Melissa Anelli is the Webmistress of The Leaky Cauldron, one of the most visited Harry Potter sites on the Web. She joined the site in 2001, when its sole focus was presenting news. Since then the site has grown more than tenfold, to include such features as a weekly podcast called "PotterCast," of which Ms. Anelli is host; fan-submitted essays; reviews; widgets; fan-submitted graphics; an extensive gallery; chat room; forums; event reports; contests; videos; and scores of interviews. Ms. Anelli has interviewed people from every corner of the "Harry Potter" franchise, including the American editor of the books, Arthur Levine; the directors of all the films; the stars and supporting cast members, and author of the Harry Potter books J.K. Rowling, who invited Ms. Anelli and Emerson Spartz of MuggleNet to her Edinburgh home last summer to conduct an exclusive interview on the day of the release of the sixth "Harry Potter" book.

Outside of Potter, Ms. Anelli is a "twenty-something" journalist for the Staten Island Advance, a daily newspaper in New York City. A graduate of Georgetown University, her work has appeared in U.S. News & World Report and on the cable channel NY1. In her spare time, she works on more projects than she can handle, sees more theater than she can afford and consumes more coffee than is healthy for anyone.