Her voice smashed the glass ceiling- Melissa Disney
Updated: Sep 26
I guarantee you've heard her....and now you get to meet the woman behind the voice. She's maybe the busiest woman voice actor in the country. She's great at it! From the voice of a raspy pre-teen animated character to the powerful voice on the Academy awards, Melissa Disney does it all. On this awesome episode you'll hear her wild romp through every possible voice acting opportunity: movie trailers, commercials, video games, animation, radio shows, a Christian meditation app..... she's even recorded a couple of albums along the way. As amazing as her career has been, her faith story is just as amazing. Walking through depression, contemplating suicide and feeling like there is a battle for her soul is all a part of her journey.
MELISSA DISNEY AT A GLANCE
Voiceover actress, live announcer, animation performer, singer, songwriter, and Christian meditation writer known for major award shows, movie trailers, character voices, commercials, and Abide.
Topics
Voiceover · Movie trailers · Academy Awards · Animation · Acting · As Told by Ginger · Hermie and Friends · Abide · Faith · Shame · Forgiveness · Music · Motherhood · Loss · Trusting God
Her Faith Journey
Christian faith → seasons of shame and spiritual struggle → abortion and difficulty forgiving herself → suicidal thoughts and reaching out to God → renewed understanding of God's love and forgiveness → deeper faith and songwriting → helping others through recovery and Christian meditation
This Episode Explores
Melissa Disney's work announcing major award shows
The pressure behind the scenes at the Academy Awards
How auditions opened doors in voiceover
Becoming the first woman to voice a major movie trailer
Her relationship with legendary trailer voice Don LaFontaine
Her character work in animation, including Ginger in As Told by Ginger
Her roles in Hermie and Friends
Commercial voiceover and video-game work
Why she sometimes turns down roles that conflict with her values
Writing and recording Christian meditations for Abide
Melissa's struggle with shame and learning to receive God's forgiveness
Her song "Child of Mine" and the story behind it
Her experience facilitating post-abortion recovery groups
Learning to trust God through seasons of loss
Questions Answered
Who is Melissa Disney?
What does Melissa Disney do?
What award shows has Melissa Disney announced?
How did Melissa Disney get into voiceover?
How did Melissa Disney become a movie-trailer voice?
What was Melissa Disney's connection with Don LaFontaine?
What character did Melissa Disney play in As Told by Ginger?
What roles did Melissa Disney play in Hermie and Friends?
Why does Melissa Disney turn down some video-game roles?
What does Melissa Disney do for Abide?
What is Melissa Disney's faith story?
How did Melissa Disney deal with shame and forgiveness?
What is the story behind Melissa Disney's song "Child of Mine"?
How has Melissa Disney helped women through post-abortion recovery?
Core Story
Melissa Disney's remarkable voiceover career includes major award shows, movie trailers, animation, commercials, video games, SiriusXM and Christian meditation. But beneath the career story is a deeply personal journey of faith. Melissa describes carrying profound shame after an abortion, experiencing a period when she contemplated suicide, and ultimately reaching out to God and experiencing what she describes as being pulled back into His love. That experience shaped her music, her work with women in post-abortion recovery, and her desire to help others find hope, peace and trust in God while navigating fear, forgiveness and loss.
Podcast Transcript: Melissa Disney — Voiceover, Faith, Hollywood & Finding God's Voice
Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen
Introduction
Ric Hansen — 00:00
Hi, Ric Hansen here with Amazing Greats, episode number 12, now officially into our sixth month. That's right. Thanks to you, our audience, we continue to grow, and we appreciate so much your sharing us with your friends, all the likes, and your input.
You're gonna love this one. It's fun, it's upbeat. Our guest is one of the most listened-to voices in the world, Melissa Disney. I guarantee you've heard her somewhere, whether as the voice of the Academy Awards, on a McDonald's commercial, maybe in one of her character roles in animation, on a video game, on SiriusXM Channel 33, or on the Abide meditation app.
In fact, Melissa is the woman who broke the glass ceiling as the first female voice on a major movie trailer. The conversation gets really real here in about 30 minutes, so make sure you stay tuned to the end, when she's going to share her heart-wrenching story.
Lots of laughter, and yes, some tears with our amazing guest, Melissa Disney.
What a great honor it is to have an opportunity to chat with you about your life and your career and how faith has interacted with all of that.
