About Melissa

Melissa Pleckham is a Los Angeles-based writer, actor, and musician. Currently, she works as an Editorial and Social Media Assistant at a literary agency.

Her short stories, poems, and essays have been featured in numerous publications (click HERE for Bibliography & links) and her short screenplay "Moon-Sick" was awarded Best Werewolf Short Script at the 2020 Hollywood Horrorfest and was a Finalist at the 2021 Shriekfest Horror Film Festival. She has served as guest editor for Francesca Lia Block’s Lit Angels Literary Journal on three separate occasions.

Lily of the Valley, her debut novel, is forthcoming.

In 2021, she co-starred in and partially co-wrote the pilot episode of In the Land of Fruits and Nuts, a comedy web series about a newly single lesbian dating in Los Angeles, which was awarded Best Ensemble and Best Web/TV Pilot at the Vegas Movie Awards. She also wrote and starred in comedic short films Nothing Happens, a parody of “highbrow horror” movie trailers, and Group, a playful take on the aftermath of a particular brand of female bacchanalia. Both were featured at film festivals including Salem Horror Fest, Midsummer Scream Halloween Convention, and the Hollywood Comedy Shorts Film Festival at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood. She is also a veteran of notorious horror stage show Urban Death at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group in North Hollywood, where she was a member of the popular production’s ensemble.

Her horror-comedy short Unarmed, which she co-wrote and stars in, is currently filming.

She plays bass and sings, with occasional forays into drumming, for the post-punk/goth/darkwave duo Black Lullabies, along with Ken Ramos, her husband and frequent creative collaborator. Their music can be heard on American Horror Story: Covenand their Macbeth-inspired quarantine-produced music video for their latest release, the single "Crown Shyness," can be viewed here.