Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melody Cooper. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Melody thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful project is the most urgent, which is what I’m working on now which is a multi-level, multi-platform set of interrelated works that address climate change. I loosely call it The Climate Project and it encompasses a range of storytelling that is either the focus or includes key aspects of the climate challenges facing us right now. It includes a TV project, short film, feature, sci fi novel, comic book and podcast, My particular interest is in how marginalized communities are impacted and that includes disabled, unhoused, the economically disadvantaged and BIPOC around the world. Some aspects of the project are moving forward already. Most of it is in development. All of this focus is because regardless of who you are or where you live, climate crisis is affecting us all and will continue to do so in more extreme ways across the board. Each aspect of this ambitious project is interrelated and multi-ethnic and portrays a serious reality but is focused on hope and solutions. It deals with one family over a period of 200 years, including activists, a Black botanist, a disabled teen, an indigenous eco-activist. In April 2024, I was honored to be invited by the Rockefeller Foundation to a Bellagio Center Residency, which in the past has hosted Maya Angelou and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, to work on my TV project called RISE and my sci fi novel entitled “The Tree Remembers.” A short story version of RISE will be published by Secant Publishing in “Best Climate Change Stories” in October. I’ve also written a comic book called OMNI that was published by Mark Waid at Humanoids and that we’re pitching as a TV series. And I can’t share more details at this time, but I’ve also been hired to adapt a series of highly popular novels to TV that I pitched for with a climate angle. I’ll be on a panel at the Hollywood Climate Summit to discuss the project and the need for writers, producers and directors to highlight climate change in our work since TV and film can be so impactful. With the extremes we continue to see in the world, from floods to heatwaves, huge storms, massive wildfires and long term drought it’s an urgent call to action we can’t ignore.
Melody, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m a genre writer, director and producer who started out as a professional actor and playwright in NY and won a few playwriting awards before I won the Grand Jury Prize at Urbanworld Film Festival in 2018 for my first feature screenplay. The next year, I got into the HBO/Warner Writing program and while I completed it, was staffed as a writer on Two Sentence Horror Stories, then Law & Order: SVU and then as co-producer on Power Book IV: Force. I did the Sundance Episodic Lab in 2021 and won an Adobe Women at Sundance Fellowship. Soon after, I was tapped by Bryan Unkeless (HUNGER GAMES) to write a feature adaptation of the NY Times best seller “Beasts of Prey” for Netflix. I also sold an untitled genre show to Netflix with Will Packer. I co-founded Nyx Horror Collective, a group that highlights and uplifts women horror writers and filmmakers. We produced two film programs of micro shorts — all directed by women — called 13 MINUTES OF HORROR, which ran on Shudder. (I did Shudder Labs several years ago when I started out and got to know Sam Zimmerman, who kindly supported the film.) Nyx won a Rondo Hatton Horror Award in 2022 for 13 MINUTES. I’ve directed two short films as proof of concept for my projects and last year, executive produced the short film HIDE YOUR CRAZY directed by Austin Kase, which was an official selection at several film festivals, including Vancouver, SCAD and RIIFF and Cleveland.
I love the fire and inspiration of working on multiple projects. I’ve had the joy of developing genre projects with Reggie Hudlin, Tarell McCraney and Sterling K. Brown and I’m tackling romantic science series as well. I’ve done panels for Sundance, WGA, WonderCon and SXSW and have recently served as a juror for Slamdance, India’s Wench Film Fest and France’s Casa CIne. I was invited to be a board member of Target Margin Theater and Stowe Story Labs. Being published had always been a dream of mine, so I’m happy that in addition to my comic book OMNI and work in Noir is the New Black, my short story Sky’s the Limit is in DC’s Milestones in History and my horror short story “Sundown” was just published in African Ghost Short Stories” from Flame Tree Publishing! I’ve been invited to a bunch of writing residencies, including UCross, NY Stage & Film, Yaddo, La Napoule in France, Molokai Arts in Hawaii, Leighton Colony in Banff and most recently, Bellagio Center in Italy. I love to travel — especially when it’s funded by the wonderful organizations who have given me amazing opportunities — and I research a lot of my creative work that way, from Antarctica to Rwanda.
