Melissa Grelo

Melissa Grelo was born to Portuguese and Filipino immigrants in Cedar Mills, Ontario, on June 30, 1977. After meeting his future wife in Kensington Market the year he arrived in Canada, in 1971, Melissa’s father, Frank Grelo, established a horse breeding farm and riding school in Cedar Mills. Since they were children, Melissa and her younger sister Rosanna worked alongside their father on the family farm, learning to take care of the horses and stables, along with important lessons about responsibility they carried into their careers as media professionals. Melissa and her sister accompanied their father in many horse (dressage) shows around North America, including the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds, and ACAPO’s Portugal Day parade in Toronto. Melissa’s connection with her Portuguese heritage is also grounded in her many trips to mainland Portugal to visit family in Caldas da Rainha.

Melissa attended a French immersion elementary and high school before continuing her language studies at York University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and French. After completing a Bachelor of Education, she taught grades 7 and 8 at a Montessori High School in Nobleton, Ontario, for several years. During that time, Melissa completed a degree in Broadcast Journalism at Seneca School of Applied Arts and Technology. After graduating in 2006, Melissa started reporting for Barrie’s CKVR TV (later CTV News Barrie). Over the next two years, she moved to A-Channel and was promoted first to Bell Media’s CITY-TV and later CP24 in Toronto. During these years, Melissa reported on municipal and provincial elections, Much Music Video Awards, and the Sunshine Propane explosion in 2008. One of her career highlights came in 2010, when she became the only local television personality to co-host CTV’s live nationwide coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Another career highlight was her reporting from the Red Carpet at the Oscar Academy Awards in 2012. Melissa has also hosted other CTV network broadcasts like the Bell Let’s Talk mental health special with Howie Mandel, the annual Santa Claus Parade and the Queen’s Plate horse race. Between 2012 and 2014, she co-hosted the Daily Planet program on Discovery Channel Canada. In 2013, Melissa became one of the founding hosts of the all-female afternoon talk show The Social, which has since become one of CTV’s leading nationwide programs. In 2016, Melissa joined Your Morning‘s team of hosts, another of CTV’s flagship national shows.

Besides broadcast television, Melissa is also an ambassador for Girls E-Mentorship, a Canadian organization founded in 2012 to empower young women facing socioeconomic disadvantages. She has also been a “celebrity ambassador” for Prince Charles’ Trust Canada. In 2022, she partnered with York University to launch the Melissa Grelo Entrance Award for Black and Indigenous Excellence, which supports Black ad Indigenous women entering the first year at the School of Information Technology or the Department of Economics in the Faculty of Liberals Arts and Professional Studies.

In 2016, Melissa and her business partner Shayna Haddon launched a gender-neutral children’s clothing line called ‘marQ’, named after her daughter Marquesa, born in 2014.