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Melissa Bretherton, ACE is an American film editor whose career spans more than four decades in Hollywood, from early assistant editor work in the 1980s through to principal editing credits on major studio comedies in the 2020s.1 She is best known for her repeated collaborations with director Paul Feig, including co-editing the 2016 reboot Ghostbusters: Answer the Call alongside Brent White, ACE.2 She is a member of American Cinema Editors (ACE).3
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Bretherton entered the film industry in the early 1980s, beginning as an assistant editor on major Hollywood productions.1 Her earliest known credit is Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), where she is listed in the film's credits as "Mellissa Bretherton" (alternate spelling) in the assistant editing department.4 She continued assistant and first assistant editor work through the decade and into the 1990s, including The Lonely Guy (1984), Outrageous Fortune (1987), and Falling Down (1993), where she served as first assistant editor.1
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she took on visual effects editorial roles, working as visual effects editor on Mission to Mars (2000) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002).1
Bretherton built her credentials as an additional editor during the mid-2000s run of comedies associated with the Judd Apatow production circle, including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Knocked Up (2007), and Step Brothers (2008).1 She continued in additional editing roles on The Other Guys (2010), This Is 40 (2012), and The Heat (2013).1
Her transition to principal editor credits began with Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) and Rapture-Palooza (2013).1 From that point forward she worked as a lead editor on each project, establishing herself as a go-to collaborator for high-profile comedy features.
Notable films she has edited as principal editor include:
Across her career she has worked frequently alongside composer Theodore Shapiro and screenwriter Katie Dippold, and has built a recurring partnership with director Paul Feig across at least three features.1
Bretherton is represented by Innovative Artists talent agency and holds ACE designation from American Cinema Editors, the professional honorary society for film editors.3
Bretherton co-edited Ghostbusters: Answer the Call alongside Brent White, ACE, under director Paul Feig.2 Principal photography on the film ran from June 17 to September 19, 2015, with additional reshoots in Los Angeles in May 2016.2 The post-production period handled approximately 1,700 visual effects shots across six VFX companies, presenting the editing team with the challenge of integrating a large CGI workload into what was primarily a character-driven comedy.2 An extended cut, adding more than 17 minutes of deleted and alternate material, was released on home media in October 2016.2
The film is credited simply to "Brent White, ACE / Melissa Bretherton" in its theatrical end credits.2
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
IMDb, "Melissa Bretherton," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0107855/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13
"Ghostbusters (2016 film)," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters_(2016_film) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
Innovative Artists, "Melissa Bretherton, ACE," accessed 2026-06-13, https://innovative-production.com/melissa-bretherton ↩ ↩2 ↩3
IMDb, "Raging Bull (1980) Full Cast and Crew," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081398/fullcredits/ (lists "Mellissa Bretherton" in the assistant editing department). ↩
Rotten Tomatoes, "Spy (2015)," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spy_2015 (94% critics score, 261 reviews). ↩
Rotten Tomatoes, "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_unbearable_weight_of_massive_talent (87% critics score, 317 reviews). ↩