"My mom would tell you I was rambunctious even in the womb," she cracks. "I was never one to just take things at face value. I questioned everything and had to do everything my own way."

One thing she's not questioning these days is her luck. After all, she landed the contract role of Tess, nanny of Ben and Maria's son, Benjy, on Sunset Beach, which is an Aaron Spelling production. That's a far cry from what happened when she auditioned several years back for Spelling's now-cancelled WB series, Savannah. "Someone asked me, 'Do you think he remembered you?' I was like, 'He definitely doesn't remember me from Savannah. If he did, I wouldn't be here,'" she says. "I was so nervous. I was too focused on him instead of doing what I had prepared to do."

This time around, Melchior kept her wits about her. "I'm a totally different person than I was then," she confides. "I have a different outlook on the industry. I'm much more secure in who I am and happy with my life. I kind of believe that if it's meant to be, it will be - and if it's not, then there's something else I'm supposed to be doing."

If it sounds like the actress is in tune with life lessons, she is. Melchior grew up with her mother and stepfather in Colorado, after leaving Florida at age 5 when her parents divorced. The family lived on 40 acres of land, which had its pluses and minuses. "At the time, I didn't like it," she sighs. "I felt so removed from anything. My nearest neighbour was a mile away. But as soon as I left, I missed it. Now, I would love to have 40 acres. I'll take two acres, even!"

While her mother bred horses, a love she passed on to her daughter, Melchior was also fascinated with her stepfather's career: anchoring the TV show A.M. Colorado. "They'd interview actors, and I was intrigued just listening to their lives," she says. "I think what makes someone an actor starts way before that. I think it's a personality. It's a need to be heard, to have a voice."

Melchior first found her voice as a teenage Snow White in a play that toured local elementary schools. "I dyed my hair black with temporary dye," she recalls with a shudder. "When I'd take a shower at night, my whole body turned black. I was like, 'Didn't think about that.'"

That blunder didn't dissuade Melchior from acting at Colorado State, where she studied psychology until she left to pursue a career in (her term) "Hollyweird." An Old Spice ad led to spots on My So-Called Life and Hercules, not to mention a one-day job at Y&R. "It was supposed to be recurring, but it didn't recur," she shrugs.

Melchior was about to return to college when the SB gig came her way. "I got this job a week before I was supposed to start [school]," she notes. "When you want to do this industry, you have to start when you're young. I can always go back to school."

In the meantime, with work as her #1 priority, Melchior is glad that her sisters, Robin and Kristine, also live in Southern California. "We don't see each other as much as I'd like to," says the actress, who lives 45 miles outside L.A. "But now that I come to Burbank, they can come have lunch."

Dinners are generally reserved for her husband, Rob Melchior, a member of the L.A.P.D.'s elite SWAT division. "He's involved whenever there's a suspect barricaded or hostage situation or they serve high-risk warrants," she explains. "I'm very proud of him."

The pair met a year-and-a-half ago when the actress, a country and western aficionado who can two-step with the best of 'em, and her dance partner stopped at The Western Connection in San Dimas for, she remembers, "one drink and one dance." Enter Rob. "The music swelled, the birds chirped," the actress smiles. "It was insane. I was like, 'Oh, my God. He's dreamy.' He still is. When I met him, I was like, 'You're a cop and a cowboy. You're like all my favourite Village People in one!'"

Speaking of favourites, Melchior admits that she used to schedule her college classes around episodes of Days of our Lives. Imagine her surprise to be filming SB just a few feet away from her old friend in Salem. "I was a little nervous," she admits of being the new kid on the block. "My first two days, I was talking to myself in a hotel room. That was pretty easy, but I was nervous about working with the other actors and what would they think of me." Melchior's fears were quickly put to rest. "Everyone is so nice here," she gushes.

Does "everyone" include Tess? Since arriving in Sunset Beach with Benjy, viewers and characters have smelled a rat. Could the nanny have a nasty side that we haven't seen? "I think everyone is capable of a malicious side," Melchior teases. After all, everyone's a true original.