Melinda Lopez (she/her) is a multiple award-winning playwright and performer. She is the recipient of the 2019 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Achievement, recognizing her 20-year career as a playwright, performer and educator. She was a member of the Mellon Foundation’s National Playwrights Residency Program and the Playwright-in-Residence at the Huntington Theatre Co. Recent plays include: Stir, (Writer/Performer, Old Globe Theatre) Mala, (Arts Emerson, The Guthrie Theatre, the Huntington Theatre Company, Old Globe, and others, Elliot Norton Award, Best New Play, Arts Impulse Award, Best Solo Performance) available to download on Audible in both Spanish and English; Mr. Parent, Lyric Stage Co., Hartford Theatreworks, Geva Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse,  Yerma Adaptation, Huntington Theatre Co. Currently she is working on two commissions: Twelfth Night, (an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play blending Spanish and English, for Play On!) Launchpad at UCSB!

Other plays:  Black Beans Project (Huntington Theatre, zoom-verse, Elliot Norton, Best New Play)Becoming Cuba, (Huntington Theatre Co, North Coast Rep) and Sonia Flew (Elliot Norton Award, Huntington Theatre, Steppenwolf, Coconut Grove Playhouse, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and many many others.) She has also written and directed for the audio series, Dream Boston.Her plays have been translated into Spanish (SER CUBA and SONIA SE FUE) and been seen in Cuba, Canada and South Korea.

Melinda serves on the board of Friends of Caritas Cuba and was mentioned by President Obama in his historic speech to the Cuban people. Mayor Marty Walsh declared October 29, 2016 “Melinda Lopez Day in the city of Boston.  She was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a “promising new voice in American Theatre.” Ms. Lopez teaches playwriting at Northeastern University (undergrad) Boston University (MFA.)  

She lives in the Boston area with her husband, daughter, giant yellow dog, and other critters, and occasionally sleeps on the ground in the American Southwest. She has run two marathons and plays a little ukulele.