Melis Aker is a London-and New York–based playwright/screenwriter, actor, and musician from Turkey. Her plays have been developed and presented Off-Broadway and regionally in the U.S. and U.K. at Signature Theatre Company in New York (Fish, LaunchPad resident playwright), Theatre503 (Murmurs, 503Five resident playwright), The Old Vic (Hundred Feet Tall co-written with Benjamin Scheuer), Ars Nova and PlayCo (Hound Dog), and Williamstown Theatre Festival (Indigo Dreams). She has received commissions from Signature, Atlantic Theatre Company (Middle Eastern Mixfest), and La Jolla Playhouse, and has been awarded the American Theatre Wing's Jonathan Larson Grant (Azul), named on the Kilroy's List (Field, Awakening), and recognized as a "Woman to Watch" by the Broadway Women’s Fund. Her short play Scraps and Things was recorded for Playing On Air starring Carol Kane, where she was also co-star and composer.
Aker's short film Baba in Graceland was developed with support from the Sundance Institute’s Interdisciplinary Grant and was an official selection for the 2025 Izmir Short Film Festival. Her feature screenplay ARI [Bee] was accepted to Maison des Scénaristes at Cannes, IFP, Berlinale Script Market, and the Proof of Concept Film Festival at the American Cinematheque. She is currently adapting The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince, Mayte Garcia’s New York Times bestselling memoir for Crazy Legs Features, and developing an immersive game project with Sinan Eczacıbaşı of Curious Gremlin.
Aker was a NYTW 2050 Fellow, an Ars Nova Play Group member, a DGF Playwriting Fellow, and a screenwriter for Morgan Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment. She has taught playwriting/screenwriting at the New School, and prose fiction at King's College London. She holds an MFA in Playwriting/Screenwriting from Columbia University and is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at King’s College London. She is represented by CAA and CURATE Management.