NEWS FROM FELLOWS PAST...
ABOUT OUR 2025 FELLOWS...
NOELLE VIÑAS
Noelle Viñas is a writer and educator from Springfield, Virginia and Montevideo, Uruguay. Her play Derecho had a world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse after being developed as part of both the DNA Festival and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Past productions include collaborations with Shotgun Players, Imagination Stage, Weston Playhouse, and Colt Coeur, where she is currently a company member and under commission for the play matrescence. Her work has been developed or in residence as a member of the Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, New York Stage and Film, Tofte Lake Center, Playwrights Foundation, the Civilians R&D Group, NYC Latinx Playwrights Circle, and Djerassi Resident Artists Program. In 2021, she received the Jeffrey Melnick New Playwright Award from Primary Stages. Recently, her play Cóndor (o, no es dictadura) received a Weissberg Finishing Commission from Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and IAMA Theatre commissioned and workshopped her two-person play tether, which was part of New York Stage & Film’s 2025 Summer Season. Her TV work includes staffing on Mrs. Davis, created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, and teaching Writing the TV Pilot in the MFA program at Columbia University. This summer, she completed her first bisexual rom-com feature length script, which was a finalist for the 2026 New York Stage and Film Workshop. Her production company, Goblin Brain Productions, creates and invests in works that delight in the weird and unexpected -- as well as examining language and belonging as tools of power. As an educator, she thrills in storytelling as a technology of community creation and serves as the Upper School Drama Teacher at Rye Country Day School. B.A. Emerson College; M.F.A. Brooklyn College.
Mentor: Madhuri Shekar
Noelle Viñas is a writer and educator from Springfield, Virginia and Montevideo, Uruguay. Her play Derecho had a world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse after being developed as part of both the DNA Festival and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Past productions include collaborations with Shotgun Players, Imagination Stage, Weston Playhouse, and Colt Coeur, where she is currently a company member and under commission for the play matrescence. Her work has been developed or in residence as a member of the Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, New York Stage and Film, Tofte Lake Center, Playwrights Foundation, the Civilians R&D Group, NYC Latinx Playwrights Circle, and Djerassi Resident Artists Program. In 2021, she received the Jeffrey Melnick New Playwright Award from Primary Stages. Recently, her play Cóndor (o, no es dictadura) received a Weissberg Finishing Commission from Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and IAMA Theatre commissioned and workshopped her two-person play tether, which was part of New York Stage & Film’s 2025 Summer Season. Her TV work includes staffing on Mrs. Davis, created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, and teaching Writing the TV Pilot in the MFA program at Columbia University. This summer, she completed her first bisexual rom-com feature length script, which was a finalist for the 2026 New York Stage and Film Workshop. Her production company, Goblin Brain Productions, creates and invests in works that delight in the weird and unexpected -- as well as examining language and belonging as tools of power. As an educator, she thrills in storytelling as a technology of community creation and serves as the Upper School Drama Teacher at Rye Country Day School. B.A. Emerson College; M.F.A. Brooklyn College.
Mentor: Madhuri Shekar
JEREMY HSING
Jeremy Hsing is a genre writer/director, mental health advocate, and 2nd-gen Taiwanese immigrant based in LA. Born on Leap Day because his mom couldn’t hold in his big head, Jeremy combines his therapist background (BA in Psychology and double minor in art history and film from UCLA) and big head to construct elaborate worlds in which his characters go on a journey of internal reckoning in the pursuit of an emotional catharsis.
Jeremy’s AAPI sci-fi thriller feature script LITTLE CARP AT DRAGON’S GATE won the 2025 Asian American International Film Festival Screenplay Contest and was a finalist for both the Sundance Cultural Impact Residency and the Anarchists United Feature Film Incubator Grant created by Lilly Wachowski. Jeremy's sci-fi thriller pilot THE INSTITUTE OF FELLOW FEELING won the 2025 Roadmap Writers Diversity Fellowship. Jeremy’s Webby and Telly winning PBS American Masters sci-fi documentary JUDY-LYNN DEL REY: THE GALAXY GAL premiered at the Kennedy Center and has since garnered over 220,000 views on Youtube. Jeremy’s magical realism short film FISH premiered at NFMLA InFocus: Asian Cinema, the Boston Asian American Film Festival, and the Asian American International Film Festival and won the Youth Grand Jury Prize at the Astoria Film Festival. Jeremy’s Afro-Surrealist short film FORWARD THINKING premiered at Slamdance Film Festival. Jeremy’s basketball short BIG BALLER BOY won the Tyler Perry Studios Dream Collective and was a finalist for the TDE Short Films Fund.
