Christmas is Campbell’s most sentimental season, evoking her late mother’s warmth and the childhood magic she created through cookies, glowing mornings and cherished holiday rituals. — Photo: YAP CHEE HONG/The Star; Location: EQ Kuala Lumpur; Hair & Makeup: ANNIE CHEW/Annie Concept Makeup; Wardrobe: TANGOO
Long before Melissa Campbell found herself on movie sets, she was a quiet, imaginative child who disappeared into books with the intensity of someone searching for answers. Stories were her sanctuary – a place to breathe and escape. They were where she first realised that stepping into someone else’s life could offer clarity about her own.
“As a kid, I was dreamy, curious, always reading,” recalls Campbell, 34, who was born in Newcastle, Australia and now calls Kuala Lumpur home. Her late mother was Malaysian, while her father is Scottish.
“Those characters were my companions. In them, I felt seen.” That early emotional refuge, created in the pages of novels and the worlds she built in her mind, would eventually bloom into her career as an actress.
“I’ve always been fascinated by why people do what they do. Acting lets me explore that, to live many lives inside this one,” says Campbell at Life Inspired’s cover photoshoot at EQ in the heart of KL, where the hotel’s towering Christmas tree sets a festive mood.
Beyond the script
Now, with a career that cuts across film, television and streaming, Campbell chooses her roles with pinpoint sensitivity. The script matters but what matters even more are the people: the producers, directors, showrunners and cinematographers.
“I’ve always been fascinated by why people do what they do. Acting lets me explore that, to live many lives inside this one,” says Campbell.
“These are the people who shape the heartbeat of a story,” she reasons. “A beautiful script can falter if the creative energy behind it isn’t aligned.” On set, she looks for collaborators she can build something meaningful with.
“We’re together for long hours every day,” she explains. “It’s a labour of love. The team needs to feel right.”
But her relationship with characters themselves is just as instinctive. “Some roles only find you when you’re ready,” she muses. “Certain actors are born to play certain roles. Sometimes, you meet a character at exactly the right moment in your life.”
Dawning of a journey
Campbell’s defining turning point arrived early: Anna And The King. She was just eight years old when she stepped onto the grand set of the 1999 film starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun Fatt – a world so magical and immense that it changed her life before she even realised it.
“Looking back, it was the spark that set everything in motion,” she says of the Hollywood blockbuster primarily filmed in Malaysia. “It showed me what filmmaking could be – the scale, the craft, the magic.” The role planted a seed, a possibility. Storytelling wasn’t just something to escape into. It could be a life.
But when asked about the character that transformed her artistically, she lights up at the mention of Suzie in Singaporean 2024 drama The Last Bout. Campbell played a cabaret performer in the 1920s Singapore, living on the fringes of society and clawing her way through a world that offered women almost no mercy.
“I love period pieces,” she says. “Everything about them – the costumes, the constraints, the world-building – it immerses you as an actor.” Suzie allowed her to blend her musical theatre and ballet training with a character who was morally complex, shaped by hardship and survival.
The beauty of becoming
Her craft remains rooted in the same foundational techniques she learned early in her training. What has evolved is life itself, becoming a mother, experiencing loss and joy, maturing with every year.
Her 2026 resolution is both radical and gentle: to be kinder to herself, to protect her peace, to remain soft yet grounded in a world that often demands hardness.
“My emotional library is bigger now,” says Campbell, who is married to Winston Chew; the couple have a one-and-a-half-year-old son. “I have more lived experience to draw from.”
Motherhood, especially, shifted her profoundly. On balancing her career with family, she admits: “It’s incredibly difficult. I love my career but I also love my family so much it hurts, and navigating the space between those two worlds is something I’m still learning.”
For Campbell, the most valuable wisdom gained over decades of working with directors and actors doesn’t come from method or craft.
A toxic set can break a production, no matter how brilliant the script or cast. “People spend so much time together on set – if the energy is off, it leaks into the work.”
“The vibe matters,” she says. “Kindness matters. Respect matters.”
Her recent Astro Originals drama First Wives blends humour with heartache. In the eight-episode series, Campbell plays Michelle who plots revenge (alongside childhood friend Diyana) against their unfaithful husbands. The show, she says, resonates deeply because of its honest portrayal of modern womanhood.
“A man’s nightmare might be a bad career move... but a woman’s nightmare is choosing the wrong husband.” According to Campbell, the show explores sisterhood, motherhood, the invisible labour women carry and the emotional stakes behind holding a family together.
“It’s messy, relatable, painful,” she says. “And the dark comedy makes it even sharper.”
One of her most unforgettable moments came while filming First Wives: five months pregnant, performing mini stunts including a scene inside the boot of a runaway van. “Sounds about right,” she laughs. “Now my son climbs everything and tries to ‘off’ himself every five minutes, so there you go. My career has given me so many of those ‘well, I never thought I’d be here’ moments.”
Making meaningful traditions
If there’s one season that brings out her sentimental side, it’s Christmas. It’s tied to faith but also to her late mother, who infused the holidays with warmth and wonder. “It reminds me of her,” shares Campbell. Childhood memories – cookies for Santa, the glow of Christmas morning, the excitement in the air – remain vivid treasures.
But Yuletide also carries traces of solitude from years when her family life was fractured, or when she was studying alone in the United States and longing for the togetherness others seemed to have.
“Those moments make the traditions I create now even more meaningful,” reflects Campbell.
Today, she leans into intimate gatherings over loud parties. The version of her who once danced until dawn has grown into someone who finds joy in cosy nights, heartfelt conversations and small, thoughtful celebrations.
Her holiday must-haves? The Holiday and Love Actually for movies, and for music, classics by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby plus her unexpected favourite: Bob Dylan’s Christmas album.
Travel remains her ultimate reset button – the instant shift in energy, the inspiration from new environments. “It’s like my soul exhales,” she says.
But as a mother to a toddler who co-sleeps, she jokes that real luxury these days would be uninterrupted sleep. “I haven’t slept more than five hours straight in two years,” she confesses. “If I get a long midday nap, I feel reborn.”
Looking ahead
The past year pushed her to her limits. “I burnt out,” she says. In trying to prove she could “do it all” after having her baby, she drove herself into exhaustion.
Her 2026 resolution is both radical and gentle: to be kinder to herself, to protect her peace, to remain soft yet grounded in a world that often demands hardness. “And to pour more intention into the relationships that matter.”
Professionally, Campbell is thrilled for audiences to see Bad Cop, a premium Astro series adapted from a German crime show. For someone who loves crime dramas, playing a detective feels like a long-awaited itch finally scratched.
“It’s got an incredible cast (Siti Saleha, Aiman Hakim, Tony Eusoff, Alvin Wong and Harvinth Skin),” she enthuses. “Every episode brings something new.”
Personally? “I’m expecting baby number two,” she says, beaming. “We found out on our second wedding anniversary. The timing... it felt like a gift.” And just in time for Christmas, too.
*Photos: YAP CHEE HONG/The Star; Location: EQ Kuala Lumpur; Hair & Makeup: ANNIE CHEW/Annie Concept Makeup; Wardrobe: TANGOO (red dress), SANDRO (balck dress), MAJE (white dress.)
