Mel Atkey began his career in 1977 by co-producing a jazz concert with Vancouver impressario Willi Germann. This experience would later be recalled in his musical Poor Little Rich Girl Sings the Blues. Other early projects included a telethon featuring folk singer Tom Northcott, and he spent two years as a theatre critic before moving to Toronto to pursue his career as a musical theatre writer. He was commissioned to write songs for CBC Radio, and was a member of the Guild of Canadian Musical Theatre Writers' Lehman Engel Workshop. He was a director of the Cabaret and Musical Theatre Alliance until he moved to London in 1991. He is currently a Professional Writer Associate of Mercury Musical Developments and is a member of The Writers Union of Canada. He made his New York debut in April 2001 with O Pioneers! with book by Robert Sickinger. He and Sickinger's most recent work was a new musical based on A Little Princess which was presented to rave reviews and sold-out houses at Wings Theatre, New York, in Autumn 2003. (The New York Times praised its "lovely music".) His journal Running Away With the Circus - or - "Now is the Winter of our Missing Tent" tell of his experience with the big top on tour in Taiwan, and When We Both Got to Heaven, published by Natural Heritage Books, tells the story of his ancestor James Atkey, who came to Georgian Bay from the Isle of Wight in 1854 as a teacher to the Ojibwa.

Mel Atkey's demo tapes have featured up and coming stars in the musical theatre, including John Barr, Clare Burt and Jessica-Snow Wilson. Most recently, he wrote special cabaret material for West End star Janie Dee. In addition to his own projects, Mr. Atkey is interested in collaborating with other writers, either as a composer or lyricist (or both).