I guess the thing that stood out to me mostly about your career is this kind of glass ceiling that you broke through in a male-dominated industry of voiceover work. Even in radio back in the day, you didn't hear females a lot on radio. But you really kind of busted through all that.
I'm excited to find out how, why, and more about that.
So let's start with the one that to me is the most obvious, which is announcing for some of the biggest live events in the country—the Academy Awards, the Country Music Awards, the MTV Awards, the Nickelodeon Awards. Your voice was a part of the—
Melissa Disney — 02:10
There were a couple of those that weren't even true.
Ric Hansen
Oh, really?
Melissa Disney
That's what we keep coming— that's what Wikipedia does. I have a different folder on there and everything.
Ric Hansen — 02:25
So, which is true?
Award Show Announcer Clips — 02:27
"Welcome to the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. Don't you even think about going anywhere. The Spike TV Guys Choice Awards will be right back."
"The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards will be right back, live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood."
"The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences welcomes you to the 82nd Annual Academy Awards."
Behind the Academy Awards
Ric Hansen — 02:51
I gotta ask you about the Academy Awards, because this is something I don't know and I'm really intrigued by. Are you physically there? Are you at the Academy Awards?
Melissa Disney — 03:01
Yes.
Ric Hansen
Not prerecorded?
Melissa Disney
I'm basically just keeping the Oscar company, you know, because he's very lonely until he gets into the hands of the— I don't get to touch anything. It's hilarious.
I am so far from the hoopla. I'm back in a trailer, like a literal trailer that's padded up with moving blankets. And then they try to make it look nice in there, and kind of bless them because it's not pretty.
And every now and then they'll bring in a little cow and whatever, and then I have this gal that sits with me because she has to help. It gets a little confusing because you have to keep track of so much information. People are winning, and then you have to say, "This is their second nomination and their third win. This is their first thing," you know.
So she keeps track of all that and keeps me on my game. And yeah, I'm pretty far away. I'm back with all the tech guys. Super unglamorous, and yet there's this cloud of pressure.
Ric Hansen — 04:05
Absolutely. The whole world is watching you.
Melissa Disney — 04:08
I push the button that goes to the whole world.
So sorry, I'm holding this on my lap and it keeps wobbling.
Ric Hansen — 04:14
Was there any faux pas, any problems, any challenges that happened backstage that are of interest where you messed it up?
Melissa Disney — 04:22
I've messed up at a lot of award shows.
But the key is that even if you're saying someone's name wrong or you don't totally remember how to say it or something—which is very rare, because I study, study, study the phonetics of these names—even if you do and you start it out and you know in your mind, "It's not coming out right. I know it's not," you just stay in a confident place. You just stay totally confident.
It's like something that I'm learning in my world as a wife, you know, when your husband starts telling a story and it's totally not how the story went. And he's like, "Yeah," and he keeps going, and you're just like, "Uh-huh. Uh-huh."
Ric Hansen
Yeah.
Melissa Disney
When you're with a group of people and you don't say anything until later.
Ric Hansen
Yeah, yeah.
So how did you get that job? How did they find you? How did you find them? How did that all happen?
Breaking Into Live Announcing
Melissa Disney — 05:19
Well, first we can always say, okay, God's got a hand in everything, I'm sure, because doors have opened that I don't understand how they opened.
But mostly it's just through auditions. I remember years ago my agent asking me, "Would you be interested in doing the live announcing stuff?"
And because I've grown up in musical theater, I've done a lot of stage work. I'm like, "Yeah, sure, why not?"
And then as soon as you say yes to it, you audition, and if you get it, you're in. You're just like, you know, you're in the fire, and nobody really teaches you how to do it.
But if you do it well, there's a very small group of people that do it, and if they can trust you—because I have the button to the world, right? I'm not gonna do anything weird or destroy the show. They trust you, they like you, they think your voice sounds great with the show, then I think they hire you more and more.
Ric Hansen — 06:15
Yeah, you're kind of in the circle of all that action's going on.
Melissa Disney — 06:19
Yeah. And it's a hard thing. You have to be able to trust that person a lot, and not to mess up and give away any secrets and, you know, that kind of thing.
Becoming a Movie Trailer Voice
Ric Hansen — 06:30
Were you the first female voice on a major awards show like that?
Melissa Disney — 06:37
Oh no. They've been doing this.
I was the first female—probably what you're thinking is to do a movie trailer. To do—want to talk about that too?
But "glass ceiling," yeah, which I had no idea what I was doing. That's pretty much what I do.
