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

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

Her 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). Her work has been supported by Playwrights Horizons, 5th Avenue Theatre, The Village Theater, Musical Theater Factory, Keen Company, NewYorkRep, Lincoln Center Theater, and MacDowell, among others.

Her work in film and television includes selling an original feature to Disney Channel Original Movies with frequent collaborator Kit Yan. They are both current Rideback RISE Fellows, 2025 alumni of the Black List x Women in Film Episodic Lab, and members of the WGA.

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).