The biker drama Mayans M.C. will keep on riding on television. FX has ordered the fourth season of the series starring JD Pardo (East Los High) and Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica).
Mayans M.C. is one of few dramas currently on American TV featuring a mainly Latino cast that includes Clayton Cardenas, Michael Irby, Carla Baratta, Raoul Max Trujillo, Richard Cabral and Danny Pino. Emilio Rivera, Sarah Bolger and Sulem Calderon also star in the series.
A spin-off of the Golden Globe-winning Sons of Anarchy, the Latino series was created and is executive produced by Elgin James and Kurt Sutter. It follows Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes (Pardo), a newly patched member of the Mayans M.C. charter on the California/Mexico border. Once the golden boy with the American Dream in his grasp, EZ and his brother Angel (Cardenas) are closer than ever after uncovering the truth behind their mother’s murder while their father Felipe (Olmos) struggles to reconcile the choices he and his sons have made.
The renewal announcement is good news for the show, arriving just days before the end of its third season. Produced by 20th Television and FX Productions, the current season wraps up May 11.
“Elgin James, his creative collaborators, this incredible cast and crew delivered on another epic season of Mayans M.C.,” says Nick Grad, FX president of original programming. “Through three seasons, Mayans has told stories that resonate well beyond the border where the club thrives and survives, inviting fans inside their world and giving them a seat at the table.”
The show’s creator promises to dig deeper into the Mayans‘ characters in the season set to premiere in 2022. “I am deeply indebted to everyone at FX and 20th for allowing us to continue to tell the stories of the characters that Kurt (Sutter) and I created and whom our cast and crew took to new heights in season three,” says James, the executive producer. “In season four we look forward to diving deeper into each character’s truths, exploring the danger of the combustible world they inhabit, and for each writer, cast member and crew to stake out our place as storytellers.”
Among the show’s writers stands out Bryan Gracia (Chicago P.D.) and Debra Moore Muñoz (Westworld).
Mayans M.C. has received nominations for the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Award, California on Location Awards, Golden Trailer Awards and Imagen Foundation Awards.
Featured Photo: ‘Mayans M.C.’ (Credit: FX)
Journalist Valerie Castro has joined The News with Shepard Smith, CNBC’s nightly newscast.
With 14 years of experience in journalism, the Emmy Award-winning Castro is one of several new hires and promotions at CNBC, a pay television business news channel based in New Jersey and owned by NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal.
The News with Shepard Smith is a relatively new TV show hosted by Shepard Smith, formerly of Fox News. Launched in late September 2020, the program airs at 7 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.
“As we continue to expand our general news coverage and build on our industry-leading business news team, I’m excited to announce the addition of two new correspondents to CNBC’s roster and the promotion of two of our veteran producers,” said Dan Colarusso, senior vice president of CNBC Business News.
Castro’s new job ensures that she’ll stay with the NBCUniversal family. She most recently served as the anchor for The Report, a news program produced by NBC News for the now-defunct mobile video platform Quibi. She had already collaborated occasionally with The News With Shepard Smith in the past few months.
Before joining NBC, Castro was a general assignment reporter for WCBS in New York. Prior to moving to the East Coast, the Colorado native spent five years at the CBS affiliate KCNC in Denver, where she covered high-profile stories like wildfires, floods and winter snowstorms. She was also there for the Aurora Theater shooting and extensively reported on court hearings following that tragedy, according to a press statement from CNBC.
Castro’s LinkedIn profile says she also worked for Hubbard Broadcasting in two New Mexico cities, first at KOBF-TV in Farmington and later at KOB-TV in Albuquerque.
Castro has a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she also obtained a minor in history. She is fluent in Spanish and a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She
CNBC’s other hire is Kristina Partsinevelos, a general assignment reporter for Business Day covering stocks and the reopening of the American economy, among other topics.
Also, Maria Boden was promoted to executive producer of The Exchange and Power Lunch and Marc Gilbert to executive producer of TechCheck, a program about opportunities and risks in the technology sector.
The National Association of Latino Independent Producers has launched a program for women of color filmmakers, a group that is heavily underrepresented in Hollywood.