Ric Hansen — 06:54
Let's talk about that. How did that all come together?
So there's this guy named Don LaFontaine.
Commercial Clip — 07:04
"Paulo Sela is a real GEICO customer, not an actor. So to help tell her story, we hired that announcer guy from the movies."
"When the storm hit, both our cars were totally underwater."
"In a world where both of our cars were totally underwater..."
"We thought it would take forever to get some help."
"But a new wind was about to blow."
Melissa Disney — 07:24
He's the guy, right? I mean, he's the— and a Christian, by the way. Sweetheart. Total sweetheart. Loved him.
He became my mentor after a while. He was so neat.
Ric Hansen — 07:38
He's the one that did "In a World..." You know, that big, beautiful place.
Melissa Disney
Yeah. That was great.
Ric Hansen
So cool.
Melissa Disney — 07:51
Well, I didn't realize that he was using voiceover for trailers very much.
Ric Hansen — 07:57
I didn't realize there was that good of a solid connection between you and him. That's pretty cool. I like it.
Melissa Disney — 08:02
Yeah, he was and is. I mean, it's hard to say somebody like "was" because in my mind I'm so connected to the truth of there's heaven, right? So we're gonna see everybody again.
So in my mind, I'm thinking, I'm already thinking like, "I can't wait to hang out with him in heaven," right?
Ric Hansen
Yeah.
Melissa Disney
So I know, I know. I must be like a weirdo, but whatever.
Melissa Disney — 08:23
This was hilarious.
So we're at a studio many years ago before we got home studios. We all worked at studios, and I was in one room doing some job, and he was in another room doing a job.
They both happened to come out at the same time on a break, and there was like one bagel left or something, and he's like, "Do you want to share with me?"
And I was like, "Okay."
So we did, and we started talking, and within like the first five minutes, he asked me if I wanted to come ride with him in his limo.
I'm like, "Who's this dirty old man?"
Ric Hansen — 09:02
Really young at the time, and I'm just like, "Okay, you know, ride in your studio—hurry—in your limo?"
Melissa Disney — 09:09
And he was so funny, but I was still like, "I don't know if I should trust this guy."
I go back in and I'm doing my job, and I'm like, "You guys gotta tell you what just happened." It was so funny.
And they're like, "Oh, that's Don. He's serious."
And I'm like, "What?"
"Yeah, like the trailer guy. He's like the godfather of trailers. You really should take him up on it."
I'm like, "Oh, okay."
So I'm starting to learn about him. I had heard of him, but I didn't know that was him.
And then I told my agent about it. My agent's like, "That's serious. He takes people for rides in his limo because he does so much work that he literally has no time to park. So he has a limo drive around from studio to studio to studio."
Ric Hansen — 09:49
Oh my gosh. Wow.
Melissa Disney — 09:50
And that all changed when we got home studios.
But still, I was the only one. And he used to take people on ride-alongs because he'd get bored in the car and get a little lonely. Voiceover can be a little lonely, you know.
Ric Hansen — 10:04
Yeah. It's kind of cool that he took you into his inner circle, right?
Melissa Disney — 10:08
Yeah, right away. And he was really sweet.
So I just got to kind of hang out and get to know him for an entire day. It was really amazing. He's such—his heart is so huge and so giving and so generous and just beautiful.
Gone in 60 Seconds
Ric Hansen — 10:28
Well, what was your first big break in that area? What did you do a movie for?
Melissa Disney — 10:36
I auditioned for a trailer called Gone in Sixty Seconds.
Movie Trailer Clip — 10:41
"Time it took you to buy your ticket: 3.2 minutes. Time it took you to get your popcorn: 2.5 minutes. Time it took them, man—oh, let's go, let's go, go, to steal your car."
Melissa Disney — 11:00
It was so funny because I'm pretty sure I was the first female ever to walk into their studio for that audition.
Ric Hansen
Really?
Melissa Disney
Wow. And it was this very sexy, sultry thing, and I just decided, since I'm kind of—I'm one of those actors who's like, "Let's just jump into the tone of this thing."
They showed me a clip and I saw Angelina Jolie, and she's like really cool and really laid back. So I just did her, you know. And I would ask the guys, "Do you want it like sexier? Do you want it this?"
Ric Hansen
And they're like, "Yeah, okay."
Melissa Disney
They just let me play and have fun.
