Amber Nelson turned her mother's death into a comedy. Now Netflix wants to read it.

Nelson, a screenwriter and actor living in Lakewood Ranch, co-wrote the one-hour TV pilot "Amberica" with filmmaker Mokotsi Rukundo. The script won the Grand Prize in the International Screenwriters Association's 2026 Table Read My Screenplay Cannes competition, announced April 21. The prize: an all-expenses-paid trip to the Cannes Film Festival and a live staged reading performed by professional actors, directed by Emmy- and NAACP-nominated producer Randall Winston, whose credits include "Shrinking," "Scrubs" and "Grace & Frankie."

Nelson said Netflix has since reached out to read the script, a claim corroborated by her ISA profile, which lists "Netflix Requested to Read ISA Staff Pick Script" as a success story.

The screenplay draws directly from Nelson's life. Her mother, Fizzeh Shirazee Nelson, a practicing Muslim, died in 2024 after cancer metastasized. Fizzeh's body was washed, prayed over and buried within 13 hours, following Islamic tradition.

"I capture this death and funeral in the screenplay, but in a comedic way," Nelson told Your Observer in an interview published Aug. 19. "Aunts, uncles and cousins were all there and everybody's such a character. I made light of this situation."

Nelson describes "Amberica" as a "self-deprecating comedic piece" about a 40-something woman whose finances are in disarray, who keeps changing jobs and whose mother passes away. Her only lifeline is an inheritance that comes with strings attached.

The concept has been percolating for two decades. Nelson painted a self-portrait with the title "Amberica" in 2005. She began writing the screenplay before her mother's death and completed it within six months of partnering with Rukundo, an award-winning writer, director and producer.

Rukundo reshaped the story from a flashback-heavy journal format into something focused on Nelson's present-day identity. The screenplay explores questions of being American, Muslim, independent, dependent.

"Amber is the perfect person that represents a lot of Americans right now that are like, 'I'm both. I'm everything. I don't know what to pick,'" Rukundo said in the same interview.

Before the Cannes Grand Prize, "Amberica" had already won Best TV Series Pilot at The World Film Festival in Cannes in 2025, Best TV Pilot at the Paris International Short Festival and Best Teleplay at the Religion and Faith International Film Festival.

Nelson and Rukundo attended the Cannes Film Festival in May and participated in a produced table read of "Amberica" on June 28. Nelson told Your Observer she wasn't eating, wasn't sleeping and was emotionally dysregulated beforehand, worried no one would laugh. The audience laughed plenty.

Nelson also performs under the SAG-AFTRA name Avo Shirazee. Her acting credits include HBO's "The Wire" and work as a body double for Lucy Liu in "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle."

Both writers hope "Amberica" gets picked up by a streaming service. No production timeline or deal has been announced.