--- name: "Theodore Melfi" canonical: "https://film.one/person/theodore-melfi" roles: ["Producer","Director"] born: "27 October 1970" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "producer" average_over: 0 updated: "2026-09-18T02:04:35.184652+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Theodore Melfi Producer and director. Born 27 October 1970 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Producer, Director - **Born:** 27 October 1970, Brooklyn, New York, USA - **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Melfi, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19517847, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0577647/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1141683 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Hidden Figures*](https://film.one/film/hidden-figures.md) (80) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Theodore Melfi > Theodore Melfi makes approachable dramas about people accustomed to being underestimated. We rate his patience with actors and his gift for making difficult work engaging; we are less persuaded when his scripts make injustice look easily settled. In *Hidden Figures* (2016), Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe let their characters tease one another without explaining the friendship to us. Melfi gives these exchanges time, and the women seem to have known each other long before the scene began. We laughed at their banter because Spencer’s steadiness and Monáe’s impatience make the affection convincing. This is where we trust Melfi most: with actors who can suggest more than the dialogue spells out. His popular drama works well when he lets people be funny and capable without insisting on their importance. His move from early features and commercials to *St. Vincent* (2014) established him as a writer-director of character-led comedy-drama, with Bill Murray in the cast. *Hidden Figures* brought that approach to NASA’s space programme in the 1960s, keeping its attention on people whose abilities others fail to recognise. He later directed *The Starling* (2021), an intimate drama about grief that reunited him with Melissa McCarthy and Chris O’Dowd. Across that progression, his interest in people facing hardship is consistent; the question is how much reassurance he thinks their stories require. Allison Schroeder and Melfi’s screenplay for *Hidden Figures* is strongest when mathematical intelligence runs into everyday prejudice. Spencer’s Dorothy Vaughan and Monáe’s Mary Jackson have distinct temperaments, and Melfi allows both to matter within the ensemble. The scenes of professional competence are satisfying in themselves, and he understands that watching somebody do difficult work well can hold an audience. The more predictable personal-life scenes offer the performers fewer chances to surprise us. We would have preferred more time at work. The larger weakness is the ease with which the film makes prejudice yield to a forceful speech. Melfi and Schroeder give us the pleasure of progress without enough sense of how stubborn an institution can be, and the uplift becomes too comfortable. Start with *Hidden Figures* for the company of its three leads, and be prepared to forgive some tidying of the history. ## Biography Theodore Melfi is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed and co-wrote the screenplay for *Hidden Figures* (2016) with Allison Schroeder. His other directing credits include *St. Vincent* (2014). He wrote the screenplays for *Going in Style* (2017) and *El Camino Christmas* (2017). Melfi received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for *Hidden Figures*. He is married to actress Kimberly Quinn. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Hidden Figures* (2016), Fi1m 80, Producer, Director, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/hidden-figures.md) ## Complete filmography (17) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Corner Office* (2023), Executive Producer - *American Dreamer* (2022), Producer, Screenplay, Story - *The Starling* (2021), Director, Producer - *El Camino Christmas* (2017), Producer, Writer - *The Black Ghiandola* (2017), Director - *Going in Style* (2017), Screenplay - *Hidden Figures* (2016), Director, Screenplay, Producer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/hidden-figures.md) - *St. Vincent* (2014), Director, Screenplay, Producer - *Bed & Breakfast* (2010), Producer - *The Beneficiary* (2008), Director - *Game of Life* (2007), Co-Producer - *Larva* (2005), Executive Producer - *Tricks* (2004), Producer - *Winding Roads* (1999), Director, Writer, Producer - *To the Ends of Time* (1996), as Aralon Soldier - *Fruitloops*, Director, Writer, Producer - *Underworld*, Director, Writer ## Gallery - ![Theodore Melfi](https://film.one/media/person/687541/gallery-b3849fcf5250.jpg) Theodore Melfi — Bill Ingalls, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Theodore_Melfi_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Director Theodore Melfi arrives on the red carpet for the global celebration of the film "Hidden Figures" at the SVA Theatre, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016 in New Yor](https://film.one/media/person/687541/gallery-087a9aae613b.jpg) Director Theodore Melfi arrives on the red carpet for the global celebration of the film "Hidden Figures" at the SVA Theatre, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016 in New Yor — Bill Ingalls, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/%22Hidden_Figures%22_Film_Celebration_%28NHQ201612100013%29.jpg/1280px-%22Hidden_Figures%22_Film_Celebration_%28NHQ201612100013%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Director Theodore Melfi, and American actress and singer Taraji P. Henson arrive on the red carpet for the global celebration of the film "Hidden Figures" at th (2016)](https://film.one/media/person/687541/gallery-f4a5949a93ca.jpg) Director Theodore Melfi, and American actress and singer Taraji P. Henson arrive on the red carpet for the global celebration of the film "Hidden Figures" at th (2016) — Bill Ingalls, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/%22Hidden_Figures%22_Film_Celebration_%28NHQ201612100021%29.jpg/1280px-%22Hidden_Figures%22_Film_Celebration_%28NHQ201612100021%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![From left: director Theodore Melfi, producer Mimi Valdés, American singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams, American actor, film director, and producer Kevin Costne](https://film.one/media/person/687541/gallery-a375bb2007d2.jpg) From left: director Theodore Melfi, producer Mimi Valdés, American singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams, American actor, film director, and producer Kevin Costne — Joel Kowsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/%22Hidden_Figures%22_Screening_at_NMAAHC_%28NHQ201612140046%29.jpg/1280px-%22Hidden_Figures%22_Screening_at_NMAAHC_%28NHQ201612140046%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![From left: Founding Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture Lonnie G. Bunch III, American actor, film director, an](https://film.one/media/person/687541/gallery-9b1a77d90129.jpg) From left: Founding Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture Lonnie G. Bunch III, American actor, film director, an — Joel Kowsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/%22Hidden_Figures%22_Screening_at_NMAAHC_%28NHQ201612140048%29.jpg/1280px-%22Hidden_Figures%22_Screening_at_NMAAHC_%28NHQ201612140048%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Director Theodore Melfi speaks on a panel after a screening of the film “Hidden Figures” at the White House, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016 in Washington. The film is ](https://film.one/media/person/687541/gallery-cc6916ce778e.jpg) Director Theodore Melfi speaks on a panel after a screening of the film “Hidden Figures” at the White House, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016 in Washington. The film is — Aubrey Gemignani, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/%22Hidden_Figures%22_Screening_at_the_White_House_%28NHQ201612150005%29.jpg/1280px-%22Hidden_Figures%22_Screening_at_the_White_House_%28NHQ201612150005%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated - 2017: Best Picture (nominated), for *Hidden Figures* - 2017: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *Hidden Figures* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/theodore-melfi