BIO

Originally from Mexico City, Business Management major and Theatre minor Melissa Sue Lopez  spent her teenage and early adult years in Oklahoma City. She has worked on several independent films from different companies, including ABC Film & Video and MoonSue Productions. Her introduction to film was at Oklahoma City Community College, where she produced her first short films "Shoot Happens" and “Masquerade," and where she was the lead photographer for the newspaper The Pioneer. At the age of twenty-one Melissa Sue met scholar/author Clenora Hudson-Weems, who introduced her to Barry Morrow, the Oscar award-winning co-writer of Rain Man, while they worked together on a screenplay about Emmett Till, the "true catalyst of the modern Civil Rights Movement." During this period, she moved to New York City to follow her dreams. There she worked in theater, music, and filmmaking, completing her first major short film, Emociones, which she later turned into a feature-length film. She also had the pleasure of working on two award-winning off-Broadway plays: As stage manager in the off-Broadway "Historia Bien Conocida" and as assistant director for "La Bella y La Muy Bestia," with acclaimed Mexican actor and director Eugenio Derbez. She returned to Oklahoma City, her adopted hometown, to produce, direct, and write for MoonSue Productions. It was here that she co-wrote, directed, filmed, edited and produced her first feature length film Shutter Mind, which won two awards at the In-Color Film Festival in Oklahoma City: The People's Choice Award, and the prestigious Jury Award. Melissa Sue is passionate about everything she does, from her career to her music. She is a singer/songwriter who just finished composing the soundtrack of her upcoming docuseries pilot "Willing to Kill, Willing to Die." Has also directed music videos and commercials in addition to her films. She focuses on documentary-style dramatic films, but she has also made films of other genres as well. In 2016 she won the Best Oklahoma Short Film at the Cine Latino Film Festival in Oklahoma City and Best Romance-Comedy at Bare Bones Film Festival for her short film Deviants, the screenplay adaptation which she co-wrote with the author of the novel, Charles Martin. Her most recent short documentary, “The Butler’s Home: A Glimpse into Eugene Allen’s Life,” completed in partnership with The Starr Center for the American Experience at Washington College, premiered in Bolivia in February 2018 with a presentation by the U.S. State Department.

At Washington College, in addition to working with The Starr Center, she focused on her studies and her writing. While there she began work on Resisting the Fae, her first musical stage play, and on 9 Digits to Freedom, her autobiography.

Her plans for the future include finishing the screenplays for a television series adaptation of Deviants, completing work on her musical Resisting the Fae and the remaining chapters of her book, 9 Digits to Freedom. At this time, Melissa Sue is working on a documentary about the most decorated U.S. soldier of the Vietnam War, Sgt. Jorge Otero Barreto, who served 5 tours in Southeast Asia, participated in 200 combat missions, was wounded 5 times in combat and has been awarded 52 military decorations.