Sony TV Names 2026 Elevate Writers & Directors Fellows — SkimNews
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- Sony Pictures Television named eight fellows to its Elevate Writers & Directors Fellowship Class of 2026, with cohorts starting this week on the Sony lot in Culver City for curated mentorship and industry access.
- Kelly Luu and Kevin Luu were selected for both the writers and directors programs; their projects have been developed via Ryan Murphy's HALF Initiative, Soo Hugh and UCP's Thousand Miles Project, Hillman Grad/Indeed's Rising Voices, and Rideback RISE, with their short Rising Voices premiering at Tribeca.
- Luke Johnson began his career at Sony Pictures Entertainment before serving as a writers assistant on Netflix's The Night Agent and writing a freelance episode for the show's second season.
- Sheridan O'Donnell directed Little Brother, starring J.K. Simmons, which won the Audience Award at the Atlanta Film Festival, and most recently helmed Rising Phoenix: A New Revolution, the follow-up to the Emmy-winning documentary Rising Phoenix.
- Chelsea Christer's documentary Bleeding Audio screened at nearly 20 film festivals including Slamdance, while her narrative short Out for Delivery premiered at Sundance and played the SXSW Film & TV Festival.
- Emily Kim's short To the Lights earned a Best Short nomination at the Hawaii International Film Festival and won the Jury Award for Best Narrative at NFFTY.
- Melissa Long served as a script coordinator on Showtime's King Shaka and Prime Video's Bishop and is an alum of the Writers Guild Foundation's Writers Access program, while Natasha Sabour currently works as Shawn Ryan and Marney Hochman's assistant at MiddKidProductions.
Why it matters: SPT's fellowship gives eight early-career writers and directors direct access to working showrunners, executives, and producers — the same pipeline that previously launched careers through shows like Netflix's The Night Agent, where fellow Luke Johnson cut his teeth in the writers room.
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