Draft:Melanie Steliou

Melanie Steliou (Greek Μέλανη Στέλιου; Turkish Melani Stelyu; born April 20th 1976) is an actress, television presenter and activist known for her diverse work in theatre, television and chairing conferences. She is also known for her activism and her outspoken views on political and social issues..

She worked for various television stations in Cyprus and most of the theatrical organizations on the island.

In 2021 she entered politics and accepted an offer to run for Member of Parliament in Cyprus with the Green Party. It did not end well as she pulled out of the campaign within weeks due to serious disagreements on vital issues.

In 2024 she was a candidate for the European Parliament Elections as part of the Social Alliance Movement (Κοινωνική Συμμαχία ) in collaboration with AKEL - The Left. She secured 10.177 votes but did not make it into the EU Parliament.

Her father who passed away in 2019 was Cypriot, and her mother is British. She has lived in the UK, Greece and Cyprus. She is very proud of her multicultural roots and this, she says, is what makes her feel more of a citizen of the world, and able to identify with different cultures.

Biography
Early Life

Melanie Steliou was born in Keighley, Yorkshire, England, on April 20th 1976. She returned to Cyprus with her parents when she was 1 years old. Growing up in Cyprus she always had a keen interest in theatre and music and participated in many theatrical and musical productions as a child and teenager.

As a child Melanie was a member of one of the biggest and most successful children's choirs, Diastasis. She took part in two productions called "Musical Moments" and "Musical Moments 2" with excerpts from "The Sound of Music", "Oliver", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Grease", "Les Miserables", and "West Side Story". She took part in the Rose Theatre's production of Allan Ayckbourn's "How the Other Half Loves" and the Cyprus Theatrical Organizations production of Jean Giraudoux's "The Madwoman of Chaillot".

She studied Drama at the Theatre of Arts School under Karolos Koun (1995–1998) in Athens, Greece, known as Theatro Technis. While she was still a student at Drama School she took part in plays staged by Theatro Technis notably "Happy End" by Kurt Weil and Bertolt Brecht, and Aristophanes "The Birds". "The Birds" was also her first participation at the International Drama Festival at the Epidaurus ancient theatre. "Seven Against Thebes" and "The Achilleis" would follow at Epidaurus.

Career
Melanie studied acting at the Theatre of Arts School under Karolos Koun in Athens, Greece, known as Theatro Technis. She took part in plays staged by Theatro Technis notably "Happy End" by Kurt Weil and Bertolt Brecht, and Aristophanes "The Birds". "The Birds" was also her first participation at the International Drama Festival at the Epidaurus Ancient Theatre in 1997. "Seven Against Thebes" and "The Achilleis" (Μυρμιδόνες, Νηρηίδες, Φρύγες) would follow at Epidaurus.

She has collaborated with most of the theatre groups in Cyprus, performing a range of roles from Maria in Federico Garcia Lorca's "Yerma", Petra Von Kant in Fassbinder's "The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant", to Helena in John Osbornes'  "Look Back In Anger". Her most recent roles include Esther Franz in Arthur Miller's "The Price"  Kate in "All My Sons" in 2021 and Libby in Keiran Hurley's "Mouthpiece " in 2023.

Television

On a visit to Cyprus in 2000, a chance meeting while being interviewed on a current affairs program at the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation would take her on a different path and she entered the media world as a presenter.

She attended seminars in London where she got an insight of the operation of a state-run television channel opposed to a private television channel and new mediums in television. In the summer of 2005, she took a seminar on Crisis Management and Mass Media which coincided with the terrorist attacks in London so got a hands-on training of handling a crisis.

She trained with Munro Forbes a director and producer for the BBC and ITN and Television Production Consultant with clients such as Thomson Foundation and Al Jazeera.

From 2000 to 2006 Melanie worked for the Cyprus Broadcasting Cooperation as the presenter of the channel's daily television morning current affairs program, anchor-woman of the 20:00 o'clock main news and presenter, writer and editor in chief of a weekly current affairs television program. During her tenure at the CyBC, she also worked on documentaries.

In 2006, she moved on to Sigma Television, a privately-owned television channel which belonged to DIAS, the biggest media group in Cyprus. As a presenter she hosted the breakfast show, a weekly television show as well as being involved in documentaries in front of and behind the cameras.

In 2010 she decided to work mostly behind cameras and went on to become the Television Station's Productions Development Manager.

