She played the role of Nikki Spencer on the popular Australian TV soap opera E Street, from September 1990 to May 1993.

During the early 1990s she had a solo music career, performing mononymously as Melissa, and had top 20 hits on the ARIA Singles Chart with "Read My Lips" (Number One, June 1991), "Sexy (Is the Word)" (No.

After her stint on E Street, Tkautz has appeared on Paradise Beach (1993–94), Pacific Drive (1996–98), All Saints (2001–02, 2004), Swift and Shift Couriers (2008, 2011) and Housos (2011).

On 4 December 2005, she issued her second solo album, Lost & Found, which provide a single, her cover version of "The Glamorous Life", which appeared in the top 40.

[3] She started modelling and then began acting in TV soap operas, Richmond Hill and Home & Away in the late 1980s.

[6] In September 1990, at the age of 16 years, Tkautz was cast in the role of Nikki Spencer on the popular Australian soap opera, E Street.

[1][7][8] She described her role, "Nikki is everything I don't want to be ... She smokes and she's really the sort of girl most parents would be horrified to have their daughters associating with".

[1][3] During that year she appeared on numerous Australian editions of magazine covers including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, TV Week, Smash Hits and Dolly.

[1] Due to her popularity, the producers of E Street decided to have Tkautz record a song, which would be used in the show as part of a dream sequence, where her character imagines she is a pop star.

[5] This resulted in a recording career for Tkautz, she later recalled "I loved singing and I had trained as a singer, but everything happened so quickly, it was just a crazy whirlwind.

[1][3] In 2001 she appeared on the Myer Intimacy Apparel runway, modelling underwear,[14] and followed with a stint at the Australian Fashion Week, that year.

[2] Tkautz was also a guest star in controversial comedy series, Housos (from October 2011) and residents of housing commission units wanted the show banned.

[7] Redlich described why Tkautz was chosen ahead of her fellow actresses "I thought it was too raunchy for Toni Pearen and too teeny-bopper for Alyssa-Jane Cook".

", was issued in July 1993 and reached the top 40,[29] but a proposed second album was shelved and Tkautz refocused on her acting career.

[7] In September 2005, Tkautz released a new single, a cover version of "The Glamorous Life", a 1984 song by Sheila E and written by Prince,[30][31] which peaked at No.

It was released in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Russia, Dubai and UAE, and Canada.

[33] In January 2012, Australian comedian Sam Kekovich released a music video as an ad for Australian lamb meat, which was a rendition of Aqua's hit "Barbie Girl"; it featured vocals by Tkautz and an appearance by hip-hop dance and pop music group, Justice Crew.

[citation needed] In 1999, her father, Stefan, died of cancer;[37] she co-wrote the track "Goodbye Daddy" (with Paul Wiltshire)[38] from Lost & Found in his honour.

[37] In December 2006, Tkautz told Woman's Day that she had been in love with her E Street co-star Simon Baker; the relationship ended as "she wanted a long-term commitment but he was not at that stage of his life"; and then with Marcus Graham who "betrayed her after four months".