And then they picked me up. They used me for the trailer, but then, without me realizing it—I didn't know how trailers worked—they kept bringing me in and bringing me in and bringing me in to do more and more and more.
It was so similar, like I was changing the word here, changing this line, changing that. And I said to my agent, "I don't understand, like, why do they keep bringing me back?"
And he's like, "No, this is how trailers work. They just keep— they make one for international, they make a radio, they make a TV—"
"Oh, interesting. Okay."
"Online, everyone's a little bit different."
And the pay was really good. It was just amazing.
So then all these women who had found out about this, they started coming up to me, and I started getting interviews with The Hollywood Reporter and everything. And I was on the cover of—
Ric Hansen — 12:29
How cool is that?
Melissa Disney — 12:30
It was amazing!
I had started doing tons and tons of trailers because they were like, "This is the new thing. Let's get women in."
Every year there's a new thing, so it was really neat. I didn't know what a glass ceiling was for a really long time. I didn't understand that.
Ric Hansen — 12:47
What period of time were we talking? Early 2000s?
Melissa Disney — 12:53
Yeah, I think it was around 2000, 2001, 2002, somewhere in there. I don't know. We'd have to call that movie.
The Voiceover Community
Ric Hansen — 12:58
Even to this day, you're probably one of the more go-to female voices for a lot of things. It's probably part of it because you're great at doing it, but the other part of it is because you have that trust factor going. People know that they can trust you to be there and to do a great job and be professional.
There's another person that's fairly prominent. I was just browsing the internet for other voice talents. There's another female that's fairly prominent. I just wondered if you knew her. It was Randy Thomas.
Melissa Disney
Yeah, yeah.
Ric Hansen
We're friends. Your friends?
Melissa Disney
Yeah. She's in LA as well. She does a ton of live announcing, award shows, all kinds of different things, promos. She's great. I'll go teach at some of her events.
Animation and Character Voices
Ric Hansen — 13:51
So let's talk animation.
Animation Clips — 13:53
"I looked up handsome in the phone book, and then I called him up and asked for your address."
"Haley, Bailey, what do you think you're doing? I told you not to get dirty and to stay with Hermie."
"It's time for you and me and arise up and strike."
Ric Hansen — 14:13
You've done some fun animation work, and that's gotta be a totally different path.
Because you're not only doing voice work, but you're doing a different voice with a different personality, and you kind of have to adopt all that, right?
Melissa Disney — 14:33
To me, it's all the same. You know, it's all acting.
You just stay in the moment. Just stay truthful to what you're doing.
So whether I'm doing an award show and somebody comes out that I have to announce that I maybe personally am not a fan of or whatever, in that moment I am their biggest fan. And I love that.
And so it's just like in doing animation, you find—in doing character work, you try, for me, to get into the moment of where we are, the age I'm at, all that kind of stuff.
Just stay in that moment, stay in that truth, and just live it and see it.
When I teach, I tell my students, it's the playground of the mind. You just see as much as you possibly can and visualize it, and you'll be there so much quicker.
Ginger on As Told by Ginger
Ric Hansen — 15:28
One of your biggest ongoing roles happened in the early 2000s, as you were playing the role of Ginger in As Told by Ginger, which was a Nickelodeon—
Melissa Disney
Yeah.
Ric Hansen
So tell us about that character and who was that that you became?
Melissa Disney — 15:52
I think honestly, it was such a gift because I really got to play myself in junior high.
Ric Hansen
In junior high, right? So she's a junior high school kid, right?
Melissa Disney — 16:03
The character of Ginger, she's very insecure and young and naive to begin with, and queen of the nerds kind of thing.
And yet she's got a mother who keeps her very grounded, and it was so beautifully written.
Emily Kapnek wrote it, and I think she was pretty young when she wrote it. She submitted it for a competition, and Klasky Csupo picked it up, and we did all our recording there.
And then the funny thing is, when it comes to character work, you do kind of sort of keep a little Rolodex of not so much characters, but sounds and all kinds of things.
There was a girl down the street when I lived down at the beach in Santa Monica, and she had this super raspy voice, which seems to be my normal voice today.
It was this little tiny girl with this really raspy voice, and at the audition I just decided Ginger could have just this rasp. She could just be like—I don't know. It just kind of fit the character.
And Emily said when she heard that audition, she was like, "That's my Ginger."
Character Clip — 17:15
"Sasha, wait, listen. I think you got the wrong impression the other day. See, I'm not like Courtney Grippling. I mean, the way she talked to you, it was really rude."
