Sydney Freeland

Navajo (Diné) · actors

Sydney Freeland (born 1980) is a Navajo filmmaker, writer, and director from Gallup, New Mexico. She directed the Netflix film "Rez Ball" (2024), a coming-of-age basketball story set on the Navajo Nation that became a cultural phenomenon. Freeland also directed the feature "Drunktown's Finest" (2014), which premiered at Sundance, and has helmed episodes of "Grey's Anatomy," "Reservation Dogs," "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," and "Rutherford Falls." As a transgender Navajo woman, she brings intersectional perspectives to her work and has spoken powerfully about representation for both Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities in media. She is one of the most in-demand Indigenous directors working in Hollywood today.