He has since begun submitting his short film Big Baller Boy to film festivals, while also working on a pilotThe Institute of Fellow Feeling. He is perhaps most excited about his feature Little Carp at Dragon's Gate, on which he hopes to begin production soon.
In his free time, you can catch Jeremy cheering on the Lakers or dissecting Kendrick Lamar’s legendary discography. And if you’re wondering, yes Jeremy does celebrate his birthday every year and yes technically he is only 6 years old.
Mentor: Diana Son
Jeremy Hsing is a genre writer/director, mental health advocate, and 2nd-gen Taiwanese immigrant based in LA. Born on Leap Day because his mom couldn’t hold in his big head, Jeremy combines his therapist background (BA in Psychology and double minor in art history and film from UCLA) and big head to construct elaborate worlds in which his characters go on a journey of internal reckoning in the pursuit of an emotional catharsis.
Jeremy’s AAPI sci-fi thriller feature script LITTLE CARP AT DRAGON’S GATE won the 2025 Asian American International Film Festival Screenplay Contest and was a finalist for both the Sundance Cultural Impact Residency and the Anarchists United Feature Film Incubator Grant created by Lilly Wachowski. Jeremy's sci-fi thriller pilot THE INSTITUTE OF FELLOW FEELING won the 2025 Roadmap Writers Diversity Fellowship. Jeremy’s Webby and Telly winning PBS American Masters sci-fi documentary JUDY-LYNN DEL REY: THE GALAXY GAL premiered at the Kennedy Center and has since garnered over 220,000 views on Youtube. Jeremy’s magical realism short film FISH premiered at NFMLA InFocus: Asian Cinema, the Boston Asian American Film Festival, and the Asian American International Film Festival and won the Youth Grand Jury Prize at the Astoria Film Festival. Jeremy’s Afro-Surrealist short film FORWARD THINKING premiered at Slamdance Film Festival. Jeremy’s basketball short BIG BALLER BOY won the Tyler Perry Studios Dream Collective and was a finalist for the TDE Short Films Fund.
He has since begun submitting his short film Big Baller Boy to film festivals, while also working on a pilotThe Institute of Fellow Feeling. He is perhaps most excited about his feature Little Carp at Dragon's Gate, on which he hopes to begin production soon.
In his free time, you can catch Jeremy cheering on the Lakers or dissecting Kendrick Lamar’s legendary discography. And if you’re wondering, yes Jeremy does celebrate his birthday every year and yes technically he is only 6 years old.
Mentor: Diana Son
CRIS BLAK
Cris Eli Blak’s work has been produced and performed around the world. He is a staff writer on the hit series Power Book III: Raising Kanan. He is the inaugural winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative, the 2024 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s inaugural winner of the Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Festival. He is currently an artist-in-residence with Abingdon Theatre Company, a 24-2027 Core Writer with The Playwrights Center and a member of the Evolving Playwrights Group with Circle X Theatre Company. He was previously an artist-in-residence with Ojai Playwrights Conference, The State University of New York - Oswego, Liberation Theatre Company, La Lengua Teatro en Español/AlterTheater Ensemble, Fosters Theatrical Artists Residency, Paterson Performing Arts Development Council, and Quick Silver Theatre. He was the recipient of the Emerging Playwrights Fellowship with The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre Company and an inaugural fellow with the Black Theatre Coalition. His work has been published by Smith & Kraus, Inc., Ghost Light Publications, 1319 Press, Flowersong Press, YOUTHPlays, Applause Books, The PlayGround Experiment, New World Theatre, Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble, and in the Black Theatre Review. He recently had a pilot optioned by a few studios all while gearing up for a two-week residency in Paris to work with French actors on a new play.