Melissa Disney — 17:24
That's her.
And I don't think it was the rasp as much as it was that I just had that inner insecurity that I just understood what it was like.
Ric Hansen — 17:34
That was one of my big questions about a character voice, because the people who created that character maybe have an idea in their mind about what they sound like.
But it really comes down to the actress themselves, right? I mean, it becomes who you believe that character sounds like because that's what, in this case—
Melissa Disney — 18:00
Yeah, it is. And it's really a nice little marriage of, you know, when it works, it's great when kind of their idea matches what your idea might be.
And hopefully you can exceed their expectation for what they're looking for character-wise.
Ric Hansen
Yeah.
Melissa Disney
So I have fun with it.
Ric Hansen — 18:21
That series ran for three seasons or something like that? Was it a couple, three years?
Melissa Disney
It's coming back again.
Ric Hansen
Oh, it is?
Melissa Disney
Yeah, they're playing it. I don't know. Nick something is playing it. I just can't remember.
Ric Hansen
Are you getting royalties?
Melissa Disney
I don't think for this latest round yet, but yes, for years I have.
And God bless royalties. God bless the union, because that's how the actors survive, you know.
Hermione and Friends
Ric Hansen — 18:48
Then there was a Christian video series that you were involved in. Hermie and Friends. And you worked with some heavyweights in that cast, right? It was Don Knotts and M. Conway and Vicki Lawrence. And you were Lucy. Tell me about that character.
Melissa Disney — 19:14
So I played Lucy the Ladybug, and then I played her two daughters, Haley and Bailey.
Ric Hansen
Oh, you played all of those?
Melissa Disney
Yeah. And the elusive Lizzie—I think it was Lizzie Lizard.
Sometimes I can get a character just from a picture. They showed me this picture of this lizard and the way she walks, and I was just like, "She's really cool. She's kind of like a surfer girl from San Rico. Like, she's super cool, man."
That's how I kind of did that one.
Somebody said that they thought she sounded kind of stoner-ish, so Lizard didn't really come back.
Ric Hansen
No, no, that's fine.
Melissa Disney — 20:03
It's really fun.
And the ladybug mom, Lucy, is just—I mean, what a precious, precious show that is. I just love that show and what they teach on it. It's beautiful.
It's just the caring mom, but she gets very stern when she needs to. The daughters who are always trying to rebel.
Ric Hansen
Yeah. You know, the typical.
Did that get played on broadcast somewhere, or was that just a video series, as far as you know?
Melissa Disney — 20:39
I think it's on—I wouldn't be surprised if it's on other Christian network stations sometimes. I feel like I can go on YouTube and watch it too. Like, it's out there.
Ric Hansen
Well, yeah, because I found it on YouTube. I watched a portion of one episode, and that's where I found out. I heard the—can you do Mom's voice, Lucy's voice?
Melissa Disney — 21:05
Yeah, when I'm not sick.
"Oh, girls, just, you know, come over here. Stop fighting."
I mean, it's the quintessential, you know, "Oh, girls."
Ric Hansen
Kind of your sweet voice. It's kind of you being very momly.
Melissa Disney
My momly voice. I like that.
Commercials and Variety
Ric Hansen — 21:40
So then on top of all of that, there's just the amazing number of commercials—commercials for commercial companies.
Boeing, you've done Starbucks, you've done Google, Domino's and McDonald's.
Melissa Disney
Yeah, I used to do a lot of McDonald's.
You know, that's life as an actor. I just stay open to everything.
Some people, I think they kind of like having a niche. They like having that. And I like having variety. I get bored fast.
I'd rather just sort of be open to anything and play and have a good time, and whatever comes, comes. I'm totally fine with that.
Video Games and Personal Boundaries
Ric Hansen — 22:23
Then video games came.
Melissa Disney
Video games came, yeah, sure.
Ric Hansen
Yeah, that opened up a whole new world of opportunity, right?
Melissa Disney
Yeah. And a whole new thing for me to turn down.
Ric Hansen
What do you mean by that? You don't like doing video games?
Melissa Disney — 22:43
Not if I have to scream and yell.
As a singer, as a songwriter, as a person who's in this long term, I just don't like trashing my voice that way. It's horrible.
And so many of the games are really disgusting and bloody.
So there have been times where I've said, "Okay, I'll do this character, but I'm not gonna do the screaming."
And they're like, "Huh?"
