Fan Casting Melinda Anderson in Five Degrees of Separation

Occupation: Professor of English Literature Marital Status: Married Children: Two Melinda grew up in a comfortable middle-class family in Connecticut. Her father was a high-school history teacher, while her mother worked as a librarian. Books and education were central to her childhood. She attended Brown University before earning her master's degree and Ph.D. in English literature at Columbia University. Melinda met her husband, Jack, during graduate school. They married in their late twenties and eventually settled near the university where she now teaches.