Mentor: Kris Diaz
Cris Eli Blak’s work has been produced and performed around the world. He is a staff writer on the hit series Power Book III: Raising Kanan. He is the inaugural winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative, the 2024 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award, and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s inaugural winner of the Muse of Fire BIPOC Playwriting Festival. He is currently an artist-in-residence with Abingdon Theatre Company, a 24-2027 Core Writer with The Playwrights Center and a member of the Evolving Playwrights Group with Circle X Theatre Company. He was previously an artist-in-residence with Ojai Playwrights Conference, The State University of New York - Oswego, Liberation Theatre Company, La Lengua Teatro en Español/AlterTheater Ensemble, Fosters Theatrical Artists Residency, Paterson Performing Arts Development Council, and Quick Silver Theatre. He was the recipient of the Emerging Playwrights Fellowship with The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre Company and an inaugural fellow with the Black Theatre Coalition. His work has been published by Smith & Kraus, Inc., Ghost Light Publications, 1319 Press, Flowersong Press, YOUTHPlays, Applause Books, The PlayGround Experiment, New World Theatre, Breath of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble, and in the Black Theatre Review. He recently had a pilot optioned by a few studios all while gearing up for a two-week residency in Paris to work with French actors on a new play.
Mentor: Kris Diaz
FELLOW BIOGRAPHIES
DANIELLE ELLEN
A member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Danielle Ellen has co-authored several full-length play translations from French. The first was recognized by the Playwrights Guild of Canada for Best New Comedy. Her 2019 co-translation, written in collaboration with Montreal’s Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence, was commissioned by the US Consulate General of Montreal.
Danielle won the Van Rensselaer Poetry Prize as a creative writing and neuroscience undergraduate at Columbia University. She followed this up with a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Oxford. Danielle participated in the inaugural class of the Doha Film Institute Series Lab, the 2022 cohort of Project Involve at Film Independent, and was a 2023 grant recipient from the Dramatists Guild Foundation.
Most recently, she wrote the short film, The Bluest Hour, which will premiere at the 2024 Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival. She is writing a dramedy pilot, a sci-fi novella, and a feature-length version of The Bluest Hour, with director and producer attached. Aside from writing, Danielle has also began mentoring high school students.
Danielle was born into a New England military family and has lived in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She now lives and works in Los Angeles.
A member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Danielle Ellen has co-authored several full-length play translations from French. The first was recognized by the Playwrights Guild of Canada for Best New Comedy. Her 2019 co-translation, written in collaboration with Montreal’s Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence, was commissioned by the US Consulate General of Montreal.
Danielle won the Van Rensselaer Poetry Prize as a creative writing and neuroscience undergraduate at Columbia University. She followed this up with a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Oxford. Danielle participated in the inaugural class of the Doha Film Institute Series Lab, the 2022 cohort of Project Involve at Film Independent, and was a 2023 grant recipient from the Dramatists Guild Foundation.
Most recently, she wrote the short film, The Bluest Hour, which will premiere at the 2024 Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival. She is writing a dramedy pilot, a sci-fi novella, and a feature-length version of The Bluest Hour, with director and producer attached. Aside from writing, Danielle has also began mentoring high school students.
Danielle was born into a New England military family and has lived in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She now lives and works in Los Angeles.
M.J. KANG
M.J. Kang is a playwright and actor based in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Michigan. She was born in Seoul, Korea, and immigrated with her family to Toronto, Canada where life fundamentally changed. Her plays have been produced by Pan Asian Rep, East West Players, Son of Semele, Tarragon Theater, Factory Theater, Theater Passe Muraille, Cahoots Theater Projects, and many others. She has been a recipient of grants from the Canada Council, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Groundlings, Impro Theater, UBC, and others. She has a teenage daughter, Mia, who constantly inspires her. She truly appreciates Chisa and this fellowship for this opportunity and for making this playwright feel welcome to continue creating. Many thanks also to Diana Son for being her mentor!
