Melissa Roxburgh's striking similarities with her 'Manifest' character include religious upbringing and being the family's "black sheep"

We all love Michaela Stone for her contented nature and her ability to keep her calm at the most tumultuous times. It seems, however, that the good cop of NBC's 'Manifest' has a lot in common with the actress who plays the character, Melissa Roxburgh. On the show, coming from creator Jeff Rake, Michaela was one of the passengers on the Montego Air Flight 828 which went missing for almost five and a half years.

When Michaela and the others finally made it to the ground, she discovered that her mother was already dead while her fiancé Jared (J.R. Ramirez) had married her best friend, Lourdes (Victoria Cartagena). However, in spite of everything that went wrong in her life, Michaela held on to her integrity and tried to serve her purpose as a servant of society.

This was one factor which immediately pulled Roxburgh towards the character. Michaela is a protector of society as she is a cop-turned-detective who rescues little girls and doesn't need a male cop to take down a criminal for her. Although Roxburgh herself is no cop, the actress is actually a member of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a humanitarian organization that helps people recover from natural disasters, war, or other calamities.

She frequently takes to social media to spread awareness of the IRC’s missions and objectives and is one of the organization's most high-profile supporters. Not only that, Roxburgh has always remained extremely private about her life but every now and then she comes up with hints about her family. Although very little is known about her family and whoever she is (or not) dating, it has been known Roxburgh is the daughter to a father who is a minister and a mother who has played tennis in Wimbledon.

Quite contrary to that, her brother Ben Stone (Josh Dallas) is a man of science and unlike his sister, he believes the "Callings" will surely have a scientific reason behind them. Although their beliefs often see them on the verge of conflict, every now and then we have seen Ben and Michaela respect each other's thoughts and meet halfway.

Barely 26-years-old, Roxburgh did not get a big break for a very long time. Her first acting gig was in the 2011 movie 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules', wherein she played a character named Rachel. Although it was not a big part, her acting was good enough to land her the role of Heather Hills in the sequel, 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days'. 

Later on, she had to stumble through several insignificant roles before she would get her big break. She had a role to play in 2014’s 'Leprechaun' which was forgettable, and she soon played a minor role in the TV show 'Supernatural'. She would later appear as Agent Thea in the CW’s war drama, 'Valor'.

Following all the nearly insignificant roles, she got her entry to the big screen through a role in 'Star Trek Beyond' as Ensign Syl, an alien officer serving aboard the USS Enterprise in the 2260s. Sadly her character met with a disheartening end in the story when Krall unleashed the Abronath on Syl as a demonstration of its power to Nyota Uhura. The weapon painfully disintegrated Syl's entire body.

However, with 'Manifest,' Roxburgh finally got to live her obsession with mysteries. She explained during an interview: "I’m obsessed with mysteries... I thought Jeff [Rake, the showrunner] did a really good job of writing characters. Every single character on the page had different layers to it. I just identified with Michaela, too; she’s the black sheep of her family, I’m the black sheep of my family. She had a lot of religious influence growing up; my Dad’s a pastor. There’s a lot of correlations, I fell in love with her immediately."

We really hope at this point, NBC renews 'Manifest' since we eagerly want to know what awaits our favorite, Michaela Stone.