Profile: Melody Cooper
Melody Cooper is a prolific multidisciplinary writer and director, whose creative interests span film, theater, television, and even graphic novels. She is currently a story editor on NBCUniversal’s LAW AND ORDER: SVU, where she works with showrunner Warren Leight on this massive industry staple. Here’s Melody’s take on becoming a part of SVU: “Felt like a moment for me to put my social activism money where my mouth was and really have a chance to effect some change.” She was on the Juneteenth panel for the Writers Guild with Black Showrunners and Color of Change, which called for more black writers to be on crime shows to present a more authentic perspective on topics like police brutality. “I am very open about my activism,” she said. “They knew that and wanted me in the room. NBC decided that they needed to tell the story on SVU differently.” Melody began writing for TV on the second season of CW Network’s, TWO SENTENCE HORROR STORIES, which focused on social issues from a BIPOC point of view.
Beyond her prolific TV work, Melody also created ORIGINS, a group that promotes Black Visionary Film/TV/Web Series, specifically around Afrofuturism, sci fi, horror, and fantasy. It is made up of other incredible artists like Tananarive Due (British Fantasy and NAACP Image Award) and Nnedi Okorafor (Nebula Award). As Melody explains, “I knew of these other black writers and filmmakers who were chomping at the bit, and had this great work. I just wanted to collectively support each other.”
Melody is a playwright as well. Her play, SWEET MERCY, surrounding the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, was developed by NY Stage & Film and was a Semifinalist for A Room of Her Own's Shakespeare's Sister Fellowship. “I was listening to a radio story on NPR about Rwanda, how it was amazing how they seem to be moving forward to truth and justice and reconciliation so well. Creatively I just thought there was such an interesting story there.” She also received a Ford Foundation Grant to travel to Rwanda, which she describes as “one of the most incredible experiences I ever had.”
Melody is known for screenplays like, THE SOUND OF DARKNESS, which is what first brought her to Stowe. In SOUND, Melody attacks the fact that there are 64,000 missing black women in the U.S. Melody first based the script on this idea: “I just imagined two black characters, one deaf and one blind, and they were trapped in a place and had to somehow work together to save themselves and save someone else.” The script won the 2017 Tangerine Entertainment Fellowship to Stowe Story Labs, and was selected for the 2017 New York Stage & Film Filmmaking Workshop, 2016 AMC Network’s Shudder Labs, and the 2016 Meryl Streep/IRIS Writers Lab. She also partnered with the Black and Missing Foundation to raise more awareness about this vitally important issue.
Beyond writing plays and screenplays, Melody has written frequently for this newsletter on issues of inclusion in film and television and the issue of race in America. She is also writing graphic novels like OMNI for Mark Waid at Humanoids, which is centered on a young black doctor with super powers who fights social injustice. This is another example of Melody’s wide ranging talents, where she can transfer her writing ability over so many different mediums.
Melody brought THE SOUND OF DARKNESS to the 2017 Stowe Story Lab in September of 2017, where she instantly became a hugely valued member of our community. “It is always great to have a support group, and Stowe fosters that feeling that you are working with others, learning from others. We are all at different levels but there is something to learn from everybody.” She also recently spoke at our 2020 Remote November Writers Retreat, and we were so happy for her to share her perspective with our participants.