I was drawn to my current work because my dad was a science teacher and my mom an english teacher who both raised me to love nature and be aware of our impact on the environment. They were activists and I have absolutely inherited that legacy (I call myself an Artivist). I don’t like to bludgeon people with ideas but approach from a different and relatable perspective, using genre. I’ve dealt with social issues in all my work, from my Law & Order: SVU episode about missing Black women to my Power Book IV: Force development of a teen character who speaks out against gun violence.. But I’m primarily a sci fi and horror writer and like to deal with urgent topics via genre, like I did in my Two Sentence Horror Stories, Season Two episodes, “Quota” about unfair workplaces and “Ibeji” about medical inequity for Black women. This activism runs in the family: My brother is Chris Cooper, the Central Park birder whose video I posted on Twitter/X a few years ago when I was angry that a woman weaponized her racism towards him. I was already writing on my first TV show, but it definitely catapulted us into the spotlight. Chris wrote a memoir about the impact of activism (and birding) on his life and hosted a reality show “The Extraordinary Birder” that just won a Daytime Emmy Award! Chris and I have talked for years about how we can best utilize our creativity and activism to make a difference in the world. Although they are not here to see what we’ve done since 2018, I hope we’re making our parents proud.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I’m devoted to giving voice to the marginalized and to crossing the divide. “Marginalized” is a wide group, including BIPOC , Queer and the disabled to the poor of any race. In terms of “the divide,” we are living in a time of extremes, from the climate and political agendas to violence and social strife. We are more alike than different, even if there are people out there who say and do divisive and evil things to harm and separate us from our compassion for ourselves and each other. I believe the arts can transcend differences, not to ignore the wrong that may have been done, but rather to see it, address it and transform it into something we can all grow from. I write, direct and produce with a mind focused on truth, a heart focused on hope and eye focused on solutions. I’m including that POV in my novel, want to run a show based on this and bring it to the next film I direct. I know some people are tired, afraid, fed up, angry, done. I’ve felt that way. But that is exactly the time when you need to look to your inspirations, to your light, your mentors, friends, even your own work and know that, as James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’m a divorced single mom, so I had to do a whirling dervish of pivoting to become the successful creative I am now. I’ve already shared that I usually work on multiple levels and projects at the same time, so it’s been a journey! When I was working as a professional actor, I pivoted to work on stage pregnant with each of my three children in a revival, a Shakespearean play and an original short play (I guess my kids made their debuts in utero!) Then when my own play was produced, I worked on stage with my own 9-year-old daughter, an incredible experience! When I had to work full time and run home to pick up my kids, feed them, spend time with them, go to their practices and games, I had to pivot to write late at night and on the train to and from work, which honestly drove me to make the most of my time and write some of my best work. When I was on Two Sentence Horror Stories, everyone else in the writers room was younger and had no kids, so I kind of kept it low key that I was a mom…until the network urgently needed the POV of a mom for details in an episode and I pivoted to owning all of who I am and was rushed into the call to answer burning questions only a mom would know! I’ve had incredible support: I had family who were not very nearby but helped whenever they could. My mom read every script I wrote and gave great notes. (And after she died, I found all my scripts in a file cabinet in her house in Tobago). My dad came to every show I invited him to and because of him and my stepmom, I was able to travel to Rwanda for a month to do research for a play. And there were times my exes were helpful in various ways. But I have to give it up to those who are the reason I gave this answer: my three beautiful children who inspire me every day with their wisdom, love, courage and talent. I’m the lucky one, by far.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.melodyMcooper.com
- Instagram: @melodycooperfilm
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melody-cooper-70b5971/
- Other: https://www.nyxhorror.com
Image Credits
Dave Ostregen
Dave Johnson