Native American TV Writers Lab

Eligibility and project requirements

Applicants must be 18 or over. Tribal affiliation is required on the application, but enrolment is not: the form accepts either enrolled in tribe or self-identifying, alongside the name of the tribe. Writing teams are ineligible. All submitted material must be original with all rights wholly owned by the writer. The lab is described as being for seasoned writers capable of writing at least a half-hour comedy or one-hour dramatic television script in English within a five-week period. Writing samples may be a feature film, play, television pilot or television spec as a PDF of up to 10 MB, with television scripts preferred; no page limit is published. No citizenship or residency rule is published anywhere, though applications are described as accepted nationwide. If accepted you must commit to meeting online on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and during the day on Saturdays and Sundays, which is a heavy weekly load.

Formats

TV Pilot

Eligibility

18+

Deadlines & fees

Dates and fees checked against the official site 10 Aug 2026. That is longer ago than we aim for; confirm on the official site before entering.

Prepare your entry

Prizes

No cash, stipend or grant of any kind is published. The consideration is entirely in kind: the lab itself, feedback from peers and an experienced writing instructor, a simulated television writers room, and meetings with executives and literary representation from industry partners. Roughly seven fellows per cycle. Note that the alliance runs a separate Writers Accelerator Grant, which is a different vehicle and not part of this lab. RIGHTS: every applicant must upload a signed standard release form, and it is a real one. It warrants your sole ownership; permits use of any part of the submitted material that is not novel, original or legally protected without liability; states the alliance is under no obligation to you except under a later fully executed written agreement; and includes an idea-similarity waiver under which you accept no compensation if the alliance uses material similar to yours that it had access to or created independently. There is no option, no first refusal, no exclusivity and no transfer of copyright. One flag: the release form served with the current cycle is a file dated 2024.

Judging

Instructors and selectors are not named, described only as an experienced writer with industry credits and seasoned writing professionals. Around seven fellows have been selected in each of the last three cycles. Feedback goes to fellows only, from peers and the writing instructor, and nothing is offered to unsuccessful applicants, so the fee buys consideration alone. Two internal inconsistencies are worth knowing: the alliance's own pages variously give the cohort as approximately ten, a minimum of seven and a total of eight, while the named fellows have numbered seven in each of the last three years; and the curriculum is described as five weeks, seven weeks and eight weeks across different pages. Its published partner list also differs across four pages, variously naming Comcast NBCUniversal, Netflix, Walt Disney, the Weingart Foundation, United Talent Agency, the Golden Globes Foundation and others.

Frequently asked questions