Film Independent Names Six Writers to the 10th Annual Episodic Lab
Ten years in, Film Independent’s Episodic Lab is still doing what it does best: finding writers with a distinct voice and giving them the room, and the mentors, to sharpen it. This year’s cohort is officially set, and we’re proud to announce that this year’s Fellows are Lauren Ferebee, Kristian Mercado, Nikki Palumbo, Sam Schaefer, Val Tan, and LaDarrion Williams. Running August 10 to 21, the two-week intensive pairs writers with original TV pilots with personalized story and career development.
The Lab celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026 with Netflix returning as Founding Sponsor, continuing its commitment to giving Fellows real exposure to how shows actually get made and produced.
This year also brings a notable honor: Nikki Palumbo has been awarded the $20,000 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for their pilot Personality Hire. The grant goes annually to one Episodic Lab Fellow whose project meaningfully weaves science or technology themes and characters into a dramatic story, and it will support Palumbo’s development of the pilot throughout the Lab.
In the Lab
The Episodic Lab is an in-person program built around access: Fellows get personalized feedback from working showrunners, creative producers, and executives, learning to revise their pilots while also learning how to navigate an industry that keeps shifting under everyone’s feet. The program wraps with a networking and pitch event, where Fellows introduce themselves and their work directly to studio and network executives.
“We are thrilled to be celebrating ten years of championing visionary writers through the Episodic Lab. We are proud to welcome the new cohort of bold and inventive storytellers to the Lab, where we will further hone their visions and support the advancement of their careers in entertainment,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs.
This year’s roster of Creative Advisors and Guest Speakers includes Akil Rashad Anderson, Olivia Blaustein, Mel Eslyn, JaNeika James, JaSheika James, Henry “Hank” Jones, Justin S. Lee, Montserrat Luna, Caroline Mak, Glen Mazzara, Colleen McGuinness, Robbie Pickering, Loretta Ramos, Gina Reyes, Beth Schacter, Ellen Shanman, and Ligiah Villalobos.
Now let’s meet the 2026 Fellows and Their Pilots:
LADARRION WILLIAMS
Title: Crescent Sun
Logline: A precocious Black teen has his life turned upside down when he finds a supernatural amulet that awakens an ancient African demigod… who resembles his likeness along with a vengeful high priest that begins to wreak havoc on the modern world.
SAM SCHAEFER
Title: Cult Like Activity
Logline: Following the sudden dissolution of their cult, two lost twenty-somethings realize they only have one option: start their own.
VAL TAN
Title: Dancing in a Forbidden World
Logline: In 1950s San Francisco, a disciplined Chinese-American ballerina secretly joins an Asian burlesque nightclub, but as her popularity rises, her double life becomes impossible to conceal.
LAUREN FEREBEE
Title: Family Dynamics
Logline: When scandal shatters a legendary New York music dynasty, a gifted cello prodigy and her ambitious family must choose between protecting their legacy and being true to themselves.
KRISTIAN MERCADO
Title: The Hustler
Logline: When a once-legendary hip-hop manager is pushed out of the industry by younger, data-driven execs, he gambles everything to rebuild his career by managing a reckless reggaetón prodigy, only to find himself pulled into a dangerous web of ambition and fame in modern-day Los Angeles.
NIKKI PALUMBO
Title: Personality Hire
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant Recipient
Logline: An unlikely working relationship develops between an overzealous tech billionaire and a reluctant writer who realizes the only way to make artificial intelligence any better is to fix the broken real world it’s trained on.
A Track Record That Speaks for Itself
The Episodic Lab has a way of launching careers. Past Fellows include April Shih, who has written on FX’s Fargo, Dave, and Mrs. America, and struck an overall deal at FX Productions. Kimi Lee wrote on Amazon’s Expats and Apple’s The Morning Show, then sold her own series, $ugar, to Hulu after a four way bidding war. Henry “Hank” Jones, who now also serves as a Guest Speaker for this year’s Lab, has written on ABC’s Will Trent and Apple’s Truth Be Told. Justin S. Lee, who created the series Recap with Fifth Season also returns as a Guest Speaker.
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