Writer. Hello and welcome!

Writer, Melissa Brandt, grew up in rural Minnesota and worked for several years before completing her M.A. in Literature and M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Her feature-length screenplay, Cordelia, was optioned in 2009. 

In 2012 and again in 2022, she was awarded the McKnight Fellowship in Media Arts. Her screenplay Chicken Day received a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant and was selected as part of the Emerging Narrative Program for Independent Film Week in New York City. She won the McKnight Fellowship a second time in 2022 for her screenplay, The Life of Lizzie Frank, and for her episodic script, The Heaven Key. 

Melissa has two children's chapter books published under the Jake Maddox series, and she is currently working on a new episodic screen story and a young adult novel. 

Currently, Melissa is working on two spec projects: a limited series and a young adult novel.