And I go, "Yeah, get a screamer."
And occasionally they will.
And then there was a time when I was doing—I can't remember the name of the series, but it had the word "blood" in it. And I was like, "Ugh."
And I'm playing a kind of a big character in it, but I'm like the assistant to the lead or something.
And I said, "I'm not gonna do any of the cussing. I just—I don't. I'll cuss on certain things when I feel like it's necessary for that character to show what that person's going through. But for this, I was like, no, this is ridiculous. This is no."
So I just said, "Yeah, I'm not gonna do any of the cussing stuff."
And they're like, "Huh?"
So I just didn't feel like it's necessary. And I was like, "You can get someone else. I don't really care."
But they loved me enough as the character that they said, "Okay."
So they took out all the cussing.
And then this was really, really encouraging for me, because I went to like the second session, and there were these really long sessions where they put a camera on you right here, and you have a light shining in your eyes, and other cameras right here getting your facial expressions.
It's really bizarre, and very cool, but hard to act with all that junk on you.
Melissa Disney — 24:28
And this engineer-editor came up to me and he's like, "Thank you so much. I love editing your work because you're the only person in this whole cast who's not cussing at me the whole time."
Like, well, that says something.
Ric Hansen
Yeah, there you go. That's awesome.
Faith, Abide and Meditation
Ric Hansen — 24:46
Our podcast, Amazing Greats, is all about people who are successful in what they've done in their career and in their life.
But we also really like to dig deeper into their love of Jesus. And I know you have demonstrated that.
In fact, I found you on an app that's called Abide.
Melissa Disney
Oh, that's right.
Ric Hansen
Okay, yeah, and it's a Christian app.
Melissa Disney
Did they put you to sleep?
Ric Hansen
I don't listen to the sleepy ones. I can't. Just good meditation ones.
Melissa Disney — 25:30
It's just so neat.
During the whole quarantine and the COVID era that we're in, a lot of the jobs were going away.
I started really getting into writing meditations because I would write them for my son to help him so he wouldn't have nightmares.
And I told a friend, and then she had me do it for my mom's group. We were all on Zoom, and I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna lead them in this meditation that I can do for my son."
And by the end of it, everybody was on the floor. Everybody was passed out.
Ric Hansen
Put them to sleep. Oh, great.
Melissa Disney — 26:05
I was just sitting there on Zoom like, "Should I go?"
They got up and talked, but it was really fun.
And so one of my friends—there's a new one coming out called Amen. So it was on the ground floor. We got to help—not develop it. We were just like, my husband and I started writing for them, and I was doing the voiceover.
And then another friend told me about Abide and said, "I'm gonna give them your name."
So they did.
So I've been doing a lot of Abide work, and I didn't realize I'd be doing this much writing. It's very different, the writing stuff for me.
My husband's the writer, but I feel like, gosh, I'm a writer now too. So I've always been a writer. I just get paid for it.
Ric Hansen — 26:51
See, there's news for me because I didn't realize the voice of those Abide—who actually wrote the meditation themselves?
Melissa Disney
Not everybody. Not everybody.
If you want to try your hand at writing it, yeah. And I did because I had been writing for this other company, so I was like, "Oh yeah, I can do this. I can write."
So it's been really good for me spiritually and mentally because, as everybody was caught up in a lot of fear, I was like, "Take a deep breath. Let's relax. Let's, you know, like try."
I was doing research on how to get relaxed and how to help people with fear and how to help people feel more hope and all that kind of stuff.
Melissa Disney's Faith Journey
Ric Hansen — 27:30
So that brings me to the question of—you’re a follower of Jesus and have been. Was there an aha moment for you that kind of turned the tide and brought you close to Jesus?
Melissa Disney
So many.
Ric Hansen
So many. Good.
Melissa Disney — 27:52
I think there were a lot early on.
In my twenties, some work started coming and I'd moved to LA and I was doing a lot of voiceover stuff and commercials and everything. But I always felt like there was something really wrong with me.
And I went through this time—okay, this is gonna sound really freaky. Can I tell you something freaky?
Ric Hansen
I love to hear from it.
Melissa Disney
You love work? Okay.
So I don't know. But I woke up and I had been dealing with a lot of shame, a lot of shame.
And I woke up with a demon in my face telling me that God didn't love me anymore and I needed to kill myself, and God didn't want anything to do with me.
Ric Hansen
Whoa.
Melissa Disney
Yeah. It was so real.
