Melis Aker
(Playwright) is an actor, writer and musician from Turkey, and will be a NYTW 2050 Fellow in the fall. Plays: Field, Awakening (2018 Sundance Theatre Lab finalist, 2018 Berkeley Rep Ground Floor finalist, Lark's 2018 Van Lier New Voices Fellowship finalist) will perform in the Corkscrew Festival at Paradise Factory this July; Manar (2017 Columbia@Roundabout finalist, 2016 Theatre503 Playwriting Award semi-finalist) was at Golden Thread Productions' 2017 ReOrient Festival, LPAC’s 2017 Rough Draft Festival, and was featured by Silk Road Rising on New Play Exchange; 330 Pegasus: A Love Letter [Part I] (Lark's 2018 Jerome New York Fellowship Finalist) received a Noor Highlight series reading at NYTW; Azul, Otra Vez [Blue, Revisited] was workshopped at NYTW and BRICLab Residency. Melis recently gave a TEDx Talk in Ankara and works as Ayad Akhtar’s assistant. BA Drama/Philosophy (Tufts), Acting (RADA), MFA Playwriting (Columbia). Meg Pantera The Agency (acting)
News
Melis Aker ’18 has been named Signature Theatre’s inaugural LaunchPad Resident Playwright. Her appointment comes after an open selection process to which over 230 playwrights submitted more than 500 plays.
The Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship recently announced ten Semifinalists for 2022. One of the semifinalists is Playwriting alum Melis Aker ’18. Aker was selected from more than 300 applicants.
Playwriting alumni Melis Aker '18 and Kyoung Park '12 were recently named 2019-2020 DGF Fellows by the Dramatists Guild Foundation.
Alumna Melis Aker ’18 joins alumna Julia May Jonas '12 as a new member of the Ars Nova Plays Group 2019.