Lauren Melinda is an award-winning filmmaker, artist and founder of SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS. Her work explores issues of feminine identity and perception, while critiquing the forces of culture and circumstance that mold the roles assigned to women.

As a mixed-media artist, Lauren’s video installations have been commissioned by galleries, museums, and private collectors in North America and the Middle East, while her photographs have been sold to major collections around the world.

As a filmmaker, Lauren has written and directed three short films that have screened in 52 festivals on nearly every continent – garnering the top prize at six of them. Her most recent narrative film, Before You, is playing the festival circuit and is in collaboration with Planned Parenthood. She is now developing her first narrative feature, ECHOES, in which a Persian-American artist faces a Faustian bargain when a Berlin gallery demands she exploit her heritage for success, as well as a TV series based on her Ukrainian great-grandmother, who served as the midwife to the Shah of Iran.

As a mother of two young girls, Lauren’s passion for women’s issues only continues to grow in depth and perspective. Inspired by her daughters, Lauren launched SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS in 2024, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women through film. The organization fosters female-centric stories that promote mutual validation, awareness, and hope. Most recently, SIMBELLE PRODUCTIONS Executive Produced the feature film, Satisfaction, by Alex Burunova and featuring Emma Laird, which premiered at SXSW 2025.

Lauren received a dual Bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts and Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Masters of Fine Arts from

the University of California, Irvine. She is based in Los Angeles.

Instagram:

@laurenmelindafilm

@simbelleproductions 

@beforeyouthefilm

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