Melissa Daniels is a mixed-race Mexican American Producer, filmmaker and entrepreneur who has spent the past 15 years crafting impactful and socially conscious content through commercial and original film. Her storytelling prowess was initially cultivated during her time in broadcast news where she became the youngest person to be hired by a Market 13 newsroom in Seattle, WA. She further developed her ability to build and scale large teams while running a digital music magazine, before later transitioning into the film industry. 

Melissa began working on sets in Seattle as a production assistant before quickly working her way up through the ranks to producer. She served as a freelance producer for many of the major US-based production companies filming in the Northwest before venturing into agency land for companies like Weber Shandwick and Hornall Anderson. Several years into her commercial career, Melissa was scooped up by GoPro where she helped run their Branded Content division.

In 2018 Melissa founded her first production company WE THE PEOPLE, which later rebranded in 2023. As the Founder and Executive Producer of Tidetivity Studios, Melissa has built a commercial arm that boasts a roster of diverse directors and allies creating work for global brands like 3M, Apple, Yahoo!, Airbnb, Verizon, Nike and more. Her work on MGM Resorts International’s UNIVERSAL LOVE campaign helped secure one of the campaign’s 5x Cannes Lion awards in 2018, for Kesha’s “I Need a Woman to Love” music video. Tidetivity is also an active sponsor of Free The Work, a global community of underrepresented creators changing the way we view D&I in production.  

Melissa’s passion for social justice and authentic representation can be seen across her body of work, including the 2023 NatGeo documentary “The Mission” (dir. Jesse Moss & Amanda McBain), Hulu’s “Venus As A Boy” (Tribeca 2021, dir. Ty Hodges), and Apple Music’s documentary “Rainbow: The Film” (dir. Lagan Sebert) about pop sensation Kesha’s journey to create the 2017 album of the same name. Her work has screened at festivals across the globe, garnering a variety of awards and nominations. 

Through Tidetivity, Melissa has several projects in development, including the forthcoming documentary “NORITA” (dir. Jayson McNamara & Andrea Tortonese) which boasts an all-star lineup of Executive Producers including Academy Award® winners Jane Fonda and Gustavo Santaolalla, Journalists Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis, and filmmakers Barbara and Andy Muschietti; “MONTAÑO” (dir. Lauren Finerman) about six-time Olympic track athlete Alysia Montaño and her fight for maternal justice in the sports arena; and an Untitled feature documentary (dir. Lauren Finerman) about the unprecedented class action lawsuit against the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, CA that has been at the center of various abuse scandals for decades. Melissa is also a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia.

Beyond her work, Melissa volunteers as a mentor through ManifestWorks, an immersive workforce development program that connects those impacted by foster care, homelessness and incarceration with job opportunities in the film industry. She is also in process of completing her second year in a two-year program to become a certified mindfulness meditation teacher under the instruction of globally respected teachers Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield.