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Born in Columbia, South Carolina and raised in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, Crider`s interest and journey in the arts began very early in her life. She was interested in every play, musical and dance class the little artistic town had to offer. Her first love was singing and playing the violin. She first gained recognition as a country music stage show singer when she was awarded Young Entertainer of the Year by the OMA Music Awards Association in Branson, Missouri. She was then on the road to record an album in Nashville, but the trip was stopped short due to her driver having a car accident on the way there. The album was never recorded, as of yet.

Missy has gone on to demonstrate an immense range and depth as an actor matched by few of her peers. Her early Hollywood credits were accomplished between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, where starting in New York, she was flying to all coasts while doubling as a high school student with a 3.98 grade point average back home in Arkansas. Adding to her already impressive schedule, Missy spent seven years working on the stage in musical theater locally. She didn`t make a permanent move to Los Angeles until the fall of 1992, after having already filmed six movies and miniseries for television, including the award-winning original "Lonesome Dove" (1989) with Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, Anjelica Huston, and Diane Lane. New York based casting director Lynn Kressel took a liking to Missy after casting her in the miniseries and went on to cast her in three other projects while she was still residing in Arkansas. As Anjelica Huston`s lovesick daughter, Missy`s performance was so striking that Lorimar Productions immediately signed her to a one-year holding contract. She celebrated her graduation from high school with a starring role opposite `Ossie Davis` and Morris Chestnut in NBC`s The Ernest Green Story (1993) (TV) ; which documented Little Rock, Arkansas` integration strife in the 1950`s.

After moving to Los Angeles, the next two years saw extraordinary work from this remarkable young actress. Notably, one month after her L.A. arrival, director Glenn Jordan cast her opposite James Woods and Anne Archer in the esteemed Hallmark Hall Of Fame`s Jane`s House (1994) (TV) . She then played the beleaguered daughter of Lesley Ann Warren in ABC`s A Mother`s Revenge (1993) (TV) opposite Shirley Knight and Bruce Davison, and soon after director John McNaughton cast her as an aspiring singer who lands a record deal (to her delight, McNaughton wanted her to sing the vocal tracks for the film) in Showtime`s campy remake classic Girls in Prison (1994) (TV) which co-starred Anne Heche and Ione Skye. She capped off the year with a 1994 Emmy Nomination for her leading role opposite Tom Everett Scott in the ABC drama about fear of sex in the 90s _"CBS Schoolbreak Special" Love in the Dark Ages (1994)_.

Crider then smoothly made the transition to film when writer/director Mitch Marcus cast her is his A Boy Called Hate (1995) as the female lead, `Cindy` opposite Scott Caan, James Caan , and Elliott Gould. This gritty road movie captivated filmgoers and critics alike, winning The Grand Jury Prize/Berlin Film Festival. She followed this role by playing a southern young woman caught in a cycle of violence with a sensitive portrayal of a student who empathizes with Sean Patrick Flanery`s character in Disney`s feature film Powder (1995), co-starring Jeff Goldblum and Mary Steenburgen. It was this