Maui-born actress Mapuana Makia has the title role in an episode of “Two Sentence Horror Stories,” which can be streamed on Netflix starting Monday, centered around the displacement of old neighborhoods by upscale development and its damaging effects on people and their culture.

Drawing from her Native Hawaiian heritage to flesh out her character, originally from Hawaii, was “such a dream come true,” Makia said. “I liked that she was a strong female, but also a family woman and gentle. She was fighting for something so close to her heart, the land that her parents had, and the idea of keeping your family in the same place so they always have a place to call home.”

For the “Erased” episode, Makia also served as a Hawaiian cultural consultant to insure authenticity in the set design, wardrobe and a script by Liz Hsiao Lan Alper, who previously wrote for the “Hawaii 5-0” reboot. Each episode has its own two-line summary or trope, which is why the TV series is titled “Two Sentence Horror Stories,” said Alper, who has also written for television’s “Day of the Dead.”

“Erased” begins with one line across a black screen: “There’s a stranger in the house.” Viewers must wait until the end of the episode to find out the second half of the trope.

Now in its third season, the “Two Sentence” television series includes 10 half-hour episodes using the horror genre to highlight social and cultural issues. It is produced for CW Network by Stage 13, a studio that emphasizes inclusion, diversity and the use of multicultural talent behind and in front of the camera. The TV series boasts a team of diverse all-female writers.

Makia plays Leilani, an Indigenous mom who tries to protect her home from urban gentrification and the environmental degradation that follows. She’s located in a fictitious town in the Pacific Northwest, where many former Hawaii residents have settled, Alper said.

As longtime residents in the neighborhood are being displaced by wealthier people, the family’s cultural values about protecting the aina (land) come to the forefront. Leilani is faced with the same issues, including income inequality, that priced her parents out of their Hawaii homes and forced them to move to the mainland for more affordable housing, Alper said.

For Hawaii viewers familiar with the land controversies, Makia said, “it’s very cool that this reaches a bigger, broader audience to think about the developments in Hawaii. I’m glad the conversation is out into the world. I hope the Hawaii audiences see themselves on television.”

Makia was especially gratified when the wardrobe department, in the pursuit of authenticity, sought her input. She suggested wearing a ­Hawaiian bracelet, Niihau shell necklace made by a Hawaii beadmaker and earrings designed with triangle-­shaped mountains to pay tribute to the Protect Mauna Kea movement that is protesting the development of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the volcanic summit.

Makia, a graduate of ­Hawaii Pacific University in theater, will continue to play Dr. Noelani Nakayama in the upcoming second season of “Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.” for Disney+. She also has worked as an actor, dialect coach and assistant to the director for the film “Finding Ohana.” Other credits include the 2015 movie “Aloha” and the TV series “Emma Approved.”

Alper, who has also written for “Chicago Fire” and “The Rookie,” said she became interested in Hawaii land rights while writing for “Hawaii 5-0” in 2017. She did extensive research on the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and talked with residents about the perennial controversy over land; since then, she has continued to follow Native Hawaiian activists on social media.

Alper, who is half Taiwanese and based in Los Angeles, said the Native Hawaiians’ historic struggle to protect the aina and the downside of gentrification is “an important story to tell” that no one seems to be talking about outside of Hawaii. The tourist industry promotes the idea that Hawaii is an exotic paradise but says nothing about local people being “priced out of their homes and land,” she said.

In “Erased,” the developers use black magic to drive out homeowners who refuse to sign over their property, resulting in the actual erasure of people’s lives, homes and identities, Alper said. Parts of Leilani’s body, for example, disappear bit by bit as punishment.

“It is the erasure of the culture, this feeling like they had never been there at all,” said Alper. “That was really important to me to get across — that’s what gentrification does.”

When she saw Makia’s audition for the part of Leilani, which was originally written as a smaller role, Alper said she was so impressed that she rewrote the script so that the mother, not the father, was the main character.

“I thought, she’s amazing, she breathes this! This is her story to tell.”

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WATCH IT

“Two Sentence Horror Stories”

The “Erased” episode, along with the rest of the series, will stream on Netflix starting Monday.

Viewers can watch “Erased” and four other recent episodes for free on cwtv.com and its app.