- By Native News Online Staff
The Native American Media Alliance announced on Thursday that seven fellows have been selected for the 9th annual Native American TV Writers Lab.
Established in 2016, the Native American TV Writers Lab was created to expand the amount of NativeAmericans working behind the camera as a way to increase fair and accurate portrayals of Native Americans on television.
“The Native American TV Writers Lab has an extraordinary record of supporting Native Americans in establishing their television writing careers,” Ian Skorodin, Director of Strategy for the Native American Media Alliance, said in a press release. “Dozens of Native American writers have blazed incredible new paths following their participation in this lab.”
The eight-week lab is an intense program of daily workshops, seminars and one-on-one mentoring with the aim of coaching the fellows on how to develop a pilot and cultivate the skills needed to land TV staff writer positions.
The Native American TV Writers Lab is sponsored by Comcast, NBCUniversal, the Golden Globes Foundation, Netflix, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Snowpants Productions.
The 9th Annual NATIVE AMERICAN TV WRITERS LAB fellows:
Rory Crittenden (Cherokee) is a screenwriter, filmmaker, and documentarian from the Peavine community of the Cherokee Nation. He has won six Heartland Regional Emmys for his past work directing and producing nonfiction content for the Cherokee Nation.
Marcie Price Jackson (Cherokee) is a writer, artist, and root beer float enthusiast from Oklahoma City. Marcie was a 2023 Native American Media Alliance Writers Seminar Fellow. Her screenplays “Number Two Pencils” and “Plus One” were named “Best Feature Screenplay” at the Austin Revolution Film Festival, and “Plus One,” co-written with Kathy Hoyt Lee, was a “Second Rounder” at the Austin Film Festival.
Noah Rose Keeling (Choctaw) is an LA-based actress-turned-screenwriter, a proud trans woman, and a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. In 2022, she graduated with her MFA in Acting from UC San Diego and sold a family drama pilot to Lionsgate Television with Bob Greenblatt producing.
Tony Magaña (Western Shoshone, Chilula, and Mexican-American)
Is a Reno, Nevada-born filmmaker, writer, and every-once-in-awhile Stand-Up comedian currently residing in Las Vegas. After a very brief stint in computer science at UC Santa Cruz, Tony’s attention turned to Film Studies, where he found his passion for storytelling.
Faith Phillips (Cherokee) is a novelist, screenwriter, and producer living in the Ozark foothills. After trying her hand at waitressing, telemarketing, bingo ball pulling, and lawyering, Phillips left active law practice to author four books and multiple feature screenplays. She created the sub-genre known as Okie Noir, a scion of southern goth and magical realism. Faith’s third book, Now I Lay Me Down, was selected by HULU and Stanley Nelson’s Firelight Films for limited series development through the Kindling Fund initiative.
Tamara Stratton (Osage) is fairly new to television writing; although, she has been a storyteller and educator most of her life. She has experience producing, acting, writing, and teaching. As an actress, she has performance experiences that range from Shakespeare to Modern Japanese Theater to Neil Simon to performance art and film. Tamara’s first pilot, “Retirement Plan,” had a staged reading in November at Robot Eating Robot: Friday Reader’s Club in Chicago.
Steven Tallas (Navajo) is a Navajo Award-Winning Filmmaker known for his debut feature film, 2020’s” Rez Dogs,” which was shown around the world and won several awards, including Best Feature Film, which will be premiered on PBS NOVA.
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