Melissa Jun Rowley is a writer, activist, filmmaker, and entrepreneur working at the intersection of media, social impact, and climate innovation. She began her career at CNN and the Associated Press before moving to London to report on business and technology for BBC News, exploring how ideas travel and transform the world.

Over the past 15 years, she’s built ventures where storytelling meets justice—co-founding The Toolbox with musician Peter Gabriel and launching Warrior Love Productions, an impact studio behind award-winning campaigns and documentaries on climate action and gender equity. In 2025, she founded Climate Mic Drop™, a global initiative uniting artists, advocates, and policymakers to reimagine climate storytelling.

Melissa currently leads communications for REVERB, the leading climate-action partner to the music industry, collaborating with artists including Billie Eilish, FINNEAS, Dead & Company, Jack Johnson, and Dave Matthews Band. She also writes a monthly column on climate and culture for Rolling Stone.

Her forthcoming book, Beyond the Mic Drop: How Our Stories Can Shift Culture, Power & Policy, draws on two decades of work in journalism, activism, and social innovation to explore how storytelling can drive systems change.

When she’s not writing, walking her dog, or looking for great live music or stand-up comedy to take in, she’s likely chasing adventure—from zero-gravity flight at NASA to paragliding above South Africa’s wine country to hiking the mountains of Bhutan. For Melissa, the best stories are always lived before they’re told.

A Little About Me

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