Melanie McLean Brooks

Director | Director of Photography

Melanie McLean Brooks is an Emmy-winning director, director of photography, sushi connoisseur, and effervescent optimist who believes deeply in the power of film to build empathy, spark curiosity, and connect people across experience.

With a background in photojournalism and an MFA in social documentary filmmaking, Melanie approaches every project with a clear point of view: stories are most powerful when they help us understand each other. Her work spans documentaries, branded content, commercials, public service campaigns, and unscripted series, but the throughline is always the same — human stories told with honesty, purpose, and visual intention. She is drawn to work that makes big ideas feel intimate, challenges assumptions, and invites audiences to look closer.

Melanie began her storytelling career as a Public Affairs Officer in the U.S. Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base, where she helped facilitate coverage of local and national stories. From there, she made her way to New York City, building an image-making career across photography, directing, camera operating on shows, and editing commercials. She has led and contributed to camera departments on numerous documentaries and series, including Dykes, Camera, Action!, Secrets of Playboy, Herstory and digital content for VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race. Her director of photography credits include Emmy-nominated projects such as Portrait of a Queen, Out of the Closet, and We the Artists. As a director, Melanie won a 2022 Emmy for the PSA series Seatbelt Stories.  

Her work has been featured by PBS, Discovery, MTV, VH1, The History Channel, The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, HBO, A&E, and more.

Across her career, Melanie has been especially drawn to cause-based storytelling — work that sits at the intersection of people, justice, environment, food systems, and community. Her thesis film explored sustainability in the food world, an early thread that continues to shape her creative focus today. She has created impactful work for organizations including SAME Café, the United Nations Environment Programme, UN Women, Urgent Action Fund, and Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in Brooklyn.

A 2021 Veteran-in-Residence with Bunker Labs and a Department of Defense Storytelling Workshop instructor, Melanie also remains committed to supporting the veteran community through mentorship, entrepreneurship, and technical training. Whether directing a documentary, shaping a branded story, or building a visual world from the ground up, Melanie brings warmth, precision, humor, and a fierce belief that great filmmaking starts with paying attention.

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