Melissa Francis
Melissa is also an inspirational speaker and author, first of her best-selling memoir, Diary of Stage Mother’s Daughter, which chronicles her life growing up as a Hollywood actress, and of Lessons from the Prairie, The Surprising Secrets to Happiness, Success, and (Sometimes Just) Survival I Learned on America’s Favorite Show, which will hit bookshelves this spring.
As an actress, she appeared in numerous motion pictures, television series, and more than a hundred television commercials, and is best known for her role as Michael Landon’s daughter, Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, on Little House on the Prairie. As an author, she’s received praise from The Washington Post, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine, The New York Post, Kirkus Reviews, and Publisher’s Weekly.
Prior to her role at FOX, Melissa spent nine years at CNBC, where she anchored Power Lunch, The Call, and On the Money, and made regular contributions to The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and Weekend Today. She was also the co-host of It’s The Economy on MSNBC with Contessa Brewer. As a journalist she’s interviewed leading CEO’s and political figures from around the world, and spent time focusing on energy markets, covering more than a dozen OPEC meetings, from Venezuela to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Melissa was the first television journalist to report live from the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange.