Susan Pascal  

Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 4/8/2009 8:05 PM UTC

  Profile: Former Baywatch beauty, Melissa Biggs, becomes luxury fashion designer
  

  Melissa Biggs, founder and CEO of P.G.D. Style, considers herself very lucky. “I know I have guardian angels watching over me,” she says. The former “Baywatch” beauty turned clothing designer has had many lucky breaks in her life; however, she’s also been faced with life-threatening challenges.

   

  At the tender age of 18, Biggs left her small home-town in Oregon, where she did some acting and modeling, to seek fame and fortune in Hollywood. “I had $200 in my pocket and knew very little about taking care of myself,” she remembers.   Her first unusual break occurred when she was driving an “old, beat-up car” to meet some high-powered agents. “I knew my brakes weren’t working properly, but I didn’t know how to take care of them, so I continued to drive the car,” she says.   As she was crossing a busy intersection, her brakes died, leaving her careening out of control. In order to avoid hitting a city busy, she swerved but ended up sideswiping a car carrying a group of nuns. 

   

  “No one was hurt, but the entire incident left me visibly shaken,“ she says. So she proceeded to her interview but burst into tears during the audition. Needless to say, she did not make a positive first impression , but the agency reps took pity on her and sent her to a great acting class. “Once again, I screwed up and attended the wrong class.  I ended up in a room full of seasoned professionals, taught by renowned acting coach Ernie Lively,” she recounts  In spite of the mistake, Biggs did so well in the class that Lively asked  to her stay.” Within a month, she was cast on “Baywatch” as a lifeguard.

   

  After three years living and working in Los Angeles, Biggs left to pursue other ventures. Her life took her on a career course filled with twists and turns, both in front of and behind the camera. She modeled, owned a casting agency – which cast for “Die Hard 3” and a Julia Roberts film – got married, had a child, and even ran a children’s acting school. She later moved to Las Vegas to pursue acting, and landed several noteworthy acting and modeling jobs.

   

  She began her entrepreneurial journey after returning to Los Angeles in 2001. She was hired by an international distribution company to be the corporate spokesperson and appeared on over a billion packages promoting their sporting goods equipment in Europe.   “Working with the company, I sat in on a lot of buyer’s meetings, the only woman in a room full of men. Since they had limited product design experience, I would offer ideas and suggestions. They loved what I had to say and used my ideas. Finally I said, ‘I’m not getting paid for this.’ So they offered me my own project,” she states.

   

  The company, a major distributer for Walmart, gave her a project redesigning Walmart's pet department. “I was creating my own version of Martha Stewart Living for pets with had no formal training or background,” she recalls. 

   

  But working 18-hour days took its toll on her and she fell ill. She soon discovered the diagnosis was much more serious than initially thought.

   

  In part 2, we learn more about Bigg’s illness and how it gave her the courage to forge ahead.
  
  Melissa Biggs will be a guest on The Athena Fortune Show Wednesday, May 6th.
  • Tags:
  • fashion
  • women
  • entrepreneur
  • money
  • business
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