Melanie Gorham is an American actress who is best known for her role as Violet in Wayne Wang's films Smoke and Blue in the Face.

Gorham's improvised monologue in Blue in the Face garnered her much critical acclaim and press.blank">http://melgorham.com/blueintheface.htm Major film roles in _Curdled and Cop Land followed. In 1997, Gorham was then cast as the star of an NBC sitcom titled Union Square. But after the pilot was filmed, the producers replaced her with Constance Marie.blank">http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0330917/news Gorham returned to the world of _New York City theater where she began. After a long absence, she returned to film with a role in Wayne Wang's 2001 film The Center of the World. She continues work in film and theater.

The sitcom "Union Square" was originally conceived as a vehicle for latina actress Gorham. The original pilot of the series was centered around Gorham as a wacky worker in a Florida souvenir shop who moved to New York and found herself at a diner surrounded by equally wacky characters. Before it aired, the network and producers decided Gorham wasn't the right fit for the series, and the show was retooled as more of an ensemble piece, with Constance Marie in the now-reduced role vacated by Gorham.