You know those things that you're like, "I don't think that was a dream." I think that was sort of in that waking-up thing, and it was just so like, ugh.
And it hit me so hard, and I believed the lie for a little while and just thought, "That's it. God doesn't love me. God doesn't want me."
And I'm very open about this because of the subject of abortion, because I'd gone through an abortion when I was younger.
I'd gotten into counseling and stuff, but still there was something eating at me, like the shame of it.
There was just this thing that I couldn't let go of.
Like, I later understood how God could forgive me, but I still for years felt like I couldn't forgive myself. And I didn't know that for a long time. I just carried it with me.
And I literally—that was the only time I contemplated suicide. And I had no idea how or what or anything. It was just the thought of it.
And I know a lot of people have been through this depression and everything. It's everywhere and it's really awful.
So anyway, sidetracked.
I tried to call my mom. I tried to call my old therapist. I tried to call friends. Nobody would return my call.
It was the weirdest time. I couldn't figure it out.
And then my Jewish boyfriend at the time said something really interesting.
I told him, "I feel like there's like this battle for my soul right now."
And he goes, "Why do you Christians always think there's a battle for your soul?"
And I'm like, "There is. I feel it."
I actually felt like I was being pulled and that I could make a decision right then.
"Am I gonna believe that God loves me, or am I gonna take my own life?"
It was really weird, and I never acted upon it or anything, but I reached out to God so hard in that moment. I had nowhere else to go.
And I felt like, if I could put a visual, it felt like a hand came down, like a hand of light, and all I had to do was put my hand up, and He just grabbed on and just pulled me out.
Yeah. It just felt like He just pulled me.
And it wasn't something that happened instantaneously.
As a songwriter, of course, I had to write a song about it because that's therapy. And it became—I have a song called "Child of Mine," or it's also called "The Drum Song."
It's on my first album. I think it's on my first album called Sweet Faith.
And it's literally me just pounding on a drum, just pounding on a drum. It was like getting back to the basics and the heartbeat of God.
What is His heartbeat for us?
That He loves us. He wants us. It doesn't matter what we've done. He is gonna always be there for us.
You know, don't believe the lie.
And it was so good, and it brought me back to a place with Him where I got to go deeper and I got to see His character more and understand myself more.
So it's really—it's like my favorite song of everything I've written, and it's very powerful.
Music, Loss and Post-Abortion Recovery
Ric Hansen — 31:50
Really? Yeah. I'll have to go back.
I saw some of the music stuff that you've done online as well, and I didn't have a chance to go through it all. But that album that you're talking about, that was put out in like the mid-2000s, 2006 or '07?
Melissa Disney
Yeah, yeah. That was a while back.
And then I did another one, 2010-ish.
Ric Hansen
Also a Christian-based album?
Melissa Disney — 32:14
The second one isn't as much. The first one definitely is. The word "God" is in it a lot more.
I have a song called "Dancing with Jesus."
Ric Hansen
I saw that.
Melissa Disney
My producer that helped me with that was this Jewish guy, and he just loved the "Dancing with Jesus" song. He was so cool.
And then the second one really was like a compilation of love songs and a couple new things I had just put together.
I ended up writing a song for my daughter that I named Sarah, and that's in heaven, and I wrote a song about her and my journey through that.
And that's really amazing. That's gone out to a lot of people who have dealt with abortion and gone through the healing time period.
And I would think you heal the rest of your life, but you know what I mean.
If you go into post-abortion recovery groups, that's something else that I did about 10 or 15 years ago. I went and started becoming a counselor, basically, like a facilitator for those groups.
So I've had a lot of women go through it and come out the other side.
I mean, it's just—the transformation. It tears you down from the inside, and it shows on the outside.
People don't realize, if you've gone through that kind of experience and you've said yes to a death in your own body, it's horrific what it does to your self-image.
And people end up with eating disorders and drug and alcohol problems, and some women can't even go to baby showers because they can't stand hearing a baby crying because it triggers them.
Oh my gosh, there's so much.
Family and a Season of Loss
Ric Hansen — 34:05
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. That's a really powerful story.
You have a son now, son and a daughter?
Melissa Disney
And a daughter.
Ric Hansen
Okay. How old are they?
Melissa Disney
He's nine and she's three.
Ric Hansen
Nine and three. So you're a super mom right now.
Melissa Disney
Yes.
