Meet the Bold New Voices of TV: Film Independent Announces the 2025 Episodic Lab Fellows
If you’ve ever tried to break into the world of writing for television, you know that it takes more than a great idea and some luck. It takes mentorship, guidance, industry connections — and yeah, still luck. If you already have your four-leafed clover, then Film Independent’s Episodic Lab has you covered for everything else.
This August, six talented writers will gather in Los Angeles for an intensive two-week program designed to help them refine their pilots and navigate the ever-changing television landscape.
Over the course of the program, they’ll receive personalized feedback from seasoned showrunners, creative producers, and executives, building the skills (and the relationships) needed to take their projects to the next level. This year Lab Creative Advisors and Guest Speakers include Christian Alvarez, KJ Booze, Wendy Calhoun, Sera Gamble, Emmeline Yang Hankins, Eric Heisserer, Anil Kurian, Marvin Lemus, Kyle Lau, Felischa Marye, Dani Melia, Caroline Mak, Marc Mounier, Adriana Nassar, Van B. Nguyen, Robbie Pickering, Erica Rosbe, Jasmine Russ, Eddie Quintana, Loretta Ramos, Gina Reyes, Beth Schacter and Ellen Shanman.
Netflix, the Lab’s Founding Sponsor, is back again to provide Fellows with unparalleled access to top executives and showrunners. And thanks to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Fellow Lilian T. Mehrel will receive a $20,000 grant to support her pilot, Baddies, a romantic comedy set inside the world of a tech company making a dating app.
Amidst the changing landscape for television writers, we’re honored to have the opportunity to uplift such bold and innovative voices in the Episodic Lab,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs. “We’re thrilled to work with these writers in the program where we will nurture the development of their projects and careers and cannot wait to continue to support them as they progress forward in the television industry.”
The Lab will conclude with the Fellows pitching their work to studios and network executives, giving them and their projects a head start to get that illusive greenlight. Past Lab alums have gone on to write for shows like Fargo, The Morning Show, and Will Trent — proving the Lab is more than a workshop; it’s a launchpad.
Strap in as we meet this year’s Episodic Lab Fellows.
Meet the Fellows & Their Projects
Lilian T. Mehrel
Lilian T. Mehrel is an award-winning writer & director with a visionary sense of feeling and humor. She won the Tribeca AT&T Untold Stories Award for her debut feature, Honeyjoon, which premiered at Tribeca. She was selected for the SFFILM Rainin Grant, TorinoFilmLab, CineQuaNonLab, Warner Media/TFI Co/Lab, and a Sony Pictures Classics / Marcie Bloom Fellowship. Her films have also premiered at Clermont-Ferrand and the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes. She earned her MFA from NYU Tisch Grad Film with a PDS Fellowship, and her BA from Dartmouth with a Senior Fellowship.
Project: Baddies
A (romantic) comedy series about the team who works at Baddies — a dating app using behavioral science to undo their bad rap, beat the competition, oh and help people find love. If they can figure it out for themselves first.
Leah Sarbib
Leah Sarbib is an American and French Algerian writer based in New York. She has worked as a writers’ assistant on series including Super Pumped and The Morning Show, and was showrunners’ assistant on Billions. Her original play, Roadkill, premiered at the NY Fringe Festival. Sarbib began her career at the Tribeca Festival, where she created the audio department, produced podcasts including Tribeca Talks and Fierce (iHeart), and launched the audio festival Vertical (sponsored by Audible). She recently produced her fiction podcast, This Is Not A Love Story, and co-wrote her first feature.
Project: Cycle Four
In The Domain, where nobody dies or gives birth, Miriam’s visions prove to be memories of an erased past that can no longer be ignored.
Ida Yazdi
Ida Yazdi is an Iranian American filmmaker and former architect, raised between Isfahan, Iran and Birmingham, Alabama. She writes character-driven dramedies and dramas that explore identity, ambition, and family through morally complex characters. She’s an alum of the NBC TV Writers Program, the STARZ Writers’ Intensive, and the Women in Film Writing Fellowship. Her work was also featured on the2021–22 Muslim List created in partnership with the Black List. She was a writer on the NBC series Extended Family and has also worked on City on Fire (Apple TV+) and Girls on the Bus (HBO Max).
Project: Golden
A rebellious, young Iranian immigrant shakes off family traditions and becomes a sugar baby to the wealthy women of Tehrangeles. In a whirlwind of wealth, desire, and eccentric clients, he carves out his own path to the American Dream.
Bryce Cracknell
Bryce Cracknell is a writer, filmmaker, and journalist from North Carolina based in Los Angeles. As a storyteller, Cracknell seeks to elevate narratives, histories, and experiences that are overlooked, cast aside, or forgotten. He was a Staff Writer on Season 6 of CBS procedural FBI: Most Wanted and is in production on his directorial debut, a hybrid-documentary on climate justice, produced by Effie T. Brown. He is a graduate of Duke University where he earned a B.A. in Public Policy and was a member of the 2024 NBC TV Writers Program.
Project: Lacuna
A haunted soldier is conscripted into a secret mission inside the Lacuna, a surreal, perilous realm where myths are real, time is unstable, and his past awaits.
Spencer Jamison
Spencer Jamison is a Richmond, VA native whose work is rooted in care, curiosity, and community. She holds an MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama and a BA in Musical Theatre from James Madison University. Jamison writes ensemble-driven narratives across genres, centering the humor, depth, and complexity of Black womanhood. She is currently developing her debut feature, an expansion of her audience award–winning romantic comedy short At Capacity. She is a 2025 WIF Writer Fellow, a member of the inaugural Broadway Advocacy Coalition Artivism Fellowship cohort and is immensely grateful to be supported by Film Independent.
Project: Subpar
After a public meltdown, a disgraced LPGA golfer returns home, where coaching her half-sister’s struggling golf team may be her only shot at redemption.
Rom Lotan
Rom Lotan served for a decade in Israeli intelligence and later worked in the tech scene between Tel-Aviv and the States, before pursuing writing. Most recently, Lotan ran the writers’ room for his new show for BBC Studios and Amazon UK. Lotan has developed with Chris Brancato at MGM, 20th Television, The Ink Factory, eOne, and more. He staffed on an AMC spy show and is a Sundance Episodic Lab Fellow. Lotan holds an MFA from USC’s Stark Program, an MA in International Relations, and a BSc in Computer Science. He is represented by IAG, Writ Large, and LGNA.
Project: Zer0 Trust
When high-powered companies are hacked and every second costs millions, elite cybersecurity expert Amelia Hayes and her response team are called in to contain the breach. However, the most dangerous vulnerabilities aren’t in the code- they’re in people’s blind spots.
Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.
Keep up with Film Independent…