Quick Facts
Biography
Melissa Stark (born November 11, 1973) is an American television personality and sportscaster who works as a reporter for the NFL Network and previously had worked with NBC, which she joined in 2003, primarily at its MSNBC subsidiary. She was also a correspondent for NBC's The Today Show. In the summer of 2008, she anchored MSNBC's coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Prior to NBC, she was best known for her three-year stint as a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football. She has also worked as a reporter for ESPN.
Biography
Early life and career
Stark has a degree in Foreign Affairs and Spanish from the University of Virginia. While in college, she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
She began her career at WMAR-TV in Baltimore in 1991 as a news intern working on the assignment desk.
Stark was a news intern for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in 1993 and 1994 where she wrote scripts and assembled background information on investigative pieces for health correspondent Dr. Bob Arnot.
Prior to joining ESPN, from 1994–95, Stark was a production assistant and reporter for Virginia Sports Marketing in Charlottesville for the University of Virginia's Coach's TV Show, which aired in all major markets in Virginia.
ESPN
Stark joined ESPN in 1996 as the host of the weekly program Scholastic Sports America, where she traveled across the United States covering high school and college sports focusing on human interest and issue-related stories.
From 1996–2003, Stark reported for ESPN's SportsCenter, where she served as a regular contributor to Sunday NFL Countdown and the Emmy Award-winning show, Outside the Lines. Stark was also the SportsCenter on-site host for the NBA Finals, World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, Final Four and covered national stories including Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, golf and NCAA basketball for the network.
ABC Sports
Melissa Stark joined ABC Sports in June 2000. She was the lead sideline reporter for ABC Sports' Monday Night Football for three seasons, from 2000-03, which included ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego. Stark also served as a reporter for ABC Sports' coverage of figure skating, the NFL Pro Bowl and celebrity golf events.
In 2001, Stark was detained in Mexico after a security guard, not knowing she worked for ABC covering an NFL game, refused her, Al Michaels and Dan Fouts entry into the stadium where the game was being played. The detention lasted a while before the matter was resolved and the charges dropped. Stark admits to being quite embarrassed that she couldn't communicate with Mexican police since Spanish was one of her majors.
In addition to her sports casting career, Stark has appeared as a guest host on The View and was the co-host of ABC Entertainment's 2001 pilot presentation of The Runner, a prime-time reality-based program conceived by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
NBC News and Sports
In July 2003, Stark joined NBC News as a National Correspondent for The Today Show and would also anchor MSNBC Live.
She made her NBC Sports debut in 2004 contributing reports and interviews for the network’s coverage of the Triple Crown and other big horse racing events for the network.*[1]
In 2005, Stark participated as a reporter for NBC's New Year's Eve coverage, hosted by Carson Daly. She left MSNBC Live and The Today Show in November 2006. She also hosted MSNBC's coverage of the 2009 Super Bowl.
Stark worked her third Olympic Games for NBC Sports serving as an anchor for MSNBC's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Previously, Stark served as the speed skating reporter during NBC's coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics and the swimming and diving reporter at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
NFL Network
Stark has also recently started doing field work for NFL Network, more specifically, the shows NFL Total Access and Around The League Live. Stark is set to host the NFL Network newest gameday show First on the Field on September 9, 2012. Starting with the 2013 NFL regular season, Melissa Stark will be hosting the on-site pre-game show, GameDay Kickoff (renamed GameDay First) at primetime designations along with Shaun O'Hara, Sterling Sharpe, and Brian Billick.
Personal life
Melissa is the daughter of Walter Stark, an eye surgeon at the world-famous Wilmer Eye Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Growing up in Baltimore, she graduated from the Roland Park Country School, a prestigious women's prep school in Baltimore, before attending the University of Virginia.
She resides in Rumson, New Jersey with her four children and is married to Mike Lilley. She also owns a home in Sea Bright, New Jersey per The Boomer & Carton Show, November 14, 2012.