About Melissa

Melissa Pleckham is a Los Angeles-based writer, actor, and musician.

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 is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association.

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.

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: Coven and their Macbeth-inspired quarantine-produced music video for their latest release, the single "Crown Shyness," can be viewed here.