Lee Melillo

Lee Melillo (they/she) joined Dunham Literary, Inc. in May 2024 as Jennie Dunham’s assistant, following an internship with Dystel, Goderich, & Bourret. As Jennie’s assistant, Lee manages and designs the agency’s social media and website, reads queries, handles royalty statements and permissions, assists on preparing submissions, and more. Lee is NOT open to queries at this time.

Lee graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University in 2022 with a B.A. in English and Theatre Directing. While pursuing her majors and related industry opportunities, she discovered her passion for advocating for writers. She believes literature is one of the most effective ways to gain empathy for and knowledge of experiences outside our own.

While Lee will always be a New Englander at heart, she now resides in Sunnyside, Queens, where you can often spot her nestled in the corner of a café with a matcha latte or haunting local vintage stores for eclectic decor. Lee maintains her love of theatre as the Executive Artistic Director of Personal Pizza Party, an indie production company she co-founded with two Fordham friends in January 2023.

You can find Lee on Instagram and X at @leemelillo, or visit her website, leemelillo.com.

Lee is NOT open to queries at this time.

Lee’s Preferences

While Lee is not open to queries at this time, here are a few of her favorite things:

ADULT FICTION: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, Human Acts by Han Kang, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, and Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook. On the classics end: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Nemesis by Phillip Roth, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Other favorite adult fiction authors include Octavia Butler, Junot Díaz, Emily Henry, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Hunter S. Thompson.

YA FICTION: Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han, The Silence of Bones by June Hur, and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. She also had very intense Warriors (Erin Hunter) and A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket) phases earlier on in her youth.

A few of Lee’s favorite films include The Truman Show, Aftersun, Short Term 12, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and Howl’s Moving Castle. Lee is generally a fan of all things created by Barry Jenkins, Greta Gerwig, Bong Joon-ho, Richard Curtis, Daniel Destin Cretton, and Taika Waititi. On the small screen, she’s a passionate fan of Avatar: the Last Airbender, Girls, Seinfeld, Community, The Boys, Our Flag Means Death, and The Good Place. And for any theatre kids out there, favorite playwrights include Branden Jacob-Jenkins, Jen Silverman, Sarah Ruhl, and Paula Vogel. Lee might also know all the lyrics to Les Miz, Next to Normal, Spring Awakening, Great Comet, Hadestown, and everything Stephen Sondheim ever touched, but don’t ask her to sing for you. It won’t be good.