Diné screenwriter highlights importance of Native Americans in the state’s film industry
By Jeanette DeDios
May 8, 2026 at 1:17 PM MDT
The Santa Fe International Literary Festival begins next weekend from May 15-17 and among the array of authors speaking; screenwriters will also be in attendance discussing how books get adapted from print to the big screen. KUNM spoke with Diné screenwriter, filmmaker and actor DezBaa’ who plays Helen Atcitty on AMC’s Dark Winds. DezBaa’ said she started out working as a geologist and earning her degree as a screenwriter before she got her big break.
DEZBAA’: I started taking screenwriting classes at Northern New Mexico college where I wrote my first screenplay. I met David Lindblom, who's a professor still there, and then he encouraged me to go to IAIA because he also had just completed their MFA program. And I thought it was a good idea, because I'm like, “Oh, well, if I get my MFA, then that means I can potentially teach if the whole acting and the screenwriting thing doesn't work out,” which in the film industry, is pretty part of the course, and especially right now, there's not a lot of things going on.
Sometime later, I also got cast as Helen Atcitty on Dark Winds. I had really auditioned for Leaphorn’s wife, and then didn't get that. Then I went to auditioning for something else. So just a lot of series of like, one thing happened and led to another. I submitted some work for Dark Winds when I found out that they were taking submissions for a writer's room, and I figured, “How many Navajo writers can they possibly have?” at that point, professional screenwriters. So I figured I had a possibility, I had a shot. I got hired, and then I got the experience of working as a staff writer. So it was not a linear thing. It is not typical for Hollywood or any of that; got super, super lucky. I think the ancestors were definitely looking out for me all along the way, and I just was really good at listening.
KUNM: What was it like in the Dark Winds writing room?
DEZBAA’: Tony Hillerman's books, he had the three different characters. They were all in different timelines. They weren't happening at the same time. So we had to do a lot of juggling and a lot of finessing to make sure that all of these different elements were landing and then they're not exactly to the page. What was actually written by Tony Hillerman, and we just kind of came up with our own way of telling the same story. What is the actual theme? What's the emotional arc? What is the reality and the truth of Native Navajo stories? But then also trying to make sure that we use Tony's work as a referencing point.
KUNM: How do you feel about keeping these stories that were written by Tony Hillerman, who's not Native but while also incorporating Native voices by having Native screenwriters?
DEZBAA’: At first, I was really conflicted because initially I got the script, I read it late at night. I was like, “oh, gosh, am I supposed to really be reading about skinwalkers, my kid calls it flush pedestrians”, you know, late at night by myself. And I wasn't sure if I even wanted to audition, but I said, “Okay, ancestors, please guide me on this.” Because I want to be truthful. I was a little conflicted. I wasn't sure. In any set, I knew that if I'm going to go and I say yes to something, I'm going to be 100% showing up as an actor. That's my first duty as an actor is to show up 100% give it what I can, be truthful to my experience in it, as I see it. And if I get accepted, then it's an opportunity for me to educate someone. That's the reason why I was accepted, or I'm going to be educated. And I know always being on set is always educational.
KUNM: Do you have a personal history with Tony Hillerman?
DEZBAA’: Tony actually interviewed my uncles and that some of his characters were based off of like my uncle, whose name really was Johnny Largo, who was the captain at Window Rock in Tuba City. So I feel like our family history, it was coming back to me full circle, especially when I got accepted into the writers room and hired, because I really was able to then kind of put that, at least in my family, to rest, that it finally emerged through the hands of one of their own relatives that we got the story right. And not to disparage Tony Hillerman in any way, but I just knew that it was really important to kind of the narrative coming from a Native voice. I want to say it's out living its own life in the new seasons that are coming up.
KUNM: How important is it to see Native Americans in the film industry?
