Draft:Melis Aker
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| Submission declined on 27 August 2024 by MarcGarver (talk). The content of this submission includes material that does not meet Wikipedia's minimum standard for inline citations. Please cite your sources using footnotes. For instructions on how to do this, please see Referencing for beginners. Thank you. Declined by MarcGarver 3 months ago. | |
Comment: Please remove all external links from the body, and also see WP:AUTOBIO. Ensure that references provide significant coverage of Melis Aker specifically, and iMDB is not a reliable source and should be removed. Utopes (talk / cont) 18:08, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
Melis Aker is a writer, actor and musician from Turkey. She primarily works as a playwright and screenwriter.
Early Life and Education
[edit]Originally from Ankara, Turkey, Aker graduated from Tufts University in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in Dramatic Literature and Philosophy. She received her masters in Playwriting from Columbia University in 2018, under the tutelage of David Henry Hwang and Lynn Nottage.[1]. Aker also received acting training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and a PhD from King's College London.
Career
[edit]After graduating from Columbia University, Aker was selected to join New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Playwriting Fellowship[2], Ars Nova’s Play Group[3], and the Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Playwriting Fellowship[4]. She received praise for her play Field, Awakening, which was placed on the 2019 Kilroy’s List, about a group of old friends’ untimely reunion on a football field in Istanbul on the eve of the attempted coup d’etat of 15 July 2016.[5] The play was slated to premiere at the Finborough Theatre in 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[6]. She faced similar interruptions while working for Morgan Freeman’s company Revelations Entertainment to develop a feature screenplay.
Her feature screenplay “Arı” (Bee) took part in the 2019 Cannes Film Festival’s Maison Des Scenaristes marketplace[7]. Her short play Scraps and Things was commissioned by the Atlantic Theater Company for their Middle Eastern Mixfest[8]. The play was recorded shortly after for an episode of Playing on Air, directed by Neil Pepe, starring Carol Kane, for which Aker both co-starred and composed the audio soundtrack[9]. The piece received critical acclaim on The New York Times[10].
In 2022, Aker was named a Woman to Watch by the Broadway Women's Fund[11]. She also received an Off-Broadway production of her play with music, Hound Dog, which premiered at the Greenwhich House Theatre as a co-production between Ars Nova and The Play Company in New York, which was named on Time Out[12]. The same year, she was selected as the Signature Theatre Company’s inaugural LaunchPad resident writer[13], where she has written her commissioned play Fish[14].
In 2023, Aker completed filming her short film “Baba in Graceland,”[15] which was partly funded by the grant she received from the Sundance Institute[16]. The same year, she was selected among Theatre503’s cohort of 503Five[17].
Aker has released various songs as a singer-songwriter. She has appeared on stage, TV and film, including the Arena Stage production of Love in Afghanistan by Charles Randolph-Wright co-starring with Khris Davis[18], CBS’ “The Equalizer” alongside Queen Latifah, NBC’s “The Blacklist: Redemption,” and “Seneca” on HBO[19]
Works
[edit]As playwright:
[edit]Field, Awakening
Fish
Hound Dog (2022)
Indigo Dreams
Scraps and Things
As screenwriter:
[edit]Arı (Bee) (2019)
Baba in Graceland (2023)
Bait (2023)
As singer-songwriter:
[edit]Dirt] [EP] (2015)
The Little Prince [Single] (2015)
The Other Side [LP] (2016)
Fall Sessions [EP] (2021)
Winter Sessions [EP] (2022)
Spring Sessions [EP] (2022)
Summer Sessions [EP] (2022)
Filmography
[edit]Television & Radio
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | The Blacklist: Redemption (NBC) | Volkan Sadik's Daughter | S1E2: "Kevin Jensen" |
| 2021 | Scraps and Things (Playing on Air) | Cemre | Writer, Actor, Composer |
| 2021 | The Equalizer (CBS) | Mira Shah | S2E2: "The Kingdom" |
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Lacuna (short) | Woman | Co-director, Writer, Actor |
| 2019 | Seneca (feature) (HBO) | Asuman | |
| 2023 | Ayşegül on Tuesdays (short) | Ayşegül | |
| 2023 | Baba in Graceland (short) | Naz | Writer, Actor, Executive Producer |
External Links
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Columbia University New Plays Festival 2018". Columbia University School of the Arts.
- ^ "New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellows". New York Theatre Workshop.
- ^ Sota, Pie Alexandra. "Ars Nova Announces Melis Aker '18 as a 2019 Play Group Resident". Columbia University School of the Arts.
- ^ "DGF Playwriting Fellow | Melis Aker". Dramatists Guild Foundation.
- ^ "The Kilroy's List | Field, Awakening | Melis Aker". The Kilroy's List. 12 June 2019.
- ^ "Whats On Stage: Field, Awakening at Finborough Theatre". Whats On Stage. 8 June 2023.
- ^ "Maison Des Scenaristed projects". Maison Des Scenaristes.
- ^ "The Meet the Writers panel from Middle Eastern MixFest - Atlantic Theater Company in New York".
- ^ "SCRAPS AND THINGS by Melis Aker". Playing On Air.
- ^ Phillips, Maya (12 January 2021). "My Ears Have Been Opened by the Audio Play Explosion". The New York Times.
- ^ Harms, Talaura. "Broadway Women's Fund Releases 3rd Annual Women to Watch List". Playbill.
- ^ "The 30 best Off Broadway shows to see in Fall 2022". Time Out.
- ^ Gans, Andrew. "Melis Aker Named Signature Theatre's 1st LaunchPad Resident Playwright". Playbill.
- ^ "Signature Theatre Company 2024/25 Season". The Signature Theatre Company.
- ^ "Baba in Graceland". Seed & Spark.
- ^ "Sundance Institute's New Interdisciplinary Program Names Grantees, Art of Practice Fellows". Sundance Institute.
- ^ Nettle, Gemma. "Theatre503 announces latest cohort for early-career playwrights scheme". The Stage.
- ^ Purcell, Carey. "World Premiere of Charles Randolph-Wright's Love in Afghanistan Begins Oct. 11 at Arena Stage". Playbill.
- ^ "Melis Aker | IMDB". IMDB.