Melanie McLaren grew up beneath the starry skies of Sioux Lookout, her northern Ontario hometown. Today, she spends most of her time among stars of a different kind in Los Angeles.

The up-and-coming actress of mixed Ojibway and French descent has won rave reviews for her first feature film role in Tkaronto (an old Mohawk word for Toronto).

In the film, Melanie plays an Anishnabe artist working on a series of portraits of elders. At her friend's place, she meets a Métis writer who's pitching a movie version of his graphic novel. Together, the two try to find out what it means to be Aboriginal in today's world.

Critical praise for her performance isn't the only thing Melanie's been getting lately. She won the Best Actress Award at the 2008 Talking Stick Film Festival.

It's a far cry from her first year in Los Angeles when Melanie was ready to pack it in and go home because she couldn't find any work.

In time, she won a major cosmetics ad campaign and made her way into modelling and TV commercials. Soon, she landed her first acting part on the cops-and-monsters TV series, Special Unit 2.

Recently, Melanie worked with her sister, Nadia, on a documentary called Muffins for Granny. In this award-winner, seven First Nations elders talk about their experiences in residential schools.

Melanie believes the Aboriginal stories in both Tkaronto and Muffins for Granny are important and need to be told.