Andrea Joyce Marino[1] (sometimes mentioned as Moreno[2]) had once worked in New York, as a lawyer, until her job changed. She moved to Grandview and obtained a job working at "The Same As It Never Was", an antique store that is owned by Melinda. Andrea was a tall and single woman up until her death. She was played by Aisha Tyler, and was part of the main cast during season one.
Andrea becomes Melinda's best friend while working with her. Melinda even comes to trust Andrea enough to tell her about her gift of being able to communicate with earthbound spirits, or ghosts. Andrea becomes essential to the store and Melinda, because of the very fact that she knows about Melinda's gift. Such as, whenever Melinda has to run off and help a ghost, Andrea is left to keep the store. Andrea also helps Melinda with difficult cross overs removing some of the stress from Melinda's husband, Jim. In "The One", a plane crashes and Andrea notices Melinda is hiding something. She believes that her brother Mitch had died during the plane crash and that Melinda is seeing his ghost.
At the end of season one it was revealed that it was Andrea who had died during the crash and not Mitch. While Andrea was not on the plane she died because her car had been on the path that the plane had crashed on. Romano attempts to prevent Andrea from crossing over into the Light, and instead to join him on the Dark Side. Melinda would not allow such a horrific occurrence to happen to her friend and so she sets out to stop Romano and warn Andrea. With the help of an occult professor at Rockland University, Rick Payne, Melinda is able to help Andrea find peace and cross over into the Light.
Andrea is later mentioned in "Drowned Lives", "A Grave Matter", "Delia's First Ghost" and "The Prophet". Also, while having been successfully crossed over into the Light for over a year, two ghosts taunt Melinda by calling her Andrea during "Bad Blood".
In the season four episode, "Leap of Faith", when Jim swims to rescue Melinda and hits his head, he has flashbacks of his past as Jim, and Andrea can be seen briefly when remembering his wedding with Melinda. Andrea's date of death is in the book of changes backwards and was mentioned before a flashback of the plane crash that killed her.
