Melissa Beatriz

Founder / Director (she/her/ella)

Melissa Beatriz is a Uruguayan American documentary filmmaker, cultural producer, and researcher whose work focuses on the intersection of social justice, media arts/culture, and policy. Since 2010, Melissa has collaborated with artists and arts organizations throughout the Greater Philadelphia region as a producer, resource mobilizer, and communications strategist. She has worked closely with grassroots organizations that center diverse communities and focus on immigrant justice, racial justice, and cultural justice.

Melissa is the Founder/Director of Actívate Stories, a media arts entity that produces collaborative documentaries, engages in cultural preservation, and develops creative strategies focused on art and social change. She is a 2025 Flaherty Film Seminar Fellow, 2022 Al Día 40 Under 40 honoree, 2019 Leeway Transformation Awardee, and 2020 Fellow of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) Leadership Institute. Her media work has been supported by Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures, ARTisPHL, Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Scribe Video Center, Independence Public Media Foundation, Velocity Fund, Doc Society: Good Pitch Local Philadelphia, Leeway Foundation, Double Exposure Scholars program, and Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Philadelphia Day Lab.

As an arts administrator and advocate with expertise in development, she has mobilized resources to collaboratively develop projects, programs, and small organizations. Through advocacy, she has played a role in shifting local conversations about cultural equity, by participating in groups such as the Arts Funding Coalition, Securing the Roots, the Lenfest Visioning Table, and the Arts & Culture Taskforce Permanence subcommittee.

She has a Joint PhD in Communication & Social Welfare, as well as an MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. Through PhD training, she has a certificate in Experimental Ethnography.
melissa@activatestories.org