The Latino Lens: Narrative Short Film Incubator for Women of Color will offer Latina and other women of color filmmakers the opportunity to create original short films in four months. It will provide production grants, training and other support from preproduction to completion of projects. Sponsored by Netflix, the program will select four U.S.-based directors and writers. Applications are now being accepted.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Netflix for our new program Latino Lens: Narrative Short Story Film Incubator for Women of Color to promote historically underrepresented voices,” says NALIP Projects Director Liliana Espinoza. “With both NALIP and Netflix being supporters of inclusive representation in the industry, we are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate and amplify intersectional narratives”.
Few women of color are among the top feature films and television projects in Hollywood, according to recent surveys. There were just 13 women of color among the directors of the 1,300 top movies from 2007 to 2019 reported the 2019 USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. “This is less than 1% of all directing jobs,” says the study, which notes that women of color account for more than 20 percent of the U.S. population. The vast majority of directors are white men. “The ratio of white male directors to underrepresented female directors was 92 to 1,” states the USC report.
Television also suffers from glaring disparity despite some recent progress. “While the shares of episodes directed by women and African Americans reached new highs, Latinos and women of color continued to be severely underrepresented despite their sizable and growing presence in the population,” stated the Directors Guild of America based on its latest Episodic Television Director Inclusion Report published in February. The study surveyed 4,300 episodes produced in the 2019-20 season.
The NALIP short film incubator for women of color aims at helping to reduce that gender and women disparity in Hollywood. It will also offer mentorship. The incubator will produce and feature four short narrative scripts, according to the nonprofit association.
The completed shorts will be showcased at NALIP’s Latino Media fest in October of this year during Latino Heritage Month. The incubator’s participants will also participate in other events of the producers’ group, including its annual Median Summit and Diverse Women in Media Forum.
“NALIP has long advocated for Latinx creators, and we’re excited to support their latest effort to identify and uplift stories told by Latinx women and women of color,” said Pete Corona, Netflix director of drama development. NALIP’s latest program is supported by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity, which reportedly plans to invest $100 million over the next five years in organizations working to improve the representation of minorities and women in the TV and film industries, as well as Netflix programs for up-and-coming talent worldwide. NALIP and Netflix have not disclosed the total funding amount for the new Narrative Short Film Incubator for Women of Color.
The deadline to submit applications for the new program is May 23. To get more information and apply, click here.
Featured Photo: Donald Tong from Pexels
The Culmination of NBCUniversal’s Emerging Director Program
By Bel Hernandez
Director Juan Avella is at the helm of tonight’s episode of NBC’s The Blacklist, the Primetime Emmy Award series starring Golden Globe-nominee James Spader and Megan Boone.
One of those unique dramas with longevity, The Blacklist is currently in its eighth season and it was recently announced that there will be a ninth. A big part of the show’s popularity is the cast, particularly Raymond “Red” Reddington, played by Spader. Reddington is an ex U.S. Navy officer turned high-profile criminal who now helps the FBI catch global criminals he once worked with.
Avella directed “The Russian Knot,” the 15th episode of the season. In this episode, the FBI Task Force hatches a plan to steal a Soviet-era cipher machine needed to decrypt coded messages. Reddington faces his most formidable enemy, Elizabeth Keen (Boone). Aligned with her mother, infamous Russian spy Katarina Rostova, Elizabeth must find out why Reddington has entered her life and what his endgame is.
For a young director to find himself directing such a high-profile show is not the norm. However, as part of NBCUniversal’s landmark Emerging Director Program, it is an opportunity given to every participant to break into episodic television directing.
As part of the preparation to direct, the emerging directors must “shadow” two episodes of the chosen TV show. This progress helps both the director and the cast and crew of the TV show get to know the young directors so when it is their turn to direct there is a sense of familiarity and trust.
In an exclusive interview for Latin Heat, Avella explained how getting to direct an episode of such an iconic and fan-loved show like The Blacklist would not have been possible without having been a part of the NBCUniversal’s Emerging Director Program.
“There is a lot of diversity programs out there that help, but this is pretty much one of the only ones that give you an episode [to direct], and that’s just huge,” Avella was happy to recount.
