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). 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.

In Praise of Half-Light: Notes from a Gray City

In Praise of Half-Light: Notes from a Gray City

Playwright Melis Aker makes a compelling argument in favor of shadows — the only cure for a brightly-colored,...

5 DECEMBER 2025 • By Melis Aker
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