeared in several pantomimes.^[2]

Bell also acted in another soap, Paradise Beach, playing surfer Emily Harris.^[5] In 1994, after returning from overseas, Bell secured guest roles in Over the Hill and G.P..^[6] In 1995, she co-wrote the fiction novel Living Famously with television writer and producer Jason Herbison.^[7] The following year, she made a guest appearance as Suzie Hudson in an episode of Home and Away.^[8] Bell had a regular slot on Sydney radio station Sea FM in the late 1990s.^[9] She appears in the 1999 adventure sci-fi film Duran Duran, alongside Rebekah Elmaloglou and Ben Oxenbould.^[2]

She appeared in the 2005 lifestyle program Celebrity Overhaul.^[10] In 2007, she appeared on Seven Network's Mums and Bubs.^[11]

In 1999, Bell developed a range of bath products called Bondi Baby, which were inspired her then two year old son.^[2] She also designed her own clothing, which was modelled by actress Kate Ritchie in an issue of TV Week.^[9] Bell has since opened and closed a number of fashion boutiques, including Terrigal Babe on the NSW Central Coast, close to where she grew up,^[9] a boutique in Double Bay that sold kaftans and party wear,^[11] a small boutique called Radical Love on Chevron Island in 2019,^[12] and a boutique store called Lilly Blue in Worongary on the Gold Coast.^[13]

Bell was married to Jason Redlich from 1996 to 1998.^[14] They have one son. Following the end of her marriage, Bell suffered from body dysmorphic disorder and depression.^[15] In 2000, Bell married Gary Dickinson. They had three children and lived on the Central Coast, NSW. In November 2015, Dickinson, then 57, suffered a heart attack which left him in a coma.^[16] Dickinson died on 13 February 2016.^[17] In 2020, Bell became engaged to Grant Thompson,^[18] and the couple married in 2022, with Bell wearing the dress her Neighbours character wore in her on-screen wedding.^[19]