Melissa Li is a composer, lyricist, performer, and writer based in New York City & Montreal.

She is a recipient of the 2023 ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Lyric Award, 2021 Kleban Prize, Jonathan Larson Award, a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, a Lincoln Center Theater Writer-in-Residence, a 2019 Musical Theatre Factory Maker, a MacDowell Fellow, a Company One Pao Arts Fellow, and a former Queer|Art|Mentorship Fellow.

Musicals include Interstate (New York Musical Festival, Winner “Outstanding Lyrics”), MISS STEP (5th Avenue Theatre commission), Cancelled (Keen Company), May Day (NewYorkRep), Surviving the Nian (The Theater Offensive, IRNE Award Winner for "Best New Play" 2007), and 99% Stone (The Theater Offensive). Upcoming: BachelorX (Playwrights Horizons), Adventurephile (Keen Company), and OSF Presents (Oregon Shakespeare Festival).

Her works have received support from 5th Avenue Theatre, The Village Theater, Musical Theater Factory, Playwrights Horizons, Keen Company, Weston Playhouse, NewYorkRep, Company One Theatre, National Performance Network, and New England Foundation for the Arts, among others.

Melissa has released music solo and collaboratively, including 2 Seconds Away, Drive Away Home (as Good Asian Drivers), and The Beginning (as Melissa Li & The Barely Theirs).

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Melissa is a Plays in Progress Mentor for Musicals. Her mentor interests: musical theatre, queer and trans narratives, song and story integration, structure and song plot, lyric writing, and contemporary musical composition.

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"I love diving into how songs function inside a musical: why is this character singing, why this moment, what needs to happen by the end of the song, what's changed within the character and the world? I can help you clarify your song structure and take your lyrics to the next level. I write across many genres but tend to lean contemporary pop and rock, so if you have questions about music and composition, I'm your person. Looking forward to helping you with your project!"