Yellowstone’s Melanie Olmstead dedication explained

The Yellowstone Season 2 finale episode has a dedication at the end — here’s everything you need to know about Melanie Olmstead and her connection to Yellowstone.

A question has lingered over the identity of Melanie Olmstead, the name that appears at the end of the Yellowstone Season 2 finale episode. Before the credits, the dedication reads: “In memory of Melanie Olmstead 1968-2019.”

Melanie Olmstead is not a member of the Yellowstone cast, nor does she appear in any Yellowstone episodes. In fact, the dedication is in honor of her off-screen work across many other projects. As such, her connection to Yellowstone is a less obvious one.

Here’s the lowdown on Melanie Olmstead and why the episode of the Taylor Sheridan show is dedicated to her.

Who is Melanie Olmstead?

Melanie Olmstead was a driver on a number of film and TV productions, including John Carter, Wind River, and Hereditary.

Her name appears at the end of Yellowstone Season 2 Episode 10, ‘Sins of the Father’ as the episode is dedicated to her memory.

Olmstead first began working in the industry in the year 2000, with her first film credit being on Primary Suspect as a location assistant. From there, she went on to work as a driver until her last production, Joe Bell, in 2020.

Her role meant that she would have been responsible for driving cast and crew back and forth to set, typically on location.

Paramount

By all accounts, Olmstead was a private person, though she had a love for horses as shown through her social media. In a Facebook post back in 2018, she wrote about her own horse, saying: “My love affair with horses started about the time I learned to walk, but I didn’t get my first “just mine” horse until I was an adult. This beautiful, amazing girl has been with me since college and recently celebrated her 37th birthday — for my non-horsey friends, that’s over 100 in human years — and she’s still doing great!”

Melanie Olmstead died in 2019, and the cause of her death is not publicly known.

What did Melanie Olmstead do on Yellowstone?

Yellowstone is not one of Olmstead’s official credits, though it is possible she worked on the production in an advisory capacity due to her knowledge of the filming location, Utah.

A majority of scenes in Yellowstone were filmed in Utah throughout the first three seasons. Since many of Olmstead’s projects were also based there, it’s possible that she was involved in the production of Yellowstone in some manner, even if it’s not officially listed on IMDb.

Given her expertise of the area, it’s likely that she could have been responsible for organizing the transport in some degree, with her knowledge being a valuable asset.

Olmstead notably worked on the 2017 neo-Western Wind River – which Taylor Sheridan wrote and directed – as the driver for Jeremy Renner, meaning both she and Sheridan had worked on the same project in the past.

For more, take a look at all the news on Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2, as well as a breakdown of the Yellowstone soundtrack and the Dutton family tree.