Melina Matsoukas

Melina Matsoukas (born 14 January 1981) is an American director of music videos and commercials. She has won two Grammy Awards and four MTV Video Music Awards.

Melina Matsoukas was born on January 14, 1981, in the Bronx, New York. When she was eight, the family moved to Hackensack, New Jersey. 

She is of Greek, Jewish, Jamaican and Cuban descent; her father, a builder, is half Greek and half Jewish and her mother, a math teacher at a high school, is of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Jamaican descent. Both her first and last names are Greek: Μελίνα Ματσούκα.

Matsoukas attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and later earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in cinematography from the American Film Institute. Her graduate thesis was on music videos.

Music videos

Matsoukas started out at Black Dog Film, then the now-defunct Gorilla Flix film production company. Since 2011, she has been working with Prettybird,

Her work is described as:

chock full of bright colors or crisp black and white images, smooth spotlights, and tasteful retro video models.

Matsoukas' known official debut in show business came in February 2004, when she served as a cinematographer for the short drama Skal, starring Brandon Crane, Brad Light, and Kiff Scholl. The same year, she also worked on another short film titled Palmarejo, starring Marilyn Ghigliotti and Sarah Nanko among others.

In 2006, Matsoukas made her music direction debut with the duo Ali and Big Gipp's music video Go 'Head. In the same year, she directed the Money Maker music video by Ludacris featuring Pharrell Williams.

In 2007, she directed the music video for Beyoncé's Suga Mama. In November of that year, she directed Snoop Dogg's Sensual Seduction.

Over the following years, Matsoukas collaborated with many celebrated musicians, including Jennifer Lopez (Hold It Don't Drop It, 2007), Ne-Yo (Do You, 2007), Kylie Minogue (Wow, 2008), Kylie Minogue (In My Arms, 2008), Lady Gaga (Just Dance, 2008), Ashanti: (Good Good, 2008), Katy Perry: (Thinking of You, 2008), Lily Allen: (Not Fair, 2009).

In 2017, Matsoukas directed two episodes of the TV comedy series Master of None, starring Aziz Ansari and Eric Wareheim.

In June 2019, Matsoukas presented the BET Awards alongside 50 Cent, Cardi B, and Mary J. Blige, among others.

Most recently, in 2019, she directed a feature film titled Queen & Slim. The film's screenplay was written by Lena Waithe and had in the lead cast Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Bokeem Woodbine. The film earned her a DGA nomination in the First-Time Feature Film category. She has also finished filming the pilot episode of the TV series Y: The Last Man, which will star Ben Schnetzer.

Commercials

Matsoukas has developed television commercials for many well-known global brands including Adidas, Stella McCartney, Coca-Cola, and Nike. In 2017, she collaborated with advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy to create and direct the wildly successful Equality campaign, which starred a variety of American athletes, including LeBron James, Serena Williams, Kevin Durant, Megan Rapinoe, Dalilah Muhammad, Gabby Douglas, and Victor Cruz. The ad won a Graphite pencil at the 2017 D&AD Awards and a Bronze Film Craft Lion at the 2017 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. 

Selected commercials

A good video has the right visuals, a well-conceptualized story and should be exciting and elicit a reaction.

In an interview for Venus Zine's Fall 2010 issue, she says about being part of the music video world, "I love it. The quick turnaround, the creativity." Regarding the concept of Solange Knowles' video "I Decided", Matsoukas stated: "This is her concept so I've definitely just developed it and put my mark on it."

In 2016, Matsoukas was listed among Ad Age's prestigious "Creativity 50."