American Filmmaker

Ashley Melzer is a producer, filmmaker and writer based in Durham, NC. She grew up in North Florida, the youngest daughter of a small town dentist and nurse. Growing up, Ashley was a wannabe beatnik who loved music, wrote bad poetry and annoyed her older brothers. Her brothers grew up to become dentists. Ashley either missed or threw away the family memo and has instead chased creative pursuits.

She received her Bachelors in Cinematic Arts from the University of Southern California and then a Masters in Folklore from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her writing and photography has been featured in Indy Week, Paste Magazine, eMusic, and the Southern Foodways Alliance to name a few. She's worked with Hopscotch, Moogfest, Thornapple Films, The Southern Oral History Program and more. She currently works on Multimedia Production and Special Projects for the Southern Cultures Journal. She is director and producer of Zara, a one person show about an anxious, asthmatic Muslim kid’s search for meaning and the chance encounters that impacted him. Ashley is the founder of Mettlesome, a creative, project based collective, for which she performs, directs, writes and teaches comedy. When not being creative, Ashley is usually hanging out with her husband Jack and their rescue dog Iceman.

Ashley Melzer is the producer of “You Gave Me A Song: The Life and Music of Alice Gerard.”

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