DEZBAA’: Oh so incredibly important. We need to move forward and just kind of keep going at it being our stories. And again, back to Hollywood, us not being beholden to that. I'm looking forward to one day having my own studio and being a studio executive, or the president of whatever, whatever TV, studio, or not just me, but I'm holding that vision. So that if I can lend that vision to someone else, to my kid, or anyone else who wants to take that on as their own, that that’s possible, and try to find and forge a path towards that.
Support for this coverage comes from KUNM listeners just like you.
DEZBAA’: I started taking screenwriting classes at Northern New Mexico college where I wrote my first screenplay. I met David Lindblom, who's a professor still there, and then he encouraged me to go to IAIA because he also had just completed their MFA program. And I thought it was a good idea, because I'm like, “Oh, well, if I get my MFA, then that means I can potentially teach if the whole acting and the screenwriting thing doesn't work out,” which in the film industry, is pretty part of the course, and especially right now, there's not a lot of things going on.
Sometime later, I also got cast as Helen Atcitty on Dark Winds. I had really auditioned for Leaphorn’s wife, and then didn't get that. Then I went to auditioning for something else. So just a lot of series of like, one thing happened and led to another. I submitted some work for Dark Winds when I found out that they were taking submissions for a writer's room, and I figured, “How many Navajo writers can they possibly have?” at that point, professional screenwriters. So I figured I had a possibility, I had a shot. I got hired, and then I got the experience of working as a staff writer. So it was not a linear thing. It is not typical for Hollywood or any of that; got super, super lucky. I think the ancestors were definitely looking out for me all along the way, and I just was really good at listening.
KUNM: What was it like in the Dark Winds writing room?
DEZBAA’: Tony Hillerman's books, he had the three different characters. They were all in different timelines. They weren't happening at the same time. So we had to do a lot of juggling and a lot of finessing to make sure that all of these different elements were landing and then they're not exactly to the page. What was actually written by Tony Hillerman, and we just kind of came up with our own way of telling the same story. What is the actual theme? What's the emotional arc? What is the reality and the truth of Native Navajo stories? But then also trying to make sure that we use Tony's work as a referencing point.
KUNM: How do you feel about keeping these stories that were written by Tony Hillerman, who's not Native but while also incorporating Native voices by having Native screenwriters?
DEZBAA’: At first, I was really conflicted because initially I got the script, I read it late at night. I was like, “oh, gosh, am I supposed to really be reading about skinwalkers, my kid calls it flush pedestrians”, you know, late at night by myself. And I wasn't sure if I even wanted to audition, but I said, “Okay, ancestors, please guide me on this.” Because I want to be truthful. I was a little conflicted. I wasn't sure. In any set, I knew that if I'm going to go and I say yes to something, I'm going to be 100% showing up as an actor. That's my first duty as an actor is to show up 100% give it what I can, be truthful to my experience in it, as I see it. And if I get accepted, then it's an opportunity for me to educate someone. That's the reason why I was accepted, or I'm going to be educated. And I know always being on set is always educational.
KUNM: Do you have a personal history with Tony Hillerman?
DEZBAA’: Tony actually interviewed my uncles and that some of his characters were based off of like my uncle, whose name really was Johnny Largo, who was the captain at Window Rock in Tuba City. So I feel like our family history, it was coming back to me full circle, especially when I got accepted into the writers room and hired, because I really was able to then kind of put that, at least in my family, to rest, that it finally emerged through the hands of one of their own relatives that we got the story right. And not to disparage Tony Hillerman in any way, but I just knew that it was really important to kind of the narrative coming from a Native voice. I want to say it's out living its own life in the new seasons that are coming up.
KUNM: How important is it to see Native Americans in the film industry?
DEZBAA’: Oh so incredibly important. We need to move forward and just kind of keep going at it being our stories. And again, back to Hollywood, us not being beholden to that. I'm looking forward to one day having my own studio and being a studio executive, or the president of whatever, whatever TV, studio, or not just me, but I'm holding that vision. So that if I can lend that vision to someone else, to my kid, or anyone else who wants to take that on as their own, that that’s possible, and try to find and forge a path towards that.
Support for this coverage comes from KUNM listeners just like you.