Melis Aker
- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Named a "Woman to Watch" by the Broadway Women's Fund, Melis Aker is a writer, actor, and musician from Turkey based between London and New York. She currently has a series in development with Skybound Entertainment, and is developing the musical play "Hundred Feet Tall" with Benjamin Scheuer and Katy Rudd at the Old Vic.
Melis is the recipient of the Sundance Interdisciplinary Program grant, the New York Community Trust/Van Lier Fellowship, and was named the Signature Theatre Company's LaunchPad resident playwright and Theatre503's 503Five. She has had writing commissioned by and developed at Atlantic Theatre Company (Middle East Mixfest), Ars Nova (Play Group member), New York Theatre Workshop (2050 fellow), Dramatists Guild (DGF fellow), The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Goodspeed Writers Grove, New Group, Roundabout Theatre Company's Space Jam, LaMaMa, 24 Hour Plays in the U.S., as well as the Finborough and Park theatres in the U.K. Melis' screenplay "ARI" ("Bee") was at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival as part of Maison des Scenaristes, and her series pilot for "THE TAPE" was selected for the Orchard Project's Episodic Lab, and IFP week. She has also worked on the development of a screenplay with Revelations Entertainment headed by Morgan Freeman.
Her plays include: Field, Awakening (2019 Kilroy's List, Columbia@Roundabout finalist, Sundance finalist, Berkeley Rep Ground Floor semifinalist, Playwrights Realm finalist); Dragonflies (Sundance finalist); Scraps and Things (Playing on Air, starring Carol Kane, directed by Neil Pepe, featured on the New York Times); AZUL (O'Neill NMTC, recipient of NYC Women's Fund); Mother and the Beast (previously called: When My Mama Was a Hittite) (Columbia@Roundabout finalist); Fractio Panis (Homebound Project/No Kid Hungry, starring Brian Cox and Nicole Ansari, directed by Tatiana Pandiani); Hound Dog; Manar (Columbia@Roundabout finalist, Theatre503 Playwriting Award semifinalist); 330 Pegasus: A Love Letter (Jerome NY Fellowship finalist); Indigo Dreams; OPET Diaries (Page73 semifinalist); and Gilded Isle. Acting and music credits include "The Equalizer" (CBS, starring Queen Latifah), "The Blacklist: Redemption" (NBC), "Seneca" (HBO Max), Love in Afghanistan (Arena Stage & Roundabout Theatre Company), We Live in Cairo (New World Stages), Proof (Edinburgh Fringe). As a singer-songwriter, Melis has released a quartet of seasonal session EPs with acoustic versions of songs. Her song "The Unknowing" was in the final reel of the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk contest. Melis has worked as Ayad Akhtar's assistant, and given a StoryCorps and TEDx talk. She has taught at NYU, The New School, and is working on her debut novel through her PhD at King's College London, where she teaches. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, a Certificate for Acting from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and a BA from Tufts University.
Melis is the recipient of the Sundance Interdisciplinary Program grant, the New York Community Trust/Van Lier Fellowship, and was named the Signature Theatre Company's LaunchPad resident playwright and Theatre503's 503Five. She has had writing commissioned by and developed at Atlantic Theatre Company (Middle East Mixfest), Ars Nova (Play Group member), New York Theatre Workshop (2050 fellow), Dramatists Guild (DGF fellow), The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Goodspeed Writers Grove, New Group, Roundabout Theatre Company's Space Jam, LaMaMa, 24 Hour Plays in the U.S., as well as the Finborough and Park theatres in the U.K. Melis' screenplay "ARI" ("Bee") was at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival as part of Maison des Scenaristes, and her series pilot for "THE TAPE" was selected for the Orchard Project's Episodic Lab, and IFP week. She has also worked on the development of a screenplay with Revelations Entertainment headed by Morgan Freeman.
Her plays include: Field, Awakening (2019 Kilroy's List, Columbia@Roundabout finalist, Sundance finalist, Berkeley Rep Ground Floor semifinalist, Playwrights Realm finalist); Dragonflies (Sundance finalist); Scraps and Things (Playing on Air, starring Carol Kane, directed by Neil Pepe, featured on the New York Times); AZUL (O'Neill NMTC, recipient of NYC Women's Fund); Mother and the Beast (previously called: When My Mama Was a Hittite) (Columbia@Roundabout finalist); Fractio Panis (Homebound Project/No Kid Hungry, starring Brian Cox and Nicole Ansari, directed by Tatiana Pandiani); Hound Dog; Manar (Columbia@Roundabout finalist, Theatre503 Playwriting Award semifinalist); 330 Pegasus: A Love Letter (Jerome NY Fellowship finalist); Indigo Dreams; OPET Diaries (Page73 semifinalist); and Gilded Isle. Acting and music credits include "The Equalizer" (CBS, starring Queen Latifah), "The Blacklist: Redemption" (NBC), "Seneca" (HBO Max), Love in Afghanistan (Arena Stage & Roundabout Theatre Company), We Live in Cairo (New World Stages), Proof (Edinburgh Fringe). As a singer-songwriter, Melis has released a quartet of seasonal session EPs with acoustic versions of songs. Her song "The Unknowing" was in the final reel of the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk contest. Melis has worked as Ayad Akhtar's assistant, and given a StoryCorps and TEDx talk. She has taught at NYU, The New School, and is working on her debut novel through her PhD at King's College London, where she teaches. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, a Certificate for Acting from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and a BA from Tufts University.
