Melissa Fumero is an American actress. From the age of ten, she aspired to become an actress and attended New York University, from which she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drama.
She made her professional debut in 2004, recurring as Adriana Cramer in the soap opera One Life to Live. Following several minor roles, Fumero had her first main role in the Fox (later NBC) comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Amy Santiago, a role she played from 2013 to 2021.
Since this breakthrough, Fumero has voiced Melissa Tarleton in the critically acclaimed animated series M.O.D.O.K. (2021) and is set to star in Netflix’s upcoming series Blockbuster. She is married to actor and former model David Fumero, with whom she has two sons.
In 2022, Fumero was cast in the Netflix comedy Blockbuster as Eliza, a devoted mother whose marriage to her teenage boyfriend is experiencing difficulties. The first episode is expected to premiere on November 3, 2022.
Blockbuster: What is Melissa Fumero’s Role in Netflix’s Comedy Series?
Fumero plays Eliza, a down-on-her-luck Blockbuster employee who previously worked with Timmy at the store when they were in high school and he’s had a secret crush on her ever since.
Eliza went to Harvard — for a semester — but dropped out because she got pregnant. She married, had a baby and is now separated from her husband whom she caught on a date with another woman in the Costco cafe.
“The thing about Eliza that I was really drawn to was this woman whose things didn’t go exactly the way she thought they would,” said Fumero. “We’re catching her at this moment in her life where she’s figuring out what’s next and who she is after she’s already raised a kid.”
Timmy and Eliza have a classic will they/won’t they running storyline which the actors say they enjoy.
“Everyone loves a romance,” said Park. “The fact that these two characters also had a history before, makes it so special and different and complicated and all those things. I’m very invested.”
Fumero says “Blockbuster,” like “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” is a workplace comedy where employees become family and in some ways know each other better than family.
“No matters what industry you work in are these little dysfunctional families that exist everywhere and these people that you spend all these hours with every day and it’s a part of everyone’s life.”