Melina Namdar

Melina Namdar is a British-Iranian director and writer for stage and screen whose practice is grounded in rigour, emotional intelligence, and strong dramaturgical focus. She leads rehearsal rooms with clarity, integrity, and collaboration, making trauma-informed work that is artistically ambitious. Her directing centres stories and artists often overlooked on UK stages.

Her directing credits include Vitamin D (Soho Theatre), Passion Fruit (New Diorama), All the Happy Things (Theatre503), and We Can’t Be Friends (Riverside Studios). She has also worked as Assistant and Associate Director at major producing houses including Bristol Old Vic, the Royal Court, Young Vic, and Lyric Hammersmith.

Her work has been recognised with a bursary from Artistic Directors of the Future (2024), the London Pub Theatre Award for Best New Play Raising Awareness (Vitamin D), finalist recognition for Best Stage Production at the Asian Media Awards, and Black British Theatre Awards for Best Male Supporting Actor and Best Sound Design (Passion Fruit).

Alongside her directing, Melina works as a writer. She is a recipient of the National Theatre’s Peter Shaffer Commission (2022), has been commissioned by the Gate Theatre, and was selected for the London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme (2024 to 2025). She was shortlisted for the Pentabus Writer in Residence (2026) and selected for the Criterion Theatre Writing Programme (2026)