PEAK Announces 2025 Writers Fellowship Class

The Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komiti (PEAK) has unveiled the second cohort of its annual PEAK Writers Fellowship.

Backed by Netflix, the fellowship identifies and supports five up-and-coming writers who create stories from a Pasifika perspective as they launch their careers in television. Founded by PEAK Co-Founder, director, screenwriter, and showrunner Dana Ledoux Miller and co-managed by Program Director and screenwriter Bryson Chun, the initiative remains the only Hollywood writing program created by a Pasifika storyteller. 

The fellowship is structured to guide emerging writers toward securing their first staff writing roles. Each participant will be matched with an experienced industry mentor to help elevate their original scripts into polished, professional samples. Fellows will also take part in a series of panels and conversations with leading voices in film and television, providing them with the tools and insights necessary to thrive in the entertainment business.

The 2025 PEAK Writers Fellowship cohort includes Benjamin Pola, Pingi Moli, Ciara Lacy, Lauren Toʻomalatai, and Conrad Lihilihi. The Fellows will receive mentorship from Migizi Pensoneau (Reservation Dogs, Alien: Earth), Dre Ryan (Lady in the Lake, The Man in the High Castle), Elsie Choi (CJ ENM America/Studio Dragon Global), Alex Lazarowich (Resident Alien), and Jody Lambert (People Like Us, Brave New Jersey).

The weekly panelists include Molly Anne Coogan (Pivoting), Darek Cioh (9-1-1), Shannon Goss (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon), Noelle Valdivia (The Penguin), Kourtney Kang (Doogie Kameāloha M.D.), Roberto Larios (VERVE), Robbie Magasiva (Rescue: HI-Surf), and Kesila Childers (Universal/Monkeypaw/TIFF).

“Dana has that gift of bringing out the best in people and she’s mentored so many of us for so long, including our new co-manager Bryson for example, so it’s really nice seeing all the different ways these relationships impact each individual and reinforce the work,” says PEAK Executive Director and Co-Founder, Kristian Fanene Schmidt. “As far as the fellows go, we’re all very impressed with the caliber of their storytelling and their grit. They’re a reminder of how promising our future is.”

The PEAK Writers Fellowship is made possible due to support from Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity.

Benjamin Pola | Kinship

When a Samoan teenager is dropped off to live with his Mormon uncle, he relies on his charm, undeniable book-smarts and ride-or-die grandma to survive his zany new home.

Benjamin is a proud Sāmoan writer from Long Beach, CA, passionate about uplifting and amplifying Pasifika voices through his storytelling. After earning his graduate degree from USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, he shifted his focus from higher education – where he worked as an advisor and lecturer – to screenwriting, inspired by the storytelling power that drives the media industry. As a multi-hyphenate creative, he actively connects and collaborates with Pasifika artists and educators across academia and the entertainment industry to strengthen community pipelines. Benjamin currently serves as the Social Media Manager and Editor/Writer at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and is directing his debut short film, TUIMASEVE, which draws on his recent experience of receiving his high chief title from his family’s village of Satupaitea in Savai’i, Samoa in 2024. TUIMASEVE is set to premiere at the 2026 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival as a part of the Visual Communication’s Armed With A Camera (AWC) Fellowship.

Pingi Moli | North Shore

The Kualiʻi family, rightful heirs of Hawaiʻi’s last untouched land on the North Shore, wield their powerful shipping empire to defend their ancestral birthright against relentless outside forces, including land developers, the U.S. government, and global crime syndicates, who seek to claim what has been theirs since before colonization, but when a brutal act of retribution ignites a war with the Yakuza, the family must navigate crime, politics, and betrayal to protect their legacy at any cost.

Pingi Moli is a first-generation Tongan American writer, director, actor, and stunt performer based in Los Angeles. A former Division I football player and lifelong martial artist, he leveraged his athletic background to break into the industry through stunts, with credits including Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, and the upcoming The Accountant 2. As an actor, he’s appeared in Snowfall, Animal Kingdom, Our Flag Means Death, and starred in Sony’s Uncharted. He wrote, directed, and starred in his debut short film Vaha‘a | The Distance Between, which premiered at the Oscar-qualifying Hawai’i International Film Festival and will make its Los Angeles premiere at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Moli is committed to telling universal stories from a unique perspective, drawing from his diverse experiences and cultural background.

Ciara Lacy |Pet Psychic

A sharp-tongued, reluctant pet psychic—who'd rather be left alone—finds herself stuck translating the anxieties of Brooklyn’s most neurotic pets and their even more unhinged owners, all while juggling her day job at a high-end boutique that definitely does not allow animals.

Ciara Leina`ala Lacy is an Emmy nominated filmmaker whose Native Hawaiian identity drives the intimacy and authenticity in her work. Her films have shown at Sundance and Berlinale as well as on platforms including Netflix, PBS, ABC, Al Jazeera, and the Criterion Collection. Notably, she is the inaugural Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellow and her work has been supported by Sundance, Tribeca, the Princess Grace Foundation, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Pacific Islanders in Communications, and Firelight Media. She holds a BA in Psychology from Yale University, which deeply informs her process as someone looking to excavate truth and emotion to better understand what it means to be human. Whether the content she is working on is live action or animated, documentary or fiction, short or feature length, Ciara aims to craft stories that feel immediate, personal, and revelatory.

Lauren Toʻomalatai | The Moana Guild

After the death of her mother, Ruth Faʻatasi finds herself the unsuspecting recruit of a secret oceanic society on Oʻahu that not only offers her answers about her mother’s past but also holds truths about herself that she could’ve never imagined possible.

Lauren is a Sāmoan filmmaker and programmer born in Kahuku, Hawai’i and raised in West Valley City, Utah. She currently serves as lead programmer for the Māsima Film Festival, which she co-founded in 2019 with the Salt Lake Film Society under the Utah Pacific Island Film Series. Māsima specifically focuses on supporting and showcasing Pacific Island films and filmmakers. As a writer, she was selected to participate in imagineNATIVE’s 2021 Screenwriting Features Lab where she completed an original horror feature screenplay, Blood in the Bowl, and most recently was part of Visual Communications Armed With a Camera Fellowship 2022 - 2023 in their first all-Pasifika cohort where she wrote and made her directorial debut with her short film Snack.

Conrad Lihilihi | Aloha, Please Hold

For guests, it’s a dream vacation. For the employees? It’s just another shift in the longest-running show on Earth: hospitality.

Conrad Lihilihi is an award-winning writer, director, and editor whose work spans scripted narratives and documentaries, utilizing genre to explore culture and social issues. His use of comedy and horror offers a fresh and engaging perspective on cultural experiences. Notable projects include the Smithsonian docu-series "Language of a Nation" and sketch comedy for the Tuntadun Films YouTube channel. He currently is an Assistant Editor at Warner Brothers and produces "Mixed Plate Storytime," a YouTube channel dedicated to promoting literacy through Pacific Island-based children's books. Conrad is also partnering with the Smithsonian and local Hawai'i organizations to provide unique creative opportunities for high school students through an innovative creative and performing arts summer camp.