Melissa Natalie Tkautz (born 24 January 1974) is an Australian actress, singer-songwriter, and model. She played Nikki Spencer on the Australian TV soap opera E Street from September 1990 to May 1993. In the early 1990s, performing as Melissa, she had top 20 hits on the ARIA Singles Chart with "Read My Lips" (No. 1, June 1991), "Sexy (Is the Word)" (No. 3, September 1991), and "Skin to Skin" (No. 16, April 1992). Her debut album, Fresh, was released in June 1992 and reached No. 15 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
After E Street, Tkautz appeared in Paradise Beach (1993–94), Pacific Drive (1996–98), All Saints (2001–02, 2004), Swift and Shift Couriers (2008, 2011), and Housos (2011). Her modeling career included child and teen modeling in pop entertainment magazines, and from 1996, work in fashion and men's magazines. On 4 December 2005, she released her second solo album, Lost & Found, featuring a top 40 cover of "The Glamorous Life." In August 2011, she released a compilation album, The Hits & More. In February 2009, she married finance businessman Kwesi Nicholas and uses the name Melissa Nicholas outside her performance career.
Australia
