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Melissa Ann Francis (born in Los Angeles, California) is a television journalist and news anchor for CNBC. Melissa is the co-anchor of CNBC's morning show, The Call and MSNBC’s It’s the Economy. She is also a frequent contributor to NBC’s Today Show and Weekend Today Show. She is also an American former child actress.

Education

Francis graduated from Harvard University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and served as executive editor of the Harvard College Economist Magazine. She was the captain of the Harvard Polo Team.

Career

Acting

Melissa started her acting career on television before her first birthday, first appearing in a Johnson & Johnson shampoo commercial at 6 months old. She is best known for her role as Cassandra Cooper Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. She appeared as one of Michael Landon’s children for two seasons during the early 1980's.^[1][2] Other television appearances include two series regular roles: Morningstar/Eveningstar and Joe’s World, and three films including the film Man, Woman and Child where she played Paula Beckwith; she appeared in the television series St. Elsewhere in 1986; she also played a role in Family Affair as Cynthia; and also in the 1988 film Bad Dreams, where she played as young Cynthia. Melissa appeared in nearly 100 commercials during her acting career.

Television Journalist

Melissa Francis is a financial news anchor for CNBC on its morning show The Call.^[3][4] She originally provided live hourly reports from the New York Mercantile Exchange on trading in crude oil futures contracts, where Francis earned the moniker "The Empress of Energy" from veteran CNBC anchor Larry Kudlow for successfully predicting the upcoming ethanol boom in the United States, weeks before it actually took place. She was the first reporter to broadcast live from the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

She has since appeared regularly on Kudlow's program, The Kudlow Report. Francis also co-anchors It's the Economy on MSNBC Live Tuesday and Thursdays at 2pm with Contessa Brewer. Prior to CNBC, Francis was a correspondent for CNET's broadcast unit, where she covered finance, technology and consumer products.^[5]

Before CNET, Francis was a News 12 New Jersey reporter, and anchored for many New England television stations in Hartford Manchester, New Hampshire, Providence. She also served as producer for WCSH-TV in Portland, Maine and researcher for MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. She was a NBC News intern twice before graduating from college.

References

External links

• Melissa Francis at the Internet Movie Database
• Melissa Francis at TV.com
• Biography at CNBC