Biography
Rhiana Yazzie is a Navajo Nation citizen (Ta’neeszahnii dóó Táchii’nii), playwright, director, television writer and filmmaker. She founded New Native Theatre in Minneapolis in 2009 and serves as its artistic director. She is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and holds a master’s degree in professional writing from the University of Southern California.
Yazzie has received the Lanford Wilson Award, Steinberg Award, Sally Ordway Award for Vision and a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship. Her plays include Nancy (2023 Kilroys List), which premiered on the East Coast at Mosaic Theater Company, and The Other Children of the Sun, which she wrote and directed for the Kennedy Center in 2025. She wrote, produced and directed the feature film A Winter Love.
She wrote on AMC’s Dark Winds for seasons 2 (2023) and 3 (2025), serving as staff writer and executive story editor. She is working on a second feature film, an adaptation of her play Wounspaye Wankatya, A College Education.
