Melissa James Gibson is a Canadian-born playwright based in New York.

The child of former BC Liberal MLA Gordon Gibson and journalist Valerie Gibson, Melissa James Gibson grew up in North Vancouver. She graduated from Columbia University and from the Yale School of Drama with an M.F.A. in Playwriting. After graduating, she worked as a college counselor at the exclusive arts-oriented Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn Heights, where her daughter, Celia Frey, graduated in 2017 and her son, Griffin Frey, is a current sophomore. She is working on commissions for the La Jolla Playhouse and The Adirondack Theatre Festival. She has received fellowships from the Jerome Foundation and the MacDowell Colony. The New York Times theatre critic Charles Isherwood wrote that, with her play This, Gibson “graduates into the theatrical big leagues with this beautifully conceived, confidently executed and wholly accessible work.”

She subsequently wrote episodes for The Americans and House of Cards, before joining Endeavor Content in an overall deal.

Pretty elitist upbringing. Growing up in North Vancouver is like hailing from Seattle or Portland, but with lots of money.

Her father being a provincial politician in BC is a little surprising, particularly because the old BC Liberal party is paradoxically the equivalent of the closest thing to the Republicans holding power in California or the PNW.