Melissa Leo Biography

Melissa Chessington Leo, aka Margaret May II or Margaret May is an American Academy Award-nominated actress best known for playing the tough-minded shift-Det. Sgt. Kay Howard on the award-winning TV series Homicide: Life on the Street from 1993–1997. She has also been a regular on All My Children and The Young Riders. Feature films she has appeared in include A Time of Destiny, Last Summer in the Hamptons, 21 Grams, Confess, and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. In 2009, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role at the 81st Academy Awards for her role in Frozen River.

Personal life
Leo was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of Peggy, a teacher, and Arnold Leo, an editor and a fisherman. She has a son with actor and former boyfriend John Heard named John Matthew Heard (born 1987).

She is a former resident of Putney, Vermont