Melanie Nicholls-King (born 11 May) is an actress who played the role of Admiral Drake in the Star Trek: Discovery first season episode "The War Without, The War Within".
She was born in London to Trinidadian parents. Her family moved to Trinidad and Tobago for five years when she was a child, before settling down in Toronto, Canada. She discovered her love for acting when she was cast as the Wicked Witch in a school production of The Wizard of Oz. Although her parents wanted her to pursue a career in medicine, she studied instead at Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver.
She is probably most well-known for her role as Noelle Grace Williams in Rookie Blue on which she worked between 2010 and 2015 along Star Trek alumni Rachael Ancheril, Barbara Williams, Dayo Ade, Elias Toufexis, Louis Ferreira, Brian Markinson, William Shatner, John Pyper-Ferguson, Thamela Mpumlwana, Alan van Sprang, Dwain Murphy, and Linda Thorson and for her recurring role as Cheryl in fifteen episodes of The Wire (2002-2008, starring John Doman and Idris Elba). Her work on Rookie Blue earned her a Gemini Award nomination in the category Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series in 2011.
Nicholls-King has started her acting career in the early 1990s with guest roles in episodes of Street Justice (1992 and 1993), Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1994), and Forever Knight (1995) and supporting roles in Guilty as Sin (1993), The Babymaker: The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story (1994), A Vow to Kill (1995, with Larissa Laskin), Rude (1995, with Dayo Ade and Conrad Coates), Skin Deep (1995, with Tara Strong), and the television thriller Closer and Closer (1996, with Alan van Sprang).
In 1998, Nicholls-King worked as stunt double for actress Esther Rolle on Down in the Delta, starring and produced by Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes. Further film work includes the television crime thriller The Defenders: Choice of Evils (1998), A Cool, Dry Place (1998, with Doug Wert), Summer's End (1999, with Wendy Crewson and Victor Garber), the television sport comedy Coming Unglued (1999, with Jonathan Whittaker), Mercy (2000, with Wendy Crewson), The Color of Friendship (2000, with Lindsey Haun and Penny Johnson), the television romance Catch a Falling Star (2000), the family drama Dear America: When Will This Cruel War Be Over? (2000), the television crime drama One Kill (2000, with Kate McNeil), What Makes a Family (2001, co-starring and executive produced by Whoopi Goldberg), the short film Maple (2001, with Fran Bennett and Billy Mayo), the television movie Jett Jackson: The Movie (2001), the drama Society's Child (2002), Deacons for Defense (2003), the thriller False Pretenses (2004, with Conrad Pla), How She Move (2007, with Conrad Coates and Dwain Murphy), the science fiction short Chains (2009), the short drama In Between Life (2011), the short comedy Elijah the Prophet (2012), and St. Vincent (2014, with Reg E. Cathey).
Nicholls-King guest starred in episodes of Goosebumps (1998), Animorphs (1998), Highlander: The Raven (1998), The City (1999, with Michael Sarrazin), The Famous Jett Jackson (1998-2001), Little Bill (2000 and 2002), Law & Order (2002), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2002, with Jack Gwaltney), Doc (2001 and 2004, with Derek McGrath and Andrea Robinson), Third Watch (2004), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2003 and 2008, starring Mariska Hargitay, with Todd Stashwick), Fear Itself (2009), Cupid (2009), The Being Frank Show (2011), Orphan Black (2013, with Matt Frewer and directed by TJ Scott), Hostages (2013, with Billy Brown), Happyish (2015), Veep (2015, with Sufe Bradshaw, Diedrich Bader, and Ethan Phillips), Show Me a Hero (2015, with Winona Ryder), and Saving Hope (2015, with Wendy Crewson and Michael Shanks).
She had starring and recurring roles in Traders (1998-2000, starring Bruce Gray), One Life to Live (2009-2010), Eye Candy (2015), Falling Water (2016, with Raven Dauda and co-executive produced by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle), and the comedy web series Filth City and its movie Filth City (2017) for which she earned a Festival Award at the First Glance Film Festival in the category Best Ensemble Cast (Web Series) in 2018. Nicholls-King worked as associate producer on the short drama Ritch (2006) and as executive producer on the short films In Between Life (2011) and Clean Teeth Wednesdays (2013).
She later worked on The Strange Ones (2017), Going in Style (2017, with Christopher Lloyd and Josh Pais), Mary Goes Round (2017, with Jimmy Chimarios), the short music drama Baby Won't You Please Come Home (2017), The Week Of (2018, with Maury Ginsberg), Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance (2018), and the drama Bushwick Beats (2018), had recurring roles in episodes of Channel Zero (2017, with John Carroll Lynch) and Seven Seconds (2018, with Ron Canada), and guest roles in episodes of Conviction (2017), NCIS: New Orleans (2018, starring Scott Bakula), The Amazing Gayl Pile (2018), The Detail (2018, with Wendy Crewson), Chicago Med (2018), Billions (2018, with Clancy Brown and Corbin Bernsen), and F.B.I. (2018).