Author: Ian Skorodin

JohnTom Knight is a writer, comedian, and proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Following his internship at Adult Swim in 2020, JohnTom was selected and participated as a fellow in the 2021 Native American TV Writers Lab. He currently serves as a script coordinator and freelance writer on the upcoming kid’s fantasy animated series Spirit Rangers at… Read more »

Maya Rose Dittloff (ǔkkayǔ”kwīyinnimǎakii/Many Pipes Woman) is Mandan, Hidatsa, and Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet) from the Starr School region of the Blackfeet Nation. Maya is a member of the WGA and works as a writer, director, and producer across film and television. She was trained at UCLA in the School of Theater, Film and Television, and… Read more »

Meilani Wenska is an award-winning Native Hawaiian screenwriter, filmmaker and actor who creates projects that dispel stereotypes and misinformation about Hawaiian culture to raise awareness on the commodification of Hawaiian land and culture. She has written multiple features and pilots, and her second feature was a semi-finalist in Final Cut’s Big Break contest. As a… Read more »

Kaili Y. Turner is a Black Indian (Nipmuc), comedian, actress, writer, producer, and puppeteer whom received her MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School. Kaili’s pilot Fk’d Up & Fabulous is streaming on the Tenoir TV app, and her play Indian Country was a semifinalist for the Eugene O’Neill playwrights conference. She’s also creator of… Read more »

Eagle Smith, born in Ketchikan, AK. Fka Kat Smith. Eagle had the good fortune of growing up during the Summers of her childhood in her hometown, Metlakatla, Alaska, and her school years in the Seattle area. As she puts it, “one foot on the reservation, one foot off.” Her continued ambition for storytelling is accredited… Read more »

Sabrina Saleha is a Navajo screenwriter and actress. She is an alumna of 2023 ImagineNative’s Screenwriting Features Lab and 2022 LA Skinsfest Native American Media Alliance’s TV Writer’s Lab. Sabrina graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from the Institute of American Indian Arts in May 2023, having received a scholarship from Warner… Read more »

Justin H. Reed is a Salishan writer and producer from the Confederated Salish& Kootenai Tribes. Ever since he was conceived on the Flathead Indian reservation in Montana and born on a U.S. Army base in Kansas, he has been a devout adherent of the Church of Irony. A semi-misspent youth isolating himself practicing and playing… Read more »

Cole discovered a love for writing after watching the performance of a one-act play he wrote in high school. He followed his passion to Emerson College where he graduated with a BFA in Comedic Arts. While attending Emerson, he had the wonderful opportunity to write a feature script, a pilot, a spec script, a web… Read more »

Kelli Jones grew up in the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She joined the navy when she was 18 where she served as a master helmsman onboard the USS Ronald Reagan. During her service, Kelli was deployed twice to the Gulf of Oman and acted as a first responder to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in… Read more »

Charine Pilar Gonzales is a Tewa filmmaker from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her esteemed short doc Our Quiyo: Maria Martinez (2022) premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and was acquired by AT&T and Comcast Xfinity, and is currently exhibited at the Millicent Rogers Museum. Charine’s debut… Read more »