Melissa Costello, Director

Melissa Costello has been directing commercials since 1985 and was one of the pioneering women in the field. She has directed national spots for top commercial advertising agencies (Leo Burnett, J. Walter Thompson, DDB Needham, Backer-Spielvogel-Bates) on behalf of dozens of Fortune 500 companies, including Sprint, Proctor & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Johnson & Johnson, State Farm Insurance, Kellogg's and Quaker Oats. She specializes in directing commercials that feature non-actors.

Costello also has directed public service announcements for the National Kidney Foundation (organ donation), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (teen pregnancy), and the United Negro College Fund. She received an Addy award for commercial direction from the Advertising Council of America in 1989.

Costello formed and ran a successful, Los Angeles-based commercial production company, which she sold in 1992. A guest lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which she also attended, Costello lives in Chicago with her husband and two children.