Melina Kanakaredes is an American actress who began her career with an appearance on the daytime drama Guiding Light. She portrayed the role of Eleni Andros Spaulding Cooper from 1991 to 1995. She was nominated twice for a Daytime Emmy Award.

Among Kanakaredes' television appearances are Providence, wherein she played the role of Dr. Sydney Hansen, CSI: NY, NYPD Blue, Due South, Oz, The Practice, MTV's The Ben Stiller Show, and a Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of the Anne Tyler novel Saint Maybe. She left CSI: NY in 2010, after six seasons on the program.

She also made appearances in the films The Long Kiss Goodnight as Trin and 15 Minutes as Nicolette Karas, the girlfriend of Robert De Niro's character. She played the role of the Greek Goddess Athena in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and starred in the 2013 drama Snitch.

Melina Eleni Kanakaredes Constantinides was born on April 23, 1967 in Akron, Ohio. She attended Ohio State University for a short time, and then transferred to Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she performed roles in the professional theater scene there, including the role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar at Pittsburgh Musical Theater. She graduated from Point Park in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts in theater. She is married to Peter Constantinides, with whom she has two daughters.