Contact
Talent Agent
CAA (c/o Kevin Lin & Kennedy Woodard)
    Talent Manager
    Curate Management (c/o Simon Hurdon)
      MELIS AKER is a writer, actor, and musician from Turkey based between London and New York. Named a “Woman to Watch” by the Broadway Women’s Fund, Melis is the Signature Theatre Company’s LaunchPad resident playwright and is amongst Theatre503’s 503Five, with commissions from both theatres. She is developing her play Fish with the Signature Theatre Company, the musical play Hundred Feet Tall with Benjamin Scheuer directed by Katy Rudd for the Old Vic Theatre & her play Murmurs at Theatre503 in London. Her short film "Baba in Graceland" was developed in part via her Sundance Interdisciplinary Program grant, and her audio series NIGHT/SHIFT is in development with Skybound Entertainment.
      Melis has had writing commissioned by and developed at various theatres in the U.K. and U.S., including Atlantic Theatre Company (Middle East Mixfest), Ars Nova (Play Group member), PlayCo, New York Theatre Workshop (2050 fellow), Dramatists Guild (DGF fellow), New Group, the Finborough and Park theatres. Her screenplay “ARI” (“Bee”) was at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival as part of Maison des Scenaristes. Previous TV screenplays have been showcased and developed at IFP Week and Orchard Project's Episodic Lab. She has also worked on the development of a feature screenplay with Revelations Entertainment headed by Morgan Freeman.
      Stage plays include: Fish (Signature Theatre Company); Indigo Dreams (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Field, Awakening (2019 Kilroy’s List, Sundance finalist, 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: A Bilingual Musical (Jonathan Larson award, O’Neill NMTC, NAMT, NYC Women’s Fund); Hound Dog (Ars Nova & PlayCo), Fractio Panis (Homebound Project/No Kid Hungry, starring Brian Cox); Murmurs (Theatre503). 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 her songs via Studio 42. Her song “The Unknowing” was in the final reel of the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk contest.
      Melis has worked as Pulitzer winning playwright Ayad Akhtar’s assistant, and given a StoryCorps & TEDx talk. She has taught at NYU, The New School, and is working on her debut novel through her PhD in Creative Writing at King's College London, where she has also taught. She holds an MFA in Playwriting & Screenwriting from Columbia University, a Certificate for Acting from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, a Certificate for Digital Platforms of Performance from the University of Cambridge, and a BA in Dramatic Literature & Philosophy from Tufts University.
      She is represented by CAA and Curate Management. www.melisaker.com.
      • Writer (4 Credits)
        Baba in Graceland (short)
        Screenplay, Short Script
        Bait (TV series)
        Television Script
        Bee (feature)
        Screenplay
        Traitor (short)
        Screenplay, Short Script
      • Director (1 Credit)
        Traitor (short)
        Screenplay, Short Script
      College
      Columbia University
      MFA in Playwriting
      20152018
      College
      Tufts University
      BA in Dramatic Literature & Philosophy
      20092013
      College
      Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
      Acting
      2011
      High School
      Bilkent Laboratory International School (Ankara, Turkey)
      20052009
      Birth Date
      September 17, 1991
      Birth City
      San Francisco, U.S.
      Current City
      London, U.K.
      Hometown
      Ankara, Turkey
      Gender
      Female
      Ethnicity
      Middle Eastern (Turkish/Persian)
      Contact
      Talent Agent
      CAA (c/o Kevin Lin & Kennedy Woodard)
        Talent Manager
        Curate Management (c/o Simon Hurdon)
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