Malese began her professional career in 1999 with McDonald's commercials after the head of advertising heard her sing and immediately booked her in several spots and jingles. Then in 2002, at the age of 11, Malese competed on Ed McMahon's "Next Big Star" (PAX) where she won 4 rounds in the kids vocalist category. To take a break from music, Malese then began to focus on her acting career. In the fall of 2003, she booked the starring role of "Geena Fabiano" opposite Emma Roberts for Nickelodeon's hit show "Unfabulous," which aired worldwide on Nickelodeon for three seasons. She continued to build her teen fan base by guest-starring on "Hannah Montana" and "Wizards of Waverly Place", "iCarly", "The Young and the Restless", and Lionsgate's feature film adaptation of "Bratz-the Movie".

Malese filmed her second series regular role for the Nickelodeon network as bad girl "Cadence Nash" in "The Troop", and recurs on the hit show "Big Time Rush" as the new edgy, rocker girl "Lucy Stone".

Now 22, Malese has made a seamless transition from successful teen star to a maturing young adult actress with more serious roles such as the major recurring character of "Anna" on 3 seasons of CW's "Vampire Diaries". She also guest starred on TNT's "Leverage" and ABC's "Desperate Housewives", and "CSI Miami". On the big screen, Malese was the supporting lead "Alice" in the Academy Award nominated feature "The Social Network", written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. She also appears in the indy film "Plastic" as Beth, set to release in 2014.

In more recent news, she will be a series regular actress "Julia" on the CW Network in "Star Crossed", set to debut mid-season, It will be about an epic romance between a human girl and an alien boy, 10 years after the aliens landed on Earth and were consigned to an internment camp.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1679802/