Meleesha Bardolia is a screenwriter and director based in Naarm (Melbourne).

She is the creator of the original television drama NIL, which is currently in development with Kindling Pictures under producer Imogen Banks, with support from VicScreen. Her original scripted series BHANG BHANG was optioned by Every Cloud Productions and received Screen Australia Generate Funding, with Meleesha developing the project alongside Hannah Samuel and Marieke Hardy before writing the pilot episode.

Meleesha's screen projects have been supported by Screen Australia, VicScreen, Film Victoria and the AMP Foundation. Her web series GUESTS was developed through Film Victoria and the AMP Foundation's Tomorrow Maker Award, while her short films have screened internationally. Her graduate film MATCH was selected for the Melbourne International Film Festival Accelerator Program, and ARRIVALS won Best Director and Best Actor at the NYC Picturestart Film Festival.

From 2021–2023, Meleesha was Development Executive at Every Cloud Productions, supported by Screen Australia's Enterprise Program and VicScreen's Key Talent Placement Program, where she worked across scripted development and production. Since 2020, she has worked in writers' rooms as both a notetaker and story-liner for companies including Matchbox Pictures, Fremantle Australia, Blackfella Films, Silent Firework, Every Cloud Productions, Great Southern TV (NZ), Bodhini Productions, Cenzoic Pictures and 2Jons.

As a director, Meleesha has completed director attachments with Michael Rymer and Amanda Brotchie on PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and Robert Connolly on THE DRY, and has directed electronic press kit content for productions including BARRACUDA and SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY.

Meleesha holds a Master of World Literatures from the University of Oxford, a Master of Directing for Film and Television from the Victorian College of the Arts, and a PhD from the University of Melbourne. Her academic research examined the legacies of settler colonialism in Australia and South Africa. The themes of racism, migration, hybridity and settler colonialism that she explores in academia inform her creative work.