Melissa Tkautz

Television career

Tkautz was born in Sydney in 1974. According to Tkautz "I had very strict parents ... I wasn't allowed to do anything". Her father, Stefan Tkautz, is from Austria and her mother's family are Maltese. As a young child she studied drama, dance and singing; she began modelling and appearing in commercials. By the age of 17, she had appeared in over 160 television and print commercials. Some of these included ads for QANTAS and Cadbury. She started modelling and then began acting in TV soap operas, Richmond Hill and Home and Away in the late 1980s. In 1989 she entered the Miss Teen Australia contest.

In September 1990, at the age of 16 years, Tkautz was cast in the role of Nikki Spencer on the popular Australian soap opera, E Street. She described her role, "Nikki is everything I don't want to be ... She smokes and she's really the sort of girl most parents would be horrified to have their daughters associating with". Tkautz soon became one of the show's main stars due to the popularity of her character. During this time, she attended the Australian Academy of Dramatic Art in Sydney, graduating in 1991. During that year she appeared on numerous Australian editions of magazine covers including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, TV Week, Smash Hits and Dolly. In 1991 readers of TV Hits voted her as the Hottest Woman on Earth. Tkautz also had a supporting role in the mini-series, The Girl from Tomorrow (1992).

Due to her popularity, the producers of E Street decided to have Tkautz record a song, which would be used in the show as part of a dream sequence, where her character imagines she is a pop star. This resulted in a recording career for Tkautz, she later recalled "I loved singing and I had trained as a singer, but everything happened so quickly, it was just a crazy whirlwind. One minute I'm watching E Street in my lounge room, the next minute I’m starring in E Street and I've got a number one single in the charts". However, in November 1991, due to the pressures of juggling two full-time careers, and a conflict with the producer, Forrest Redlich, Tkautz left E Street to concentrate on her music career. At the TV Week-sponsored Logie Awards she was nominated for Most Popular New Talent in 1992. By November 1992 Tkautz had returned to E Street. However, the network decided to axe the series in May 1993.

In 1993 and 1994, Tkautz appeared on Paradise Beach, playing Vanessa Campbell, the manipulative ex-girlfriend of Sean Hayden (played by Ingo Rademacher). Tkautz described her character "[s]he's a bit of a psycho, a real bitch ... She is nothing like Nicki in E Street. This one's a real troublemaker". In 1995, she had a role in Echo Point. In 1996, Tkautz joined the series Pacific Drive, where she played a model, Bethany Daniels. This role had a major effect on Tkautz, who played the first long-term HIV positive character on Australian TV. She described how "I did a lot of research on the role and a lot of charity work with HIV [patients], especially young kids who had contracted the disease". The series later gained a cult following. When Pacific Drive was cancelled in 1998, Tkautz joined the cast of Medivac (1998) as Nurse Evie Morrison. Tkautz later appeared in the series, All Saints (2001–02, 2004).

From 1996, Tkautz modelled for fashion and men's magazines Black+White, Australian Playboy, Ralph and FHM. In 2001 she appeared on the Myer Intimacy Apparel runway, modelling underwear, and followed with a stint at the Australian Fashion Week, that year.

In late 2008, Tkautz starred in Swift and Shift Couriers (created by the same crew that created Fat Pizza), which aired on SBS ONE. Filming took place in early 2008, with some episodes being shot in Thailand and Egypt. The first season had eight episodes that aired on TV during October–November 2008. She returned for a second season in 2011. Tkautz was also a guest star in controversial comedy series, Housos (from October 2011), residents of housing commission units wanted the show banned. In May 2012, Tkautz was interviewed by Sonia Kruger and David Campbell on Mornings and described her career after E Street in the segment, "Where Are They Now?".

On July 22 2016, it was announced Tkautz would be one of seven women appearing on the first season of The Real Housewives of Sydney.

Singing career

Tkautz was signed to Westside Records, a label created by E Street's producers, and recorded her debut single, "Read My Lips". Redlich described why Tkautz was chosen ahead of her fellow actresses "I thought it was too raunchy for Toni Pearen and too teeny-bopper for Alyssa-Jane Cook". It was promoted via the show and released in May 1991, which reached the number-one position on the ARIA Singles Chart in July. The track was written by Tony King and Roy Nicolson, and was produced by Leon Berger. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1992 it won Highest Selling Single for the previous year. The song was parodied by Gina Riley on the comedy TV series, Fast Forward, as "Pout Your Lips". The single's B-side is "Say Goodbye" and was written by Berger, Alston Koch and Doug Henderson. Since 1991, Tkautz has re-recorded "Read My Lips" twice: the first version as the "Read My Lips (Electro Pushers Remix)", which was to be included as a bonus track on her proposed third album, Glamorous Life; and the second version as the "Read My Lips (Neon Stereo Remix)", which was performed live by Tkautz on Channel 7's The Morning Show.

Tkautz' second single from her debut album, "Sexy (Is the Word)", was issued in September 1991 and peaked at No. 3. It was written by Berger, King and Nicholson and produced by Berger, Koch and Henderson. She performed the track at the 1991 Rugby League Grand Final. At the end of that year Tkautz toured nationally as a support act on American dance-pop and hip hop group, C+C Music Factory's Australian Tour. Her third single, "Skin to Skin", appeared in April the next year, which reached No. 16, and was written and produced by the same team as "Sexy (Is the Word)". In June that year, having left E Street, Tkautz released her debut album, Fresh, which peaked at No. 15 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Tkautz promoted the album by a national tour, a further single, "Is It...?", was issued in July 1993 and reached the top 40, but a proposed second album was shelved and Tkautz refocused on her acting career.

In September 2005, Tkautz released a new single, a cover version of "The Glamorous Life", a 1984 song by Sheila E and written by Prince, which peaked at No. 31 on the ARIA Singles Chart. Her second album, Lost & Found, was issued on 4 December that year. Also that year, she re-recorded "Sexy (Is the Word)", which was included as a bonus track on Lost & Found. Tkautz travelled to Sweden in early 2006 to work with 2N and while there she recorded her next single, "Easily Affected", and "Not Enough". Her version of "The Glamorous Life" had some success internationally. It was released in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Russia, Dubai and UAE, and Canada. In February 2008 she performed "Easily Affected", "True Love", "Read My Lips (Neon Stereo Remix)" and her new single, "I Want Your Love" at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day.

In January 2012 Australian comedian, Sam Kekovich, released a music video as an ad for Australian lamb meat, which was a rendition of Aqua's hit "Barbie Girl"; it featured vocals by Tkautz and an appearance by hip-hop dance and pop music group, Justice Crew. Meat and Livestock Australia's marketing manager, Andrew Cox, declared "[i]t's the most successful lamb campaign ever in terms of lamb sales ... people were able to share our 'Barbie Girl' song on Facebook and Twitter". In August that year Tkautz issued a compilation album, The Hits & More, and followed with a tour promoting its appearance.

Personal life

In 1999 her father, Stefan, died of cancer, she co-wrote the track, "Goodbye Daddy" (with Paul Wiltshire), from Lost & Found in his honour. In December 2006 Tkautz told Woman's Day that she had been in love with her E Street co-star, Simon Baker, the relationship ended as "she wanted a long-term commitment but he was not at that stage of his life"; and then with Marcus Graham who "betrayed her after four months". Baker had also appeared in the music video for her debut single, "Read My Lips". In February 2009 Tkautz married a finance businessman, Kwesi Nicholas, her partner of five years. She uses her married name, Melissa Nicholas, outside her professional career.