Melissa is a playwright, poet, performer and director whose interests lie in the experimental, surreal and absurd manifestations of theatre. She is a MFA candidate in the Creative Writing programme at University of Guelph with a focus on playwriting and is a full member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Her plays have been produced in Toronto, New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai India, Pune India, Williston North Dakota, Royal Oak Michigan, Kitchener/Waterloo and the metropolis of Kincardine. Previous credits include: writer/performer of Floozy: The Musical (Toronto Fringe 2008), writer of Even Burning (Toronto Fringe 2008 & New Ideas Festival 2008), director of Kid Cosmic (Summerworks 2008), writer/performer of Unicorn Horns (IDEA World Congress of Theatre in Hong Kong, Theatre Passe Muraille & Nuit Blanche 2006), writer/director of Kicking & Smiling (Nuit Blanche 2007 & Squiggfest 2007) and writer of Art is a Cupboard (Toronto Fringe 2006, hotINK Festival, New York 2007 & WPI, Mumbai 2009).

Awards for her work include the York University President's Prize for Playwriting in 2004 (Art is a Cupboard), 2006 (Unicorn Horns) and 2007 (Kicking and Smiling). Art is a Cupboard was also a finalist for the Hidden River Arts Playwriting Award in Bala Cynwyd, PA (USA) and a semi-finalist for Reverie Productions' Next Generation Playwriting Contest in New York, NY (2006). As well it won the hotINK 2007 playwriting competition where it was produced in New York, NY. Her only children's play Wanda T. Grimsby, Detective Extraordinaire won the 2006 Summer Shorts Festival Playwriting Competition, where the play was produced by Youth Education OnStage in Williston, North Dakota. One of her short plays, Delly’s Belly was a finalist for the 2006 Emerging Artist Theatre’s Fall EATfest award in New York, where it garnered a staged reading.