Provided by Melina Nakos

Melina Nakos (’15) (right) inspects a camera while filming. “Human beings are pack animals, and stories connect people,” Nakos said. “If I can make one person feel less alone, make them feel seen or make them view another person with more kindness and love through my stories, then I’ve done my job.”

A million “no’s” for one “yes.” That is the reality that filmmaker and screenwriter Melina Nakos (‘15) embraces each day, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Passionate and persistent, Nakos continues to carve her own path in the entertainment industry. 

Over the past decade, Nakos has worked as a director, producer, writer and editor in the film industry. She began her journey into the world of entertainment with a screenwriting program during the summer before her sophomore year of high school.

“I got into the car with my mom when she was picking me up from camp and said, ‘I want to be a screenwriter,’” Nakos said. “She was so taken aback because my parents are computer engineers. But now that I’ve been in the industry, I’ve realized that I truly can’t do anything else.”

While her parents were originally uncertain about her pursuing a non-traditional career path, they remained supportive as she continued exploring filmmaking through high school summer programs. After high school, Nakos attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. 

At Tisch, Nakos double-majored in Film and TV Production and Dramatic Writing. She completed internships at various production companies, starting as an associate producer on the TV series “Queen’s English.” Then, she worked at production company Blue Slate Films, and later moved to Nickelodeon for over two years as a junior editor, where she made marketing materials and trailers.

But taking an unexpected turn in her career, she returned to NYU to pursue her Master of Fine Arts in Musical Theater Writing, a new medium she had long wanted to explore. 

Musical theater particularly captivated her because it offered a way to tackle important social and political issues in an entertaining manner. 

“Musical theater engages the brain differently than other kinds of art,” Nakos said. “When somebody is watching a musical, a number can hit you right in the heart, and you start crying. It wouldn’t do that to you if it were spoken. I had a professor talk about how singing is a representation of being alive because you can’t sing if you’re completely torn down.”

Musical theater also includes another core value of storytelling for Nakos: collaboration, which she has emphasized throughout her career. In her MFA program’s cooperative thesis, she writes books and lyrics, while she leans on her Tisch partner to compose the music and lyrics. This emphasis on innovating with a team, she recalls, began during her middle and high school years at Harker.

“If you feel like you’re the smartest person in the room, you’ve made a wrong turn,” Nakos said. “Every single person in every room you walk into is a genius in some way you are not, and learning that early is the key to success. Two heads are always better than one. Three heads are better than two. You need to always pair yourself with people who know something that you don’t, because that’s how you better yourself.”

At 24 years old, she directed an episode for “Her Take,” a short documentary franchise that spotlighted a different accomplished woman in each installment. Creating this piece from start to finish was a new process for Nakos, but she embraced the challenge. This project showcased both her versatility in storytelling through a new medium and her hope to inspire a larger audience through her work. 

Like many in the entertainment industry, Nakos has faced countless rejections and setbacks in developing her pieces and securing festival acceptances. But she maintains a philosophy of persistence and finding support from those around her. 

“Be scrappy,” Nakos said. “The difference between the person who throws their hands up and the person who goes on and finishes that film is resourcefulness and support. Know who’s your village, and who’s helping you. I believe when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

That determination to push through challenges stems from Nakos’s core belief about why stories matter in the first place. 

“Human beings are pack animals, and stories connect people,” Nakos said. “If I can make one person feel less alone, make them feel seen or make them view another person with more kindness and love through my stories, then I’ve done my job. If tomorrow the film industry were gone, I would still find a way to tell stories.”