Sierra Teller Ornelas

Sierra Nizhoni Teller Ornelas (Navajo, born March 3, 1981) is a Native American showrunner, screenwriter, filmmaker and sixth-generation tapestry weaver from Tucson, Arizona. She is one of three co-creators of the scripted NBC (Peacock) 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, Teller Ornelas has also written and contributed to This American Life and the New York Times. In 2019 Teller Ornelas signed a multi-year development deal with Universal Television, beginning with the Peacock sitcom Rutherford Falls.

Early life and education Teller Ornelas was born March 3, 1981, in Tucson, Arizona. She is Navajo, born to the Edge Water clan. Her maternal grandfather is Water Flowing Together clan and her paternal grandfather is Mexican clan.

As a child, Teller Ornelas spend extended periods working alongside her mother, Barbara Teller Ornelas, as a tapestry weaver.

Teller Ornelas attended a college preparatory high school in the late 1990s. During this period of her life, she furthered her appreciation for the act of storytelling and its impact on the lives of Indigenous peoples.

She attended the University of Arizona, where she studied media arts. There she discovered the long-running Comedy Corner troupe which held comedy sketches in the Student Union's Cellar. Teller Ornelas began as audience member and eventually became a key writer and producer. She graduated from the School of Theatre, Film & Television in 2005.

Career After graduating from college, Teller Ornelas worked for five years as a film programmer at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. In addition, Teller Ornelas, a sixth-generation Navajo weaver, was commissioned by the Arizona State Museum to make a documentary film, A Loom with a View: Modern Navajo Weavers, which explores the weaving of family members: mother, Barbara Teller Ornelas; great aunt, Margaret Yazzie; and brother, Michael Teller Ornelas. After this, she gained a position as a staff writer on Happy Endings. Teller Ornelas said 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." Teller Ornelas aimed to counteract the sense of weightiness and emotional misrepresentation she frequently experienced when viewing Native stories on TV that were crafted by non-Native writers. Rutherford Falls provided Teller Ornelas with a platform to break Native stereotypes and showcase the diversity of Native experiences and highlight Native humanity through her storytelling talent.

Teller Ornelas was inspired to based the plot around museum employees from her experiences working at the Smithsonian. Teller Ornelas describes Indigenous people as the first storytellers and preservers of history, thus, she oriented the storyline around answering the questions, "What is American history? What are the narratives we cling to, and who gets erased from those narratives?" After two seasons, Rutherford Falls was cancelled by Peacock in 2022. Nonetheless, Rutherford Falls made history marking Teller Ornelas as the first Indigenous showrunner and serving as the first major television production with five indigenous writers for a single series. She later sold the pilot for a workplace comedy called “City Indians” to NBC.

Future projects In December 2022, Teller Ornelas alongside television writer, Marco Luevanos, and television director and producer, Morgan Sackett, announced their plans to develop a half-hour multi-cam comedy entitled Amigos for NBC. The show is set to be based in Los Angeles, California where six Latin friends (i.e. amigos) support and rag each other while exploring love, maturing, and defining success in the modern world. The show has yet to be released.

In January 2024, Teller Ornelas and Jana Schmieding announced their collaborative project, Bonnie. The multi-camera family comedy centered on a former backup singer who, fifteen years earlier, abandoned the touring life to settle on the reservation where she will fulfill her dream of being the "cool auntie" while helping raise her brother's children. Teller Ornelas is utilizing this project to continue her legacy of bring Native American representation and creativity to major network television. The show is expected to include Morgan Sackett, Jonathan Berry, and Katie Newman as executive producers.

Filmography Television