Mel McGraw

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Bio

Mel McGraw is an award-winning filmmaker, sound artist, and educator whose work explores how cinematic sound shapes story, performance, collaboration, and emotional truth. A writer-director at heart, she moves fluidly between writing, directing, production sound, and post-production sound, approaching filmmaking as an interconnected creative practice rather than a collection of separate disciplines.

McGraw joins SDSU after several years teaching graduate-level cinematic sound at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she’s been mentoring MFA filmmakers through the complete sonic storytelling process—from script analysis and production planning through production sound, dialogue editing, sound design, Foley/ADR, music, and the final re-recording mix. She earned her MFA in Film Production from USC, where she studied cinematic sound under Midge Costin, the Kay Rose Endowed Chair in the Art of Sound Editing and director/producer of Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound. McGraw later served as Costin’s graduate teaching assistant and joined her and other USC faculty in Jordan to help develop curriculum and teach cinematic sound during the formative work that led to the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts.

McGraw’s USC thesis film, PITSTOP, received a Student Academy Award® and BAFTA/LA Best Student Film Award and screened internationally. Her feature screenplay NUMB FOR JESUS was selected for the Film Independent Screenwriters Lab and recognized by the Austin Film Festival. Her creative practice spans writing, directing, production sound, sound design, and supervising sound editorial, with work across narrative film, documentary, educational media, and exhibition media.

The second oldest of ten children and eldest daughter, McGraw grew up in the D.C. area in a conservative Mormon military family—an early master class in storytelling, collaboration, and finding humor amid chaos. Her experience of coming out and ultimately forging a life beyond the expectations she grew up with continues to inform her interest in identity, belonging, authenticity, and artistic self-expression. It also shapes the kind of classroom she works to create: one grounded in curiosity, empathy, and respect for the lived experiences each student brings with them.

At the heart of McGraw’s teaching is a pretty simple idea: she doesn’t teach sound to create better sound editors; she teaches sound to create better storytellers. She wants filmmakers to think sonically from the beginning—not so they all become sound specialists (although some do!), but so they become more attentive collaborators, more empathetic artists, and more truthful storytellers.