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Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
On the heels of their work in “Rutherford Falls,” writer and actor Jana Schmieding and writer Sierra Teller Ornelas have been given the green light to develop the pilot for a new half-hour comedy series, “Bonnie,” about a “cool auntie” helping raise her brother’s kids on the reservation.
The show – one of several circulating in the industry featuring Native women – would be the first Native comedy on a major television network.
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Ornelas told ICT by phone that the auntie narrative comes from their collective experiences.
“We are looking for opportunities to spotlight ourselves and to tell the funny stories that we’re actually living,” she said. “We have ownership over the stories that we’re telling. It doesn’t surprise me that we are championing the heroes that we have in our community.”
Schmieding, Cheyenne River Lakota, and Ornelas, Navajo — who worked together on “Rutherford Falls” — are now developing the pilot through production company Universal Television for what would be a half-hour, multi-camera comedy series for network television. CBS officials have ordered the pilot to see if they will pick up a series.
The show tells the story of a former backup singer played by Schmieding who left touring 15 years ago to help raise her brother’s kids and live out her dream of being the “cool auntie.”
Ornelas and Schmieding will write and executive produce the project.
“We’ll be pulling from a lot of our heritage in the theater and community and really opening up the world of comedy to Native stories further,” Ornelas said.
The show appears to have caught a wave of interest in comedies featuring Native women, with recent news that two other Indigenous women have gotten a deal to develop a project for Canada’s CRAVE TV.
‘Comedy goddess’
Schmieding is having a big year already.
She starred in the FX comedy, “Reservation Dogs,” and has been featured in Max’s “Clone High,” Fox’s “The Great North,” and Netflix’s “Spirit Rangers,” and can currently be seen in Marvel’s superhero series “Echo” on Disney+ and Hulu.
So where did this idea come from?
“After “Rutherford Falls” ended, I was dying to work with Jana,” Ornelas told ICT. “We just started hanging out and talking about the shows that we loved as kids and family comedies with very funny women at the helm. We talked a lot about the show, ‘Roseanne.’ We both grew up just adoring that character and also the sister ‘Jackie’ character.”
“So we thought, ‘What if we created a show about raising up a family from the view of the sister/auntie?’ We can really showcase Jana as the comedy goddess, which she is.”
The character of Bonnie arrives home to the reservation with worldly experiences that she uses to help her brother.
“We are modeling the location after my Cheyenne River Sioux rez, in South Dakota,” Schmieding told ICT.
Ornelas says they sold the pilot – essentially selling the idea –- and are at the beginning of the development process, writing the pilot and hopefully enticing the network to pick up the full series.
“We’re just trying to make the very best pilot we can,” Schmieding said.
“I love Jana,” Ornelas said. “She’s amazing in everything she’s in. This would be the first Native American network comedy, and it’s a multi-cam, which means that if we get to make it, it will be put in front of a live studio audience.”
From teacher to TV
Schmieding and Ornelas first met when Schmieding was hosting a podcast from 2017 to 2019 called “Woman of Size,” in which she and guests discussed experiences of discrimination related to body size.
Schmieding had been working as a middle school teacher and doing stand-up comedy at improv nights in New York City and Los Angeles. Three years after Ornelas was on Schmieding’s show, she hired Schmieding to be a writer on “Rutherford Falls,” where she then became a co-star.
“Rutherford Falls” launched on April 22, 2021, with reviewers praising Schmieding’s performance.
The A.V. Club called Schmieding a “breakout performer,” saying that “comedy vet [Ed] Helms…meets his match in co-star and relative newcomer Schmieding, who balances his rigor with a down-to-earth and equally captivating performance.”
Writer Jen Chaney of Vulture named Schmieding the show’s “breakout star,” calling her “a natural.” In July 2021, the series was renewed for a second season, with Schmieding continuing as both a writer and co-star.
Schmieding also appeared as Bev, the gum-smacking, flirtatious clinic receptionist and one of the scene-stealing aunties in “Reservation Dogs” – no easy feat when up against seasoned actors Zahn McClarnon and Gary Farmer.
Previously, Ornelas was a co-executive producer on “Loot” for Apple TV+ and NBC’s “Superstore,” where she worked for three seasons. She has written on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” for Fox/NBC, ABC’s “Splitting Up Together,” and “Happy Endings,” also from the Disney-owned network.
More aunties ink deals
In related news, actress producer Jennifer Podemski, Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi, also of “Reservation Dogs,” has announced that she and Sherry Mckay, Sagkeeng First Nation, known for her comedy performances as part of a trio in “The Deadly Aunties,” have inked a deal with CRAVE TV in Canada.
The project features all Native women, Mckay said on social media.
“I’m excited to share the news with you that we have a development deal with CRAVE and this month we’ll be headed into a writing room to write a pilot with some amazing folks and ALL NATIVE WOMEN. Heck I’m so excited. That’s all the info I can reveal for now but stay tuned for more!!!” Mckay wrote on Instagram.
Podemski is a writer, actress, director and producer who develops and delivers film and tv content through an Indigenous lens. Screen credits include “Dance Me Outside” and “The Rez,” She recently she wrote, directed and produced “Unsettled,” a 10-part drama series for TV Ontario and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, as well as “Little Bird”, a limited drama series for CRAVE.
“I absolutely love storytelling,” she said in an interview with the CBC. “A lot of times we feel alone or disconnected or the people don’t understand us until we hear someone who has a similar story or similar humor we can relate to.”
She is the sister of actresses Tamara and Sarah Podemski, and all three have appeared on “Reservation Dogs” and several other series.
A previous show out of Canada, “Mohawk Girls,” which ran 2010-2017 and is now streaming on Peacock, featured four 20-something Indigenous women trying to find their place in the world and to find love.
They soon discover that in a small community where their friends have dated everyone on the rez, and when the hot new guy turns out to be a cousin, it’s not that easy.
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