M.J. Kang is a playwright and actor based in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Michigan. She was born in Seoul, Korea, and immigrated with her family to Toronto, Canada where life fundamentally changed. Her plays have been produced by Pan Asian Rep, East West Players, Son of Semele, Tarragon Theater, Factory Theater, Theater Passe Muraille, Cahoots Theater Projects, and many others. She has been a recipient of grants from the Canada Council, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Groundlings, Impro Theater, UBC, and others. She has a teenage daughter, Mia, who constantly inspires her. She truly appreciates Chisa and this fellowship for this opportunity and for making this playwright feel welcome to continue creating. Many thanks also to Diana Son for being her mentor!
SID GOPINATH
Sid Gopinath is a Brooklyn-based writer and filmmaker. In 2021, his writing partner Aditya Joshi and he sold SHIKAAR, a horror th riller TV show set in colonial India, to FX. Most recently, Sid was a writer on the Amazon show WE WERE LIARS and co-directed the short documentary FINDING OUR WILD, created with REI Co-Op Studios. He was selected for the Rickshaw Shorts Program, a finalist for the 1497 Lab, a finalist for a Periplus fellowship, and the 2024 Birch Fellow at Tofte Lake Artist Residency. As the son of Indian immigrants, Sid hopes to tell nuanced stories of underrepresented communities.
Sid Gopinath is a Brooklyn-based writer and filmmaker. In 2021, his writing partner Aditya Joshi and he sold SHIKAAR, a horror th riller TV show set in colonial India, to FX. Most recently, Sid was a writer on the Amazon show WE WERE LIARS and co-directed the short documentary FINDING OUR WILD, created with REI Co-Op Studios. He was selected for the Rickshaw Shorts Program, a finalist for the 1497 Lab, a finalist for a Periplus fellowship, and the 2024 Birch Fellow at Tofte Lake Artist Residency. As the son of Indian immigrants, Sid hopes to tell nuanced stories of underrepresented communities.
UPDATES FROM OUR INAUGURAL FELLOWS...
KWEIGHBAYE KOTEE
“Last month, I submitted my script to the Sloan Science in Film Grant, so fingers crossed for that. I'm now working with a line producer to put together a budget, and I'm determined to move forward with making this film come hell or high water! lol. I just fully produced a feature film with a $200K budget and we were able to get a great product, so I feel confident that I can get this film off the ground.”
“Last month, I submitted my script to the Sloan Science in Film Grant, so fingers crossed for that. I'm now working with a line producer to put together a budget, and I'm determined to move forward with making this film come hell or high water! lol. I just fully produced a feature film with a $200K budget and we were able to get a great product, so I feel confident that I can get this film off the ground.”
ADITI PRADHAN
“The fellowship year has been incredible! Madhuri has been such a wonderful mentor (and generally person). We're hopefully meeting in person for the first time next week!! Creatively, I had a staged reading of the play that I'd talked about in my Signpost interview, The Great Los Angeles Tikka Tour, and I'm now submitting it to festivals and programs. I'm also working on my next play and a feature!
Over the Summer of 2026, I finished two commissions, attended a residency, and was nominated for an award for emerging playwrights. I've also just started my second year at USC in the Dramatic Writing program!"
“The fellowship year has been incredible! Madhuri has been such a wonderful mentor (and generally person). We're hopefully meeting in person for the first time next week!! Creatively, I had a staged reading of the play that I'd talked about in my Signpost interview, The Great Los Angeles Tikka Tour, and I'm now submitting it to festivals and programs. I'm also working on my next play and a feature!
Over the Summer of 2026, I finished two commissions, attended a residency, and was nominated for an award for emerging playwrights. I've also just started my second year at USC in the Dramatic Writing program!"
QUENTIN NGUYEN-DUY
“After receiving the Signpost Fellowship, I used the stipend to help me go part time at my full time personal training job. That way I had a little more time to pour into my writing. I talked on the phone with chris peña about our goals for the year, and decided on a.) writing a new play and b.) applying to grad school. Alongside what chris and I outlined for the year, I also set the personal goal of using the stipend toward arranging a staged reading of my TV pilot, Parlor, about three women who open up a cronut store in the deep south only for it to become an accidental hub for queer youth, and subsequently an enemy of the local church, as well as buying Final Draft to help my scripts look official (about time!). The reading went well, and my collaborator and I took it to Naked Angels script club in Manhattan where it was accepted for a public reading! It received lots of positive feedback, and we are still developing it at this moment, having just finished a pitch deck for it.
