Melis Aker

Melis Aker is a Turkish playwright, screenwriter, actor, and musician. Her work has been developed or presented by institutions including the Sundance Institute, Signature Theatre Company, The Old Vic, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Atlantic Theater Company. Early life and education Aker received a bachelor’s degree in Dramatic Literature and Philosophy from Tufts University in 2013. She completed an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University in 2018, studying under David Henry Hwang and Lynn Nottage. She also trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at King’s College London. Career Aker was selected for the New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, Ars Nova’s Play Group, and the Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship. In 2019, her screenplay Arı Bee was selected for the Maison des Scénaristes marketplace at the Cannes Film Festival. Her play Field, Awakening was included on the 2019 Kilroys List. Set on the night of the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, it follows childhood friends reuniting on an Istanbul football field amid political unrest. The play was featured in HowlRound’s panel on Middle Eastern playwrights