‘She’s All That’ Actress Tamara Mello Lists Porter Ranch Home for $1.499 Million

Tamara Mello, known for playing Chandler in the 1999 teen comedy She’s All That, is saying goodbye to a thoughtfully restored Porter Ranch home filled with midcentury character, vintage finds and an unusually productive backyard.

Mello and her husband, Emmy-winning television editor Paolo Cascardo, have listed the split-level ranch for $1.499 million, according to Realtor.com’s August 6 report syndicated by Yahoo. The couple bought the property for $1,313,000 on November 15, 2021 and are now preparing to relocate to Florida.

Their reason for leaving Los Angeles is personal rather than political. Mello said in a July TikTok video that the couple initially planned to move to Portland but changed course so they could be closer to Cascardo’s aging parents, who live in Florida and have no other family nearby.

A restoration that worked with the house

Instead of stripping away the home’s original identity, Mello and Cascardo preserved its Southern California midcentury character and adapted it to their sustainability-minded lifestyle.

Listing agents Learka Bosnak and Heather T. Roy of the Heather & Learka Team at Douglas Elliman described an approach built around reuse rather than demolition. The resulting interiors mix original architectural elements with thrifted furniture, vintage décor and playful personal touches.

Among the more distinctive details are a dedicated coffee bar and a guest room decorated with an installation of colorful toy shovels. Exposed brick, clerestory windows and statement fireplaces reinforce the home’s period personality without making it feel like a time capsule.

It is a warmer and more individual look than the neutral, newly remodeled interiors that dominate many Los Angeles listings. The house feels collected over time because, in many ways, it was.

Solar power, fruit trees and poolside lavender spritzes

The property’s environmental features extend beyond the interiors. Solar panels help power the residence, while the edible landscaping includes tiger fig trees, apple trees and other homegrown produce.

A swimming pool and spa anchor the backyard, surrounded by mature plantings and space for outdoor entertaining. Mello even uses lavender grown on the property to make syrup for cocktails—a detail that inspired the listing team to name its signature drink the “Mello Muddle.”

The garden gives the property an appealing dual identity. It is close to the shops and everyday conveniences of Porter Ranch, yet the backyard offers the pleasures of growing fruit, mixing a drink from the garden and spending a warm Valley afternoon beside the pool.

From She’s All That to sustainable design

Mello appeared alongside Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook in She’s All That. She later played Lily Esposito on Ryan Murphy’s television series Popular and appeared in projects including Nothing Sacred and Tortilla Soup.

Her interest in reuse also extends to her jewelry label, GreybyTamaraMello, whose pieces are made with reclaimed metals. Cascardo’s editing credits include The Amazing Race, Love Island and Belle Collective.

That creative background is visible throughout the Porter Ranch house. Its most memorable features are not necessarily the most expensive ones; they are the choices that reveal how its owners lived, from the thrifted furnishings to the edible garden and lavender syrup kept ready for poolside spritzes.

Florida is the next stop, but perhaps not the last

Mello told her social-media followers that she and Cascardo plan to explore several Florida communities, including St. Augustine and Sarasota, before deciding where they want to settle. She described the move as an opportunity to spend time near family while traveling around and considering what comes next.

That context makes the Porter Ranch listing less a story about “quitting California” than a family-driven transition. For the San Fernando Valley, it also brings a character-rich home to market—one that offers a preserved slice of local midcentury design instead of another wholesale renovation.

At $1.499 million, the property is being marketed as both a comfortable Valley retreat and an example of how an older Los Angeles house can evolve without losing what made it appealing in the first place.

Living beside E.T. filming history

The address is not merely near an E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial location: the street itself appears in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film. Other Porter Ranch sequences used Granada Circle, Killimore Avenue and nearby Porter Ridge Park—known locally as “E.T. Park.” Explore the neighborhood scene by scene in our complete guide to E.T. filming locations in the San Fernando Valley.

You can view more SFV Celebrity Real Estate here.

Porter Ranch home gallery

Purchase: $1,313,000 on November 15, 2021. Listing photographs via Redfin/TheMLS. Click any image to open the lightbox; use the arrow controls to move through all 53 photos.

Before Porter Ranch: a Sherman Oaks cottage

Before moving to Porter Ranch, Mello and Cascardo owned a 1948 cottage at 3921 Ventura Canyon Avenue in Sherman Oaks. Public property history records a $525,000 purchase on March 7, 2002. They sold the three-bedroom home on December 24, 2020 for $1,345,000. The cottage paired country-house details—including Dutch doors, wood floors, beadboard paneling and vaulted beamed ceilings—with flowering native gardens and a detached bonus room.