She oversaw the production of various projects such as the morning breakfast show, a weekly television series, and a United Nations Development Project. She has worked on various documentaries, notably, "Tales of an Oasis – Poverty in Uganda", which was a documentary about Millennium Goal Number 1 (eradication of extreme poverty and hunger) in 2009,  and "Engage in Peace" ' as part of a UNDP' project to promote reconciliation between the two communities, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot in Cyprus.

She participated in projects involving organizations such as the UNDP-ACT, the European Commission's Life Programme, and various NGOS.

For a year before she left Sigma Television in 2014, she held the position of Personal Advisor to the President of the Board of Directors, advising in all areas concerning television production and programming as well as all other activities of the group concerning the media field and brought in new ideas on programs and programming that would fit certain criteria established.

From 2014 Melanie worked as a freelancer. In 2016 she set up her own production team with her husband and worked with the Romanian Broadcasting Company ProTV, part of the Central European Media Enterprises, heading the Cypriot Production Team on the Romanian Reality Television series "Ferma Vedetelor" – "Celebrity Farm".

Acting in Television

Melanie Steliou started acting in television in Cyprus at the age of 17 before she began her theatre studies in Greece. Her first small appearance was in CyBC's production "Ta Mikroastika".

While she was still living and working in Greece she appeared on Sigma Television's series "Akti Oneiron" in 1998 and in two period series on CyBC "O Kroisos kai o Zografos" and "Galateias kai Pymalionos" in 2003 and 2004. In 2012 she appeared in the series "Aspra Balonia " and in 2015 she starred in the Drama Series "kaiadas O Kryfos Kaiadas" both for Sigma Television.

She then collaborated with ANT1 Television in the second season of the TV Series "Brousko" in 2014 and "Roi Mat " in 2015.

Her latest lead roles in a television series were in 2018 in "Βle" (Blue) for Alpha Television Cyprus and in the Drama Series "I Teleftaia Ora" for the Greek TV Station Open, in 2021.

Theatre

Melanie Steliou has collaborated with Theatro Technis Karolos Koun in Greece and with most of the theatre groups in Cyprus - The Cyprus Theatrical Organisation (THOK) which is the National Theatre of the island, Theatro Skala, Theatro Ena, Ethal, ONE/OFF Productions, Theatro Versus and Ferefono.

As a student at Drama School she participated in Bertolt Brecht's and Kurt Weill's "Happy End" and Aristophanes "The Birds" at the Epidaurus Ancient Theatre.

Upon her return to Cyprus she took part in plays staged by the Cyprus Theatrical Organization (THOK) taking on roles like Maria in "Yerma" by Federico Garcia Lorca (1998), Rita in  "The Meeting", by Cypriot playwright Irena Adamidou (1999), and also took part in a black light theatre children's play "The Magic Pearl" by Valerie Petrov in 2000. In 2001 she returned to the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus with the National Theatre of Cyprus as part of the Chorus in "Seven Against Thebes".

In 2003 she took on the lead role of Praxagora in Aristophanes ancient Greek comedy "The Assemblywoman" at Theatro Skala.

For the next year she worked with Theatro Ena in Nicosia as Mrs Bradman in Noel Cowards "Blythe Spirit" and Aleka in the Greek play "Me dinami apo tin Kifisia".

Melanie Steliou worked again with the National Theatre of Cyprus as part of the chorus in  "Achilleis" in 2004 at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus.

In 2005 she worked with ETHAL for the first time in Rainer Werner Fassbinders  play "The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant" taking on the lead role of Petra Von Kant, followed by Margaret in Chazz Palminteri's "Faithfull" in 2013, Stallerin in Franz Xaver Kroetz "Stallerhof" and Sheila in Allan Ayckbourn's  "Relatively Speaking" both in 2014. In 2016 Melanie Steliou was Lead in the Chorus in the company's production of Aristophanes "Thesmophoriazusae". She abruptly had to pull out of the production in the summer of 2016, after touring the island when she found out she was pregnant.

In December 2017 Melanie Steliou worked with Theatro Versus in Arthur Miller's "The Price" as Esther Franz, followed by Eva in Paolo Genovese's "Perfect Strangers" (Stage Version) in 2018, Helena in John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" in 2019 and Kate in Arthur Millers "All My Sons" in 2021.

