Melissa Weisz is an actor, producer, writer and consultant with a focus on giving marginalized individuals and communities a voice. Melissa has appeared in shows such as Unorthodox, Little America, High Maintenance and in award-winning films such as Felix et Meira, Romeo and Juliet in yiddish and Tzadeikis amongst others. Melissa made their theatre debut in 2017 playing Manke in the NYT Critic's Pick "God of vengeance".
Melissa was honored by The Jewish Week magazine in their “36 under 36” “millennials pushing change through compassion” and was featured in Vogue's “American women in transformation". Melissa was the subject of NBC's viral video about coming out after leaving their Hasidic community, as well as Them's video “Can you be religious and queer?”
Melissa co-wrote the play “Di Froyen” (The Women) which takes place in the Hasidic Jewish community and explores the plight of a young mother fighting for custody of her children. Featuring an all-female cast and performed in *Yinglish, Di Froyen had its first run at Theatre for the new city to rave reviews.
* Yinglish- a combination of yiddish and English as spoken on the streets of brooklyn today.
Melissa is the host of The Forbidden Apple Podcast which explores the complex relationship between queer people and religion.