Right now I'm on a little day off where I'm working, but I'm not. My husband has the kids, and I'm helping my mom pack up to move. I'm helping my parents, taking a break with Ric.
Ric Hansen
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you for that, for sure.
So you've shared with a couple of my questions—your biggest faith challenge—and I think you've pretty much shared that with us. And that was one of them. It's been a lot.
But you've been very authentic and vulnerable, and I appreciate that a lot in talking to you. I've really, in this short time that we've been together, really come to love you and admire you.
Melissa Disney
So I get to interview you next.
Ric Hansen
Okay. Like we were talking earlier, before we went on digital, that we like talking about ourselves best, right? Because we know ourselves best.
Melissa Disney
It's so easy. It's so ridiculous, isn't it?
Yeah, I think watching the hummingbird effort is so pretty.
Ric Hansen
Well, the cool part about the audio for this interview is that birds are chirping.
Melissa Disney
I should just show you guys these trees. I'm just watching the birds just go nuts. That's so pretty.
Ric Hansen
Look at that.
Melissa Disney
Yeah, isn't that pretty?
Yeah, so I'm going through a tumultuous time right now that I didn't expect would be this tumultuous.
My parents have to sell the family home, and I'm like—I've just been dealing with so much sadness. Just sad. I don't want them to sell it. I wanna keep it.
Yeah, hold on to those things that have meaning and stuff.
Yesterday I felt like I was losing foundation almost.
You know, it's gonna be another one of those times in life where I'm gonna be like, okay, I know. Like, you know that you know that God is your foundation, and people, and it's not where you are, but who you are and who you're with.
And it's just still so hard on our stupid flesh.
What Melissa Wants From Her Audience
Ric Hansen — 36:40
So tell me, how can our audience support you in any way? What things have you got going on that we could be sharing in your successes?
New musical things on the horizon with you?
Melissa Disney — 36:59
I want there to be.
I think, you know, when you have little ones, you don't get enough time to yourself to do that. Or maybe I just don't make the time. I don't know.
I'd rather be running around and playing Anna and Elsa with her.
I want, I guess, just prayer for just going through loss. Like I'm in another place of having to lose something right now, and all of us go through loss.
So I would just say prayer for that.
And then praising God for all the little things that He keeps taking care of us.
Even through the whole COVID time when I've lost a lot of work, other work has come that has sustained us.
And it's been really, really good.
And learning how to trust just takes a lot of prayer.
Ric Hansen
A lot of prayer, yeah.
Closing
Ric Hansen — 37:53
This has been—I don't want to keep you too long.
We try to keep our podcast right around 30 or 40 minutes so that people can use us to commute by, or to walk by, or jog by.
But you have been a joy to get to know just a little bit, and thank you so much.
And maybe somewhere along the line we can reconnect if you've got another project coming up or something that we can chat about down the line as we're continuing on with our podcast.
Maybe we'll reconnect.
Melissa Disney
Sounds good. Sounds good. Yeah, who knows? Maybe I'll write it.
Melissa Disney
Maybe I'll write it.
I don't know. There's lots of things that when I think my kids are—my little ones—in school, I'll have all this time to do.
Oh, I don't know. We'll see. We'll see.
Ric Hansen — 38:43
Well, the cool part is I'll be able to hear you because you'll be on Abide's meditations, so I'll be hearing you from time to time along the way there.
Melissa Disney — 38:50
Yeah, and SiriusXM.
I do some stations on there.
Ric Hansen
I didn't know that.
Melissa Disney
Yeah, not all 33. It's my favorite. It's in the '80s, Channel 33.
Ric Hansen
Channel 33, yeah.
Melissa Disney
Yeah.
Ric Hansen
Yeah, in the '80s. All right, yeah. That would be First Wave.
Melissa Disney
First Wave.
Something you record at home.
Oh yeah, yeah. They let me just be my nerdy self, and I love the '80s, so it's like First Wave. Right on, man.
Ric Hansen — 39:22
So there's something our listeners can listen for: Channel 33.
They can get the Abide app and hear you there.
Melissa Disney
Yeah. You can also, if you're interested in learning how to do voiceover, you can go to my website too.
There's a ton of classes on there. Just go to melissadisney.com.
I have a whole bunch of videos, and then people can study with me privately if they want to.
And yeah, that's been really fun too.
Ric Hansen — 39:50
Yeah, yeah. Well, God bless you. Thank you so much for the time.
Melissa Disney
You're welcome. Thank you.
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