Sterlin Harjo (born November 14, 1979)[1][2] is aNative American director, producer and screenwriter fromOklahoma. He is a citizen of theSeminole Nation of Oklahoma and aMuscogee descendant. He has directed three feature films, two documentaries, as well as theFX comedy-drama seriesReservation Dogs[2] andThe Lowdown, all of them set in his home state of Oklahoma and concerned primarily with Native American and Oklahoman people.
In 2004, Harjo received a fellowship from theSundance Institute.[5] His short filmGoodnight, Irene[6] premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival[3] and received a special jury award at theAspen Shortsfest.[3] In 2006, he received a fellowship from the newly formed organizationUnited States Artists.[7][8]
Harjo's second feature,Barking Water, premiered at the2009 Sundance Film Festival.[11] It portrays a road trip by a dying man and his former lover across Oklahoma to see his daughter and granddaughter inWewoka, Oklahoma, the capital of the Seminole Nation.[13][14] It was named best drama film at the 2009 American Indian Film Festival.[15]
Harjo has also directed a number of short-form projects. His 2009 short film,Cepanvkuce Tutcenen, was part of the Embargo Collective project commissioned by theimagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.[26] He has directed a series of shorts forThis Land Press in Tulsa, where he is the staff video director.[27] Harjo was a member of the2010 Sundance shorts competition jury.[28] He is also a founding member of a five-member Native American skit comedy group, the1491s,[29] as well as being one of the directors of theCherokee Nation's monthly television news magazine,Osiyo, Voices of the Cherokee People.[30]
In 2021,FX released the first season of the Indigenous comedy seriesReservation Dogs. It is executive-produced, directed, and co-written by Harjo, withTaika Waititi co-writing and executive-producing.[31] On September 2, 2021, FX renewed the series for a second season.[32] In 2022,Reservation Dogs was recognized at the 37th AnnualFilm Independent Spirit Awards as Best New Scripted Series and Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series.[33] During the ceremony, actorDevery Jacobs said: "This prize is so much bigger than ourselves, just ourselves. Each of us come from different nations acrossTurtle Island who survived 500 years of colonization. And in the 100 years of film and TV,Reservation Dogs now marks the first project with all Indigenous creatives at the helm."[34]
In 2023, Harjo directed the music video for the song "Mean Old Sun" by the Oklahoma country rock bandTurnpike Troubadours.[35] In 2024, he co-wrote the screenplay for the sports dramaRez Ball withSydney Freeland, who also directed the film.[36]
In September 2025, FX released Harjo's second series,The Lowdown, starringEthan Hawke.[37][38] It is loosely based on historianLee Roy Chapman, who died in 2015, and his work uncovering and exhibiting Oklahoma history.[39]
^Angelica Lawson, "American Indian Feature Filmmakers and Popular Culture", in Elizabeth Delaney Hoffman. ed.,American Indians and Popular Culture, (ABC-CLIO, 2012),ISBN978-0313379918, pp. 98-99.Excerpts available atGoogle Books.
