Dani Melia
Lulu Wang’s business partner and producer on the importance of young storytellers
Dani Melia is an LA-based producer. She developed and produced Lulu Wang’s critically-acclaimed feature The Farewell starring Awkwafina, which went on to receive nominations for the Gotham Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTAs, and won two Film Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture.
In 2021, she founded film and television production company Local Time alongside Wang. They aim to champion emerging storytellers and focus on narrative possibilities that can open audiences to new perspectives in storytelling.
Local Time has a first-look TV deal at Amazon Studios. Dani is currently Executive Producing the Amazon drama series Expats, starring Nicole Kidman, based on the novel by Janice Y.K. Lee. Under their banner, Melia is also developing Son of Good Fortune, an adaptation of Lysley Tenorio’s novel by the same name, with Riz Ahmed’s Left Handed Films & writer Andrew Lopez for Amazon Studios. She’s also producing two upcoming features to be directed by Wang: Children of the New World, based on the short story by Alexander Weinstein, and an adaptation of the Japanese film Like Father Like Son for Focus Features.
Previously, Dani was an executive at Big Beach, where she worked on films including Puzzle, 3 Generations, Loving, Safety Not Guaranteed, and The Kings of Summer. She started her career assisting producers on films including Away We Go, Jack Goes Boating, Our Idiot Brother, Sunshine Cleaning, and Is Anybody There?
Dani has served as a mentor at the Film Independent Producing Lab Retreat, the Outfest Screenwriting Lab, the Tribeca Film Institute Sloan Student Program, and as a panelist at the Sundance Creative Producing Summit. In 2019, she was listed by Hollywood Reporter as one of Hollywood’s 35 Rising Executives Under 35.
A few takeaways from our chat include how to navigate risk and trust your gut, how the magic of Dani’s partnership with Lulu came to be, and red flags that mean it’s time to leave a job.
Tune in!
xx cg
“People will make mistakes or things will go wrong... So accepting that some things are out of your control is an important part of being a producer.”
- Dani Melia
Episode Transcript
