A filmmaker with roots in the Marianas was selected for a prestigious writers fellowship supported by Netflix.

Sophia Perez, a filmmaker from Saipan now living in the Bay Area, is part of the  Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komiti’s inaugural Writers Fellowship, supported by Netflix. She’s one of six emerging Pasifika writers who will get a boost to their television writing journey. Perez told KUAM about her proposed script for what she’s calling Planet Oakland.

"It is another kid's show. The script that I turned in is called Planet Oakland and the premise is sort of similar to Men in Black, except for the focus is on one of the alien families that moves to Oakland and has to be lowkey about the fact that they are aliens and also fit in. It is mostly about the 12-year-old younger brother, whose name is Kornbeef, and he has to try and go to middle school and adjust," she said.

Perez was born in Oakland and is a PhD student in UC Berkeley’s Geography department. She recently directed Island Time, a Chamorro children’s show, and is directing a documentary about the resistance to the military build-up in the Marianas. She shared the inspiration for her script under the fellowship.

"Coming back to the Bay from Saipan was like a whole, almost like reverse culture shock. And also so many people in my family immigrated to the bay…There are all these stories to pull from and there are so many immigrant stories in general that I think do not relly get told in kids shows that often," she said.

Perez will be mentored by fellow Pacific Islander Naomi Scott with Great Scott Productions. Perez has sound advice for aspiring writers, saying, "Use our network. It is there. It is real. There are so many people that want to see more of these stories and there are so many people who are down to give you a leg up," she said.