He holds a screenwriting MFA from the AFI Conservatory, where he won the William J. Fadiman Award for excellence in screenwriting for his crime feature Bolichicos. Such script was the recipient of the 2019 TFI Sloan Film Fund grant from the Tribeca Film Institute and was included in The Black List’s 2019 inaugural LatinX List.
Avella is excited to be on his way to emulating some of the directors who served as an inspiration to him as a young child and during his pursuit of a directing career. His recently adapted short film Hijo por Hijo has been optioned by Epic Pictures and Avella hopes to be soon directing his screenplay.
One can say that the opportunity to direct such a high-profile show is truly a testament to Venezuelan filmmaker’s ability as a director.
Avella is repped by The Gersh Agency.
Comedienne and actress Kiki Melendez will star in a new TV stand-up series to be filmed in English and Spanish in the Dominican Republic May 5.
The bilingual New York-born Melendez (Hot Tamales Live!/Showtime) will headline Broads Abroad and Reinas de la Risa, two shows—the first in English, the second in Spanish—that are part of a three multicultural, female-led series.
Slated to be held at Barceló Bávaro Grand Resort in the tourist town of Punta Cana, the shows will be produced by Latin Hollywood Films and Maverick Entertainment, with the latter also distributing. Melendez is co-creator and Sarkis Semerjyan (Kiki Mobile/FYI) executive produces.
Broads Abroad will showcase a trio of US comediennes, Vicki Barbolak (America’s Got Talent/NBC), Crystal Powell (AGT/NBC) and Melendez. The show will be hosted by actress Jessica Camacho (All Rise/CBS) and feature actor Rene Rosado (The Connors/ABC) as a special guest.
CARIBBEAN QUEENS
The other show, the Spanish-language Reinas de la Risa, will feature female comics from the Caribbean region including Cheddy García, Zulema Cruz, Jaquelio Estrella, Jinita Luciano and Melendez. Actor Anderson Mercedes (Botija) will host. Comedian and actor Jochy Jochy (Bemberé) will open with a repertoire of jokes and also serve as producer.
“With this series, I wanted to continue to give talented women a platform to reach audiences worldwide,” says Melendez, the co-creator and producer.
The series will include a show starring African American comediennes. Black Girl Magic will feature Brooklyn Jones, Alycia Cooper, Just Nesh, Kelly Kellz and Ashima Franklin, with the latter also hosting.
All three specials will be directed by Ramon Monchi Herrera (Locos por la Playa) and produced by Erica Barrabi and Julia Carias Linares. Also, Douglas Santiago, Thomas Echavarría and Armando Guareno will join as associate producers.
“In these specials, we are merging two genres—travel and comedy—to create a perfect entertainment mix for these trying times,” says Semerjyan, the executive producer, in an apparent reference to the COVID crisis. The production will follow international pandemic guidelines, according to the filmmakers.
WOMEN FRONT AND CENTER’
“Maverick Entertainment is proud to support women in comedy,” says Doug Schwab, president of Maverick Entertainment. “We look forward to releasing these stand-up specials showcasing multicultural women front and center.”
Maverick has worked with Melendez before, distributing the comedienne’s Hot Tamales Live! which she co-starred with Loni Love and Eva Longoria.
The three one-hour specials will be filmed back-to-back with an audience consisting of resort guests. The shows are expected to be ready for distribution in August, although it isn’t clear if they will be packaged together or separately.
Featured Photo: Kiki Melendez (Credit: Latin Hollywood Films)
The critically praised and fan-favorite FX original series Pose, starring MJ Rodriguez, will air its third and final season on May 2, 2021, with the previous seasons available on Netflix.
The series, about New York City’s African-American and Latino LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming drag ball culture of the 1980’s, was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals, who is a proud, openly queer Puerto Rican, and brings all that authenticity to the table.
In Pose, Rodriguez stars as Blanca Rodriguez, is an active member of the Black and Latinx LGBT+ drag ballroom culture of New York City. The series follows Rodriguez, her family, friends, and community from the 1980s to the early 1990s. Season 3 takes place in 1994 New York City, at the height of the Aids epidemic. During this hectic time of turmoil, we follow the cast as each deals with the impact of their personal achievements, struggles and the profound repercussions of AIDs.
