Actress Melissa McBride rose from Lexington to star in ‘The Walking Dead’
Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
Melissa McBride, an actress originally from Lexington, has made a name for herself in the horror genre and becoming one of the stars in “The Walking Dead” franchise.
McBride’s most prominent role is the housewife-turned-warrior, Carol Peletier on “The Walking Dead,” but she also starred in another horror classic, “The Mist” in 2007. Now appearing in “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” McBride won over the hearts of fans for the tough attitude her character Carol developed over the series.
McBride was born in Lexington on May 23, 1965. In 1991, McBride appeared in commercials for Rooms to Go and Ford, and by 1993, she had her television series debut on “Matlock,” She later guest-starred in several other series, including ”In the Heat of the Night,” “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “Dawson’s Creek.”
In the early 2000s, McBride decided to switch gears and become a casting director. Still, she took on the occasional acting role.
It was one of these roles that led her to “The Walking Dead.”
In 2010, McBride was cast as Carol, who was planned to be a minor character. McBride said she thought the part was a temporary one. Playing a mid-40s abused wife with a preteen daughter thrown into a post-apocalyptic world of zombies, McBride’s character turned into a recurring cast member in season one, then as a series regular for season two.
Carol was originally supposed to have been killed off in Season four, but producers changed their minds. McBride and fellow cast member Normal Reedus, who played Daryl Dixon, eventually became the only two characters to appear in each of the show’s 11 seasons.
In the graphic novels the show is based on, penned by Kentuckian Robert Kirkman, Carol’s character goes from a younger self-centered woman to someone who, when confronted with the grim prospects of life amongst zombies and the evil that lies in humans, become more unstable to the point of being self-destructive.
But McBride took Carol in another direction, Kirkman said in a 2014 interview with the Hollywood Reporter.
“Carol is her own unique character; it would be a disservice to Melissa McBride to say she’s evolved into the Carol from the comics,” Kirkman said. “The Carol in the TV show is a wholly original creation that we’ll continue to explore on the show to great effect. Everyone in the writers’ room loves that character, and we’re thrilled with what Melissa has brought to the table. She has definitely become a character that is one to watch, and there’s some really exciting stuff ahead for her.”
McBride has received much acclaim for her performance as Carol, including a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television, a nomination for the 2014 Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Leading Actress in a Television Series in 2015.
She returned to “The Walking Dead” franchise for the final two episodes of season one of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” and was given a starring role alongside Reedus in “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” season 2 — which is called “The Book of Carol.”
McBride lives in Atlanta and is currently starring in season three of the show. A fourth — and possibly final — season for the series has been announced, but no release date has been confirmed.
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