Melissa DuPrey

MELISSA DUPREY is an award-winning multidisciplinary performer, comic, educator, producer, musician, and playwright rooted in the Puerto Rican community of Humboldt Park, Chicago. She is a critically-acclaimed solo artist whose self-produced work spans over a decade. Her five full-length solo plays (SEXomedy, SUSHI-frito, Good Grief, SEXomedy 2.0, RISE OF THUNDERDOME) highlight the intersections of diasporic Blackness, queerness, healing, liberation, and sexuality. DuPrey is also a community organizer and spiritualist who launched The Good Grief Project in 2020—an extension of the social justice component from her solo play, Good Grief, where communities of color are connected to local, accessible and multidisciplinary mental and spiritual wellness practitioners of color in Chicago. DuPrey’s full-length play, BRUJAJA, was digitized as a theatrical film by UrbanTheater Company for its world premiere in 2021. She is a seasoned stand-up comic of 12 years who has performed in Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. She is a regular emcee of The Fly Honey Show and the LatinXt festival at Navy Pier. She was most recently seen as a recurring character on the award-winning show How to Die Alone, as Dr. Sara Ortiz for two seasons on Grey’s Anatomy, and on Empire. She has guest-starred on The Resident, Chicago P.D., and The Chi. Her theatre credits include works at Teatro Vista, Court Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, Free Street Theater, UrbanTheater Company, Victory Gardens, Greenhouse Theater Center, Oracle Theatre, and Teatro Luna. She is an associate of UrbanTheater Company, ensemble member of Teatro Vista, and Africaribe, a bomba y plena group. DuPrey also teaches her own “Performed Narrative” curriculum at DePaul University, Randolph College MFA program, and Vagabond School for Acting. She is the recipient of the 2024 3Arts Make A Wave Award, 2025 Peggy A. Montes Unsung Heroines Award, and Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Ensemble for How to Die Alone.