In 2022 she co-founded a theatre company Ferefono with director Maria Kyriacou, in order to stage "Mouthpiece" by Scottish playwright Keiran Hurley. This was the first translation of this play in Greek and the first staging in a non English speaking country. It ran for 2023 and was staged in Greece in 2024 with Melanie Steliou and Andreas Daniel in the lead roles at the National Theatre of Greece as part of the Cyprus Theatre Week.

Public Speaking

Melanie Steliou has chaired various Conferences and Events such as "The Connected TV Conference- Looking Beyond the AVMS Directive: The Challenge of Connected TV" Co-organised by the Cyprus Radiotelevision Authority and the European Commission.

She hosted the European Enterprise Promotion Awards held in Cyprus, as part of the first ever SME Assembly.

From 2014 she chairs the CIM Marketing Summit every year.

In 2019 and 2020 she was the Presenter for the 10th and 11th Limassol Economic Forum respectively. LEF is considered to be one of the "biggest and most prestigious yearly business gatherings in Cyprus" which offers a stage to pioneering political, economic, professional and business figures to discuss and present the latest developments and innovations in their respective fields.

In 2021 and 2022 Melanie chaired the Cyprus Forum an independent, ambitious and not-for-profit annual conference which was launched in 2020 marking the 60th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the Republic of Cyprus.

Political Career
Over the years Melanie Steliou was asked to run as a candidate in local elections by most of the political parties in Cyprus. Although she was always interested in politics and was active locally she did not take up the offer until 2021.

In 2021 she accepted an offer by the Greens to run as member of the House of Representatives in Cyprus. A few weeks into the campaign she pulled out of the campaign as she disagreed with the handling of certain issues which were a red line for her.

In the couple of years that followed Melanie Steliou remained active on political, environmental and social issues.

She has always been vocal on the Cyprus problem and supports a solution where all Cypriots, Greek Cyrpiots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latins can live together in peace.

During the Presidential Campaign of 2023 she supported the candidacy of Andreas Mavroyiannis. Mavroyiannis went through to the second round despite polls showing that he would not make it past the first round. He was up against Nicos Christodoulides in the second round and lost by a small margin.

In 2024 she took part in the European Parliament elections as part of the Social Alliance Movement (Κοινωνική Συμμαχία ) in collaboration with AKEL - The Left (Progressive Party of Working People). She secured 10.177 votes but did not make it into the EU Parliament.

The European Parliament Elections are the only elections in Cyprus, where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots can vote together and at the presentation of the candidates to the Turkish Cypriot community on the 9th of March, she addressed the attendees in Turkish. This was received positively by the majority of the population, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots alike, however it did create some negative reaction by the far right nationalists in Cyprus. She continues to learn Turkish, as she says that this should be done by all Cypriots since under the Constitution of Cyprus there are two formal languages recognized on the island, Greek and Turkish.

During her campaign she was one of the politicians who was extremely vocal on the Palestine-Israel conflict, often criticizing her own government and President Nicos Christodoulides for whitewashing Israel and "being complicit in genocide".

Activism

Melanie is well known for being outspoken on various issues, whether political, environmental or social.

In July 2017 she was criticized for posting a photo of herself on Instagram and Facebook, while breastfeeding her son at Larnaca Airport. After several reports Facebook blocked her post, but then unblocked it after reviewing it and deciding that it did not violate any of their policies. The positive outcome was that by November 2017, Members of Parliament had drafted two legislative proposals aiming at affording greater protection to mothers who breastfeed. The first bill extended the period during which a mother is legally entitled to take one hour off from work each day to breastfeed her baby and the second bill explicitly regulates a woman's right to breastfeed in public. It involved amending the criminal code, so that from now on anyone preventing public breastfeeding would be committing a criminal offence and be liable to a fine of up to €3,000.

She is an advocate for environmental issues and a co-founder of 300k Trees in Limassol, a group which has pledged to plant 300,000 trees in her fathers hometown. She is a member and ambassador of the Mothers Rise Up movement and an Honorary Member of Friends of The Earth Cyprus

Personal Life
Not much is known about Melanie Steliou's personal life early on in her life.

She met her future husband Alexis Nicolaou after she moved to Sigma Television in 2006, part of DIAS Media Group which he also worked for as CFO and then CEO of the group. They got engaged in 2014 and married in May 2015. They have a son Maximos born in February 2017.

Awards
In 2010 she received the Madame Figaro Woman of the Year Award for Media Person and in 2024 she was one of the candidates for the same award in the category for Best Actress