{"id":530657,"date":"2026-03-18T11:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/530657\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:08:12","slug":"christopher-meloni-teams-with-daughter-sophia-meloni-for-chop-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/530657\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Meloni Teams With Daughter Sophia Meloni for \u2019Chop Cheese\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tChristopher Meloni<\/a> is keeping it all in the family for his next film project.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe veteran star teamed with his daughter, Sophia Meloni, for a role in her feature directorial debut called Chop Cheese, alongside a cast that includes Michael Gandolfini<\/a>, Luca Rickman, Anki Alvarez and Dylan Frankel. The film is described as a coming-of-age story set in New York\u2019s bodega culture. It follows a 16-year-old boy as he reckons with manhood while vying for \u201cboss\u201d status from the grill master at the local bodega, only to learn that respect has a price and must be earned.<\/p>\n

\n\tSophia Meloni wrote and directed the film, which was produced by Lisa Rudin. Nailing the family focus, Chop Cheese was inspired by a short story the fledgling filmmaker wrote in college while observing the teenage years of her younger brother, Dante, as he was living out a phase of \u201cradical self-discovery\u201d in New York City. It\u2019s also informed by her own history, having a successful actor for a father and a production designer mother, meaning she grew up on sets and around artists and other creative professionals. She recruited some \u2014 like her mother, Sherman Williams, longtime friend Gandolfini and cousins \u2014\u00a0to pitch in and help get the film across the finish line by filling in wherever possible.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tChristopher Meloni and Michael Gandolfini appear in a scene from Chop Cheese.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Sophia Meloni<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI became fascinated by the mystery of the teenage boy, so certain, so fragile and completely consumed by the urgency of becoming someone. One small anecdote from that time \u2014 a summer job taken to repay a debt \u2014 kept resurfacing, not because it was dramatic but because it felt true. That\u2019s the New York story I wanted to tell,\u201d Sophia Meloni says via an official director\u2019s statement. \u201cNew York is a city defined by excess \u2014 noise, people, ambition and motion. There is always something happening somewhere else. But growing up here, I learned that the moments that shape you most often happen in the margins: in waiting, in loitering, in the small rituals that repeat until they quietly become your life. Chop Cheese is my attempt to capture one of those moments, a seemingly trivial encounter that, for a sixteen-year-old, carries the weight of destiny.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSophia Meloni is the kind of filmmaker you hope to meet early in their career,\u201d praised Rudin. \u201cHer writing is thoughtful and deeply felt, and she brought that same care and determination to every aspect of the production. She created a set that was collaborative, energized, and genuinely joyful to be part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSophia Meloni is represented by Untitled Entertainment.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSophia Meloni <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of subject<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Meloni is keeping it all in the family for his next film project. The veteran star teamed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,27326,88,238554],"class_list":["post-530657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-christopher-meloni","tag-entertainment","tag-michael-gandolfini"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}