Melissa Wilkinson

Melissa Wilkinson has always been obsessed with stories, from fiction and from the people around her. She was often in arm’s reach of a book, her favorite childhood ritual was the weekly trip to Blockbuster for new movies, and she wanted to be a TV writer until she realized it would mean a move to show biz central Los Angeles away from her family in St. Louis.

Mel found herself in the field of academic publishing, the official home of wayward English majors. She was a peer review administrator for a diverse portfolio of journals, managing articles on everything from literary criticism to petroleum engineering. It was compelling but isolating, with the focus entirely on emails (there’s her writing degree at work) and no face-to-face contact with the client. When the opportunity arose for a career shift, Mel decided to jump industries and find someplace better suited to an extrovert. It’s not an act when she answers your phone call to Hightower with abundant pep, it’s a genuine delight in conversing with other people.

Mel’s love of pop culture and live interaction drives her other career as a bar trivia emcee, and she’s been co-hosting movie and TV review podcasts since 2018. She’s always watching something new, can be found at the cinema every weekend, organizes games with her friends to guess the top movie box office or Oscar winners, and is a patron of the local theater scene.

Her favorite place in St. Louis is the Muny outdoor theater. Despite soaring temperatures or stormy weather, she gets her season tickets and makes it to every show every summer. One beloved memory from her days in the free seats is waiting through a rain delay for A CHORUS LINE. Mel treasures this communal experience: strangers sharing umbrellas, powering through a show that started late and ran past midnight, surrounded by the other die-hards who refused to give up and go home. It was the people around her who made that night a real singular sensation, and she seeks that personal connection in everything she does.