EXCLUSIVE: Natural Resources Defense Council, the Black List, CAA Foundation, NBCUniversal and The Redford Center have named L.C. Killingsworth, Annika Marks and Yasir Masood as the recipients of their 2025 NRDC Climate Storytelling Fellowship.
The trio was selected from more than 500 submissions for their unique and captivating portrayals of the climate crisis. As part of the fellowship, each fellow will receive a $20,000 grant and will be paired with an entertainment industry professional who will provide mentorship and creative support to further develop their projects. Mentors will include Lucia Aniello (Broad City, Hacks), Nick Kroll (Adults, Big Mouth) and Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, The Wild Robot).
Now in its fifth year, the NRDC Climate Storytelling Fellowship is a program designed to help screenwriters develop compelling stories that reflect climate change and environmental justice. In addition to creative mentorship, recipients receive counsel from environmental experts on climate issues highlighted in their script, and NRDC’s Rewrite the Future program advises on effective approaches to developing climate themes. Revised scripts may be reviewed for development by companies like CAA, Hyperobject Industries, Yellow Dot Studios, Madica Productions, UTA, WME and NBCUniversal.
In a statement on the fellowship selections, Katy Jacobs, Entertainment Partnerships Director, NRDC, said, “These talented writers are telling compelling stories that explore the real impacts of our changing climate on our personal relationships, our plans for the future and our day-to-day lives. It’s more critical than ever to uplift stories like these that can help us reflect on our climate reality and shift our culture to embrace a better future.”
Commented mentor Aniello, “The urgency of the climate crisis demands creative and compelling narratives – ones that can make audiences see and feel new perspectives. I look forward to working with one of these talented writers as they explore climate themes in their work.”
Applications for the fifth cycle of the Climate Storytelling Fellowship are open now through November 28. For more information on this year’s fellows and their projects, read on.
LOWCOUNTRY (pilot) by L.C. Killingsworth: When a hurricane lays waste to the quirky coastal town of Dundee, Georgia and the area’s last insurance company pulls out, the community must find a new way to survive.
L.C. Killingsworth is a career writer based in Savannah, GA. She earned her BA in creative writing from Yale and has since worked as a writing teacher, nonprofit leader, and messaging strategist while also working on various creative projects.
THE TIPPING POINT (feature) by Annika Marks: EverLeigh and Clay are madly in love. If ‘opposites attract’ is a rule, they’re the couple that proves it. She’s a pragmatic climate scientist; he’s a musician and a dreamer. As we follow them for over a decade, another difference emerges—she’s increasingly convinced that adding children to our struggling planet is irresponsible; he’s increasingly convinced that raising children is the responsibility he was built for.
Annika Marks began her career as an actor and is probably best known as Monte Porter on Freeform’s “The Fosters.” As a writer, she’s developed original series for Lionsgate, Sony and Hallmark, and has written on projects for NBCUniversal, Peacock, Paramount+ and Tribeca, among others. Her first feature, “Killing Eleanor,” which she wrote, produced and starred in, premiered at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival where it won Best Narrative Feature. Her follow-up, “Adult Children,” is set to hit the festival circuit this summer. Marks has participated in a variety of programs over the years, including the Sundance Labs (as an actor) and the Women in Film Mentoring Program (as a writers circle mentee). She splits her time between Los Angeles and Seattle, where she lives with her husband and frequent collaborator, Rich Newey, and their two wild and wonderful children.
NIGHT OF POWER (feature) by Yasir Masood: Amidst Texas’s fiercest heat-wave on the eve of Ramadan fasting, three young Muslims reluctantly plunge into a crime spree to save their community, confronting the gritty underworld of Houston and their own struggle for power.
Yasir Masood is a Pakistan-born, Emmy-nominated producer and filmmaker. Yasir won the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Los Angeles Asian American Film Festival for his debut feature film, ISTIKHARA, NEW YORK. Shot in Brooklyn and self-financed for a budget of $15,000, the film was picked up for finishing and distribution by Nicholas Weinstock’s Invention Studios (THELMA). Yasir then produced the film, OUT OF ORDER, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and made its debut on VICE. Yasir directed episodes for the Webby nominated nonfiction series PICTURE LOCKED & IN MY OWN WORDS streaming on DOCUMENTARY+. Son of an air conditioning repair man, Yasir’s work aims to explore the intersectionality of masculinity, migration, and identity in Muslim and working class communities.