Pose is a groundbreaking television program, as the first television program to feature the largest cast of transgender actors in recurring roles.
Rodriguez is an award-winning Afro-Puerto Rican transgender actress and singer, who emerged from live theatre.
By Justina Bonilla
— Featured Photo: Pari Dukovic/FX
By Justina Bonilla
In the last few years, audiences have made a substantial call for content from major and independent studios to include ethnic talent in front of and behind the camera. While there is a positive increase in Black talent and content such as Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Judas and the Black Messiah, representation for Latinos is greatly underrepresented.
In response to the persistent lack of Latinos directing film and TV projects, directors Alberto Belli (The House of Flowers), Joel Novoa (Arrow) and Diego Velasco (Orange Is the New Black) and Aurora Guerrero (Gentefied) took matters into their own hands. They created the online database Latinx Directors. Launched last summer, the website’s goal is to offer studios, agencies and others an easy-to-search online resource to find Latino directors for their projects.
Currently, the database lists over 200 talents organized in a dozen genres, from action, comedy and documentary to drama, live events and science fiction. Visitors can filter the roster by the length of experience in television and filmmakers’ participation in diversity programs.
Latinx Directors is a valuable tool needed in the entertainment industry to address the lack of Latino talent hired for films, streaming programs, television shows and commercials. Latinos represent 18.5 percent of the U.S. population.
The 2019 USC study Latinos in Film: Erasure On-Screen & Behind the Camera Across 1,200 Popular Movies found that only 4 percent of all directors were Latinos. The survey evaluated films released from 2007 through 2018. It was conducted by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, National Association of Latino Independent Producers and Wise Entertainment.
Among the talent featured in Latinx Director’s database are the TV directors/showrunners Tanya Saracho (Vida) and Gloria Calderon Kellet (One Day at a Time), as well as film director Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead 2013 and Don’t Breathe).
In our exclusive interview with Velasco, he shares the development of Latinx Directors, their current goals, and hopes for the future.
JUSTINA BONILLA: What was the genesis of Latinx Directors?
DIEGO VELASCO: We’re all directors and part of the Latino Committee at DGA [Directors Guild of America]. We were all separate, [but] hearing, “Oh, I’m looking for a Latin director, but I just don’t know where there’s any.” There are all these shows that have Latin characters and Latin stories, but it was just white guys directing it.
My wife is a writer, and she did [a list], called the Untitled Latinx Project, which is a bunch of female writers who got together and started creating a list to share names. Anytime they would have meetings with executives and studios, they would hear about projects and [asked if they] could send them the list. And [the executives would ask], “You mean you want to send a list of people competing for your job?” They wanted it to go to a Latinx person. [They’d] rather it go to one of us. If [they] don’t get it, then give it to someone whose [on the list].
I thought that was really inspiring. We should be doing the same as directors. We’ll have one place where these producers have a place to find Latinx directors.
JB: How do you qualify to be a part of Latinx Directors?
DV: [Potential members] have to have qualifications to be accepted. They have directed a feature that has been in a recognized in a festival; we have a list of festivals. Or, you have to have done a television episode that is streaming or on a network.
We want to help everyone and be able to lift everyone. But at the same time, we can’t put somebody in a situation that they might not be ready for. We set standards, so if any one of them gets hired, we feel confident that they can do a great job.
JB: How does your database work?
DV: You can [use] filters. We have self-identification, LGBT, or you can do cultural identity or heritage. And you can combine all the ones you want. Plus, you can do film experience, TV experience, union, or not union. It’s the only searchable database for Latinx directors that allows you to do all those things.
JB: What is the overall goal for Latinx Directors?
DV: Our motto is, “No more stories about us without us.” And then, don’t box us into just one category. There are Latinx directors that are incredible in genre, incredible in sci-fi. Just because you are Mexican or your Salvadorian doesn’t mean you can’t [direct] Star Wars.
We just want to be authentic to our culture and to share our unique points of view.
