Sierra Teller Ornelas
Sierra Nizhoni Teller Ornelas (born 1981) is a Navajo and American showrunner, screenwriter, filmmaker and weaver from Tucson, Arizona. She is the co-creator of the scripted comedy series "Rutherford Falls", alongside Ed Helms and Mike Schur. Known for writing and production work on shows such as "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", "Happy Endings", "Splitting Up Together" and "Superstore", she has written and contributed to "This American Life" and the New York Times. In 2019 Ornelas signed a multiyear development deal with Universal Television beginning with the Peacock sitcom "Rutherford Falls". Early life and education. Ornelas is from Tucson , Arizona. Born to the Edge Water clan, her maternal grandfather is Water Flowing Together clan and her paternal grandfather is Mexican clan. Ornelas knew as early as second grade that she wanted to write for television. She attended the University of Arizona, where she studied media arts. Career. Following college graduation, Teller Ornelas worked for five years as a film programmer at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. She was inspired to leave that job and pursue her dreams of becoming a television writer by a "big swing" her mom and aunt had made in the  1980s when they spent four years weaving an enormous rug, which sold for $60,000 and changed their family's lives. She applied and was selected in 2010 for the Disney/ABC Television Group's diversity writing program, which led to a position as a staff writer on "Happy Endings". The position allowed her to contribute to a sub-plot in which Dave, played by Zachary Knighton, discovers he is one-sixteenth Navajo and begins playing into stereotypes about Native Americans. Ornelas explained in a 2011 interview with the "Navajo Times" that if done right, comedy can be a way  to "get conversation going about very dense, complicated issues." Diversity in writers' rooms and ensuring that racialized people aren't the only one working on a production is an area Ornelas is committed to addressing in media. As the showrunner of "Rutherford Falls" she oversees a writers room that includes herself, Helms, Schur, and four other Indigenous writers – Tazbah Chavez, Tai Leclaire, Jana Schmieding, and Bobby Wilson – the number of which is believed to be a first for a major television production. In addition to writing and producing, Ornelas is a sixth-generation Navajo weaver. Her film "A Loom with  a View: Modern Navajo Weavers", made for the Arizona State Museum, chronicles the weaving of her mother, Barbara Teller Ornelas; aunt, Margaret Yazzie; and brother, Micheal Teller Ornelas. Her overall deal with Universal Television was recently renewed.