Melissa Marie Benoist (/bəˈnɔɪst/ bə-NOYST;^[1] born October 4, 1988)^[2][3] is an American actress and singer. Her first major role was Marley Rose on the Fox musical comedy drama Glee (2012–2014), in which she was a series regular during the fifth season. She rose to widespread prominence for portraying the title character on the CBS / CW superhero series Supergirl (2015–2021), along with related media in the Arrowverse franchise.

Benoist's film appearances include the drama Whiplash (2014), the comedy drama Danny Collins (2015), the crime comedy Band of Robbers (2015), the romantic Western The Longest Ride (2015), the action thriller Patriots Day (2016), the drama Lowriders (2016), and the comedy drama Sun Dogs (2017). She also portrayed the wife of cult leader David Koresh on the Paramount Network miniseries Waco (2018). On stage, Benoist made her Broadway debut in 2018 as Carole King in the jukebox musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

Benoist was born in Houston, Texas, to Julie and Jim Benoist, a physician.^[4][5] They divorced when she was thirteen years old.^[6][7] Her paternal great-grandfather was of French descent.^[8] She has two sisters: Jessica, a novelist, and Kristina, an ecological scientist, and five half-siblings from her father's remarriage.^{[5][9][10][11]} She was raised mostly by her mother in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, after her parents' separation.^[12] Growing up in Colorado, a large part of her childhood was spent exploring national parks and immersing herself in nature.^[13]

She started dance classes at the age of three, focusing on jazz, ballet, and tap.^[14][15] When she was four years old, her aunt put her in a church play she was directing;^[4] after that, she began doing community children's theatre in her hometown.^[16]

As a teenager, Benoist performed anonymously at Disneyland in various medleys of musical songs for three summers with the Academy of Theatre Arts, a musical theatre school she was attending, located in Littleton, Colorado, run by Paul Dwyer and Alann Worley.^[17] She performed locally in a number of theatrical productions, including A Month in the Country, Cinderella, A Chorus Line, and Bye Bye Birdie at the Town Hall Arts Center, a professional theatre located in the Denver metro area. Instead of attending high school graduation parties, she performed the play Evita with other cast members at the former Country Dinner Playhouse.^[17][18]

In 2006, The Denver Post named Benoist one of Colorado's five "Can't Miss Kids".^[10] She graduated from Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, in 2007,^[19] and then moved to New York City to pursue a career in musical theatre.^[20] She initially attended Marymount Manhattan College for the BFA musical theatre program but in her sophomore year, she switched majors to theatre, due to her admiration for 19th-century Russian plays.^[4] She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts in 2011.^[21][22] While attending college, she played Millie Dilmount in an urban off-off-Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie and Rosalind in As You Like It at the Theresa Lang Theatre.^[17][10][23]

On October 26, 2021, she published her first book, Haven’s Secret, the first installment of The Powers series from Abrams Kids. The series is a middle grade fantasy and was co-written by Benoist with her sister Jessica Benoist and author Mariko Tamaki.^[61] Haven's Secret received recognition as a 2022 Kansas Notable Book in June of 2022.

During her first semester in college, when she was learning to ride a bike, a cab backed into her and left a visible scar above her eyebrows.^[62] She also has a tattoo of a bicycle on her left foot.^[63]

In 2015, it was announced that she and her Glee co-star Blake Jenner were married. Benoist commented that they had been married "longer than anybody knows", with some sources claiming that the couple actually wed the same year of their engagement in 2013.^[64][65] In late December 2016, she filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences".^[66] The divorce was finalized in December 2017.^[67]

Also in 2015, Benoist suffered an injury that tore her iris. The incident caused one pupil to be enlarged.^[15][62] In November 2019, Benoist shared an Instagram video chronicling her experience as a survivor of domestic violence in order to raise awareness. She revealed that the injury to her iris was due to an iPhone being thrown at her during a domestic dispute, in a relationship marked by repeated abuse. Previously, the injury had been said to have been caused when she tripped down stairs and fell into a potted plant.^[68][69] Benoist also stated in her video that she had experienced extreme control, manipulation, and cycles of severe violence including being slapped, punched, shoved into a wall, dragged by her hair, and choked during the relationship.^[70] In October 2020, her ex-husband Blake Jenner wrote a lengthy Instagram post in which he admitted to causing the eye injury and confirmed the infliction of abuse throughout the relationship. He also stated that she had physically assaulted him at other times, resulting in injury.^[71] Benoist previously stated in her original video that she began fighting back in defense against Jenner's attacks during the relationship.^[72][73] Benoist has discussed healing from the trauma of the relationship and stated that doing EMDR therapy saved her life.^[74]

In 2016, Benoist met Chris Wood when he was cast as Mon-El in the second season of Supergirl, and their romantic relationship was confirmed in 2017.^[75][76] On the relationship she recalls, "we met each other at the perfect time in our lives."^[77] In October 2017, Benoist helped with Wood's launch of his campaign "IDONTMIND" which works to decrease stigma around mental health and provide resources and education. She discussed her own struggle with depression and anxiety attacks since she was 13 years old. She said that Wood's words encouraged her to share her own issues with depression with others.^[78] Benoist and Wood announced their engagement on February 10, 2019,^[79] and married in September 2019, holding a private ceremony in Ojai, California.^[80] On March 4, 2020, the couple announced on Instagram that they were expecting their first child.^[81] They announced the birth of their son on September 25, 2020.^[82][83]