Born in Boston and raised in the US Virgin Islands, Connecticut and New York, Melissa Haizlip attended Yale University. After a 25-year career as a professional Broadway stage performer and film and television actor, Haizlip moved to Los Angeles to work in development at the American Film Institute, and began
casting for independent features. She cast the film 40, a multi-storyline, international thriller set in Turkey and Africa, which premiered at Toronto
International Film Festival 2010. While participating in Film Independent’s 20th anniversary class of Project: Involve, Haizlip received the 2013 Chaz and Roger Ebert Fellowship at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. She produced the short film YOU’RE DEAD TO ME, directed by Wu Tsang, which premiered at Outfest 2013 and will screen at Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2014. Her feature documentary work-in-progress Mr. SOUL! ELLIS HAIZLIP AND THE BIRTH OF BLACK POWER TV screened at the 2013 Film Independent Project Involve Showcase at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 41st Annual Independent Film Series and the 2013 Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. Currently a fellow in Stanley Nelson’s Firelight Media Producers’ Lab, Haizlip participated in the Producers Guild of America Diversity Workshop 2011. She founded Shoes In The Bed Productions, an independent film production company producing cinematic works of non-fiction with an emphasis on diverse new voices and filmmakers of color. Haizlip has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, theNational Black Programming Consortium, Firelight Media’s Next Step Fund, ITVS’ Diversity Development Fund, and support from IFP. Currently, Haizlip is in production on Mr. SOUL! with several projects in development.