The Black List Names 2025 Writers Lab Participants

EXCLUSIVE: The Black List has named the seven writers and projects chosen for its 2025 Writers Lab. They are Cristina Kinon (Dumb Luck), Melanie Rish-Ho (Slab Serif), Joe Veix (The Hole Story), Karna Warrior (Chomolungma), Rob Norman (I Love You, Tank), Kaley Rose Mamo (Play Therapy), and Sarah Elizabeth Walker (The Junket).

The program, now in its 12th year, provides creative mentorship and professional support to promising feature writers as they further develop their selected project during a weeklong workshop in Ojai, CA. This year’s writers had their work selected from over 2,200 submissions.

Mentors at the lab will include Alex Convery (Air), Max Borenstein (Godzilla vs. Kong), Travis Braun (One Night Only), Katie Silberman (Booksmart), Josh Zetumer (Say Nothing), and Scott Myers of Go Into The Story. Black List alums Noga Pnueli (Meet Cute) and Savion Einstein (A Cuban Girl’s Guide To Tea And Tomorrow) will participate as guest speakers. Following the conclusion of the lab, the writers’ cohort will participate in monthly mentorship meetings with Natalie Krinsky (The Broken Hearts Gallery).

This year marks the second iteration of The Black List’s new Annual Lab program, which supports two distinct cohorts: writers and filmmakers. The Projects Lab, offering writer-directors the chance to develop a screenplay that they intend to direct, will be announced in November, with submissions for the 2026 iteration of both programs launching on The Black List website today.

Learn more about this year’s supported Writers Lab projects, and the creatives behind them, below.

DUMB LUCK by Cristina Kinon              
Three 20-something lady dirtbags scam their way through New York City to survive until they win $77 million in the lottery.

Cristina Kinon is an Emmy-nominated writer. She created the online animated series, CHICKS. Previously, she was head writer at “The Drew Barrymore Show.” Her feature “Girls Like Us” is currently in development with Impossible Dream Entertainment.

SLAB SERIF by Melanie Rish-Ho
The tidy life of renowned typeface designer and professor at Cooper Union, Silas, is thrown off-kilter when a messy sculpture professor is assigned the same classroom as him.

Melanie Rish-Ho is a Canadian-born, Hong Kong-raised hopeless romantic who writes about the bonds we take most seriously and the funny ways they make us behave. Her feature screenplay The Healing News of June was named Faculty Selects at Columbia University’s Film Festival and BCDF Pictures (To Leslie, The Hating Game) is attached to produce her screwball rom com feature, Slab Serif. She’s proud to write romance, a genre she regards as a sacred, safe space, especially for women.

THE HOLE STORY by Joe Veix              
After discovering a strange radio signal coming from somewhere deep underground, a lonely call center worker digs a giant tunnel to find its source.

Joe Veix is a writer and artist based in Oakland, CA. He has written absurdist nonfiction and humor pieces for The New Yorker, Wired, McSweeney’s, and Vice, and was the culture editor at Newsweek. His film Channelvue, an experimental comedy/horror short set entirely in a hacked TV Guide channel, recently screened at Palm Springs ShortFest, Indie Lisboa, and HollyShorts.

CHOMOLUNGMA by Karna Warrior
India, 1924 — After a racist inquest leaves geologist and climber M.K. Menon disgraced and unemployed, he and a team of mountaineers who have all been treated as second class citizens attempt to climb Mt. Everest in order to reclaim the mountain from the British and chase the dreams of glory they’ve always been told are unachievable.

Karna Warrior is an Indian American screenwriter based in Los Angeles. He writes high-concept genre epics that range from sci-fi/fantasy to historical drama. A socially anxious rock climber with the entire LOTR Trilogy (extended cut) on his 1TB micro-SD card, Karna explores characters who juxtapose a quiet loneliness with a loud desperation to belong.

I LOVE YOU, TANK by Rob Norman       
War-torn orphans attempt to hijack a Russian tank in the deluded hopes it will stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Rob Norman is an author, improviser, and audio storyteller. He is the creator of the audio drama Limited Capacity and the host of CBC’s Personal Best, which Time Magazine praised as “easily one of the funniest podcasts on air.“

PLAY THERAPY by Kaley Rose Mamo   
When Eve returns to her hometown to solve the mystery of her childhood friend Lizzy Owens’ disappearance, she begins to use Lizzy’s old dollhouse in the basement of the abandoned Owens family home to communicate with Lizzy’s ghost – or so Eve thinks.

Kaley Mamo is a screenwriter, playwright, and filmmaker who writes drama stories about complicated women and people who make mistakes. Her medical horror feature script, The Well, was a 2024 Academy Nicholl semifinalist and is currently under option at Talon Entertainment (Oh, Canada; Atonement). She is based in Brooklyn, New York, where she practices karate and refuses to get a driver’s license.

THE JUNKET by Sarah Elizabeth Walker
An ambitious digital media producer fakes a romance with a movie star to land a promotion but when real feelings emerge, their viral relationship spirals out of control. With the internet watching their every move, they must decide if chasing clout is worth risking something real.

Sarah Walker is a screenwriter who hails from a small town near The Villages, Florida. As a CODA (child of Deaf adults), her first language is American Sign Language, and her work explores themes of family, identity, ambition, and disability. Her scripts have advanced in the Nicholl Fellowship, Austin Film Festival, Sundance Labs, and the Black List x Cassian Elwes Fellowship, and she is a SAG-AFTRA member who trained as an actor in New York and at the Upright Citizens Brigade.