I applied and was accepted to NYU Tisch, Brooklyn College, and USCD's MFA Playwriting Programs—ALL ON FULL RIDES!!! (Waitlisted at Hunter, but oh well, I'll take it). After visiting campus and talking to Iizuka about the program, I committed to UCSD for this coming year. But—curve ball—I also received an offer to take a leading part in a play called "Last Shot" at the Signature Theatre (formerly known as "When Harry Met Rehab"), which will be announced later this month. So, I deferred one semester at UCSD to do the play.
I really, truly believe the Signpost Fellowship was the launching pad for all of these endeavors. I had previously applied to graduate school two times, and was rejected by almost all them, except Columbia. This year, I applied to four, and was accepted by almost all of them with scholarships (save for the waitlist situation). UCSD has always been my dream school, and I wouldn't have been able to take time off my work to focus on writing without the financial assistance the fellowship provided, but more importantly, the support and belief that you provided, alongside chris peña, who truly forced me, despite my self doubt, to put my towel back in the ring with grad school.
Now, I am currently gearing up to go into rehearsals for the play, and am using some of my extra time this summer to hunker down and get some writing done, as well as have some readings for works that I have written and have not shown the light of day. That play chris and I started hasn't been finished, but I am working with my past director Sarah Shin to draft it (it's the play set in a personal training studio).
So, thank you and everyone on the board of the Signpost Collective for drastically rerouting my year. I truly would not have done half the things that got done this year without your support, generosity, and initiative to build this fellowship.”
“After receiving the Signpost Fellowship, I used the stipend to help me go part time at my full time personal training job. That way I had a little more time to pour into my writing. I talked on the phone with chris peña about our goals for the year, and decided on a.) writing a new play and b.) applying to grad school. Alongside what chris and I outlined for the year, I also set the personal goal of using the stipend toward arranging a staged reading of my TV pilot, Parlor, about three women who open up a cronut store in the deep south only for it to become an accidental hub for queer youth, and subsequently an enemy of the local church, as well as buying Final Draft to help my scripts look official (about time!). The reading went well, and my collaborator and I took it to Naked Angels script club in Manhattan where it was accepted for a public reading! It received lots of positive feedback, and we are still developing it at this moment, having just finished a pitch deck for it.
I applied and was accepted to NYU Tisch, Brooklyn College, and USCD's MFA Playwriting Programs—ALL ON FULL RIDES!!! (Waitlisted at Hunter, but oh well, I'll take it). After visiting campus and talking to Iizuka about the program, I committed to UCSD for this coming year. But—curve ball—I also received an offer to take a leading part in a play called "Last Shot" at the Signature Theatre (formerly known as "When Harry Met Rehab"), which will be announced later this month. So, I deferred one semester at UCSD to do the play.
I really, truly believe the Signpost Fellowship was the launching pad for all of these endeavors. I had previously applied to graduate school two times, and was rejected by almost all them, except Columbia. This year, I applied to four, and was accepted by almost all of them with scholarships (save for the waitlist situation). UCSD has always been my dream school, and I wouldn't have been able to take time off my work to focus on writing without the financial assistance the fellowship provided, but more importantly, the support and belief that you provided, alongside chris peña, who truly forced me, despite my self doubt, to put my towel back in the ring with grad school.
Now, I am currently gearing up to go into rehearsals for the play, and am using some of my extra time this summer to hunker down and get some writing done, as well as have some readings for works that I have written and have not shown the light of day. That play chris and I started hasn't been finished, but I am working with my past director Sarah Shin to draft it (it's the play set in a personal training studio).
So, thank you and everyone on the board of the Signpost Collective for drastically rerouting my year. I truly would not have done half the things that got done this year without your support, generosity, and initiative to build this fellowship.”
CONGRATS & GIDDIT!