JB: Apart from promoting Latinx Directors, what is your key aspiration?
Velasco: If people who are not familiar with Latin culture, to not fear it. It’s okay to not know all the answers. It’s okay to be intimidated by it. But, if they give themselves a chance to work with Latinx directors, you might be surprised that everybody who is on that list wants to go above and beyond and wants to do the best job they can. So, you really get a level of commitment that I would encourage everybody to try.
As the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, Nina Garcia may be one of the most powerful women in the fashion world. She is also the longest-running judge on Bravo’s TV competition series Project Runway. This year Garcia is set to add another season to her record on the Emmy Award-winning show.
The Colombian-American fashion journalist is confirmed to return as a judge for Project Runway’s 19th season, to be produced this spring in New York City.
Garcia has been judging on the show since it launched in 2004. She also served as a consulting producer two years ago.
Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, Garcia moved to the United States at age 15. She studied at Boston University, Paris’ École Supérieure de la Mode and New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, earning a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising from the latter in 1992.
Her entry into the fashion industry was in the first half of the ‘80s, working in public relations for Perry Ellis and its then-designer Marc Jacobs. She later joined the publishing world, working for magazines such as Mirabella and Marie Claire. Garcia has been at the helm of Elle since 2017, where she had held other editorial positions in the 2000s.
Her fashion credentials have led Garcia to be a style expert in TV shows like Today, Good Morning America, The View and CNN, as well as a celebrity red carpet correspondent for ABC’s Oscar telecast. She has been featured in other shows like Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy and Ugly Betty.
Throughout her career, Garcia has been the recipient of various prizes, including the Fashion Group International’s Oracle Award, the Hispanic Federation’s Individual Achievement Award, the Oliver Scholars’ Program Champion of Educational Excellence Award and The Daily’s Magazine of the Year Award.
In Project Runway, Garcia will be joined by fellow judges Brandon Maxwell, Elaine Welteroth and Christian Siriano, who also serves as executive producer. Supermodel Karlie Kloss will make guest appearances.Project Runway is produced by Alfred Street Industries and Spyglass Media Group. Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz, Nan Strait, Dan Volpe and Meri Haitkin serve as executive producers for Alfred Street Industries. Fremantle distributes the show worldwide.
Also Catch Her In Her One Woman Comedy Show Anyone But Me at www.iamatheatre.com Until April 25
By Julio Martinez
Writer/performer Sheila Carrasco is happily immersed in live theater and shooting the CBS Ghosts, a comedy pilot starring Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar, and written by Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, for Lionsgate Television, BBC Studios and CBS Studios. This while her solo comedy, Anyone But Me, continues its virtual run at iamatheatre.com.
Ghosts follows a struggling young couple, Samantha (McIver) and Jay (Ambudkar). Their dreams come true when they inherit a beautiful country house, only to find it’s both falling apart and inhabited by many of the previous deceased residents.
“Rose and Utjarsh play an energetic, positive couple whom you really want to root for, and I play one of the deceased permanent residents,” Carrasco remarks drolly. The show is based on a series that’s currently very popular on the BBC in England. “When I first read for the script, I started watching the British series, and I fell in love with it. All the ghosts died on the property in the last thousand years. It has a really fun Bill and Ted meets Beetlejuice vibe.”
Carrasco plays Flower, a 1960s flower child, who died on the property in the late 60s while attending a music festival on the property, as she explains, “She wandered around the property, tripping on acid, and was attacked by a bear she was trying to befriend.”
Aside from Carrasco, the series co-stars Rebecca Wisocky, Brandon Scott Jones, Danielle Pinnock, Asher Grodman, Richie Moriarty and Román Zaragoza. “They are tremendous comedic actors, and yes, they are the other ghosts, American characters from the past,” Carrasco exclaims. “Another of the series regulars, Román, is Latino. His mother is Taiwanese/American. His father is a mix of Mexican/American and Native/American (Teema Tribe). He plays a Native American character from the 16th century, which is really cool”.
The Ghosts pilot was greenlit last February but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, which was shot in December.
“I am pretty sure Ghosts will start airing in the Fall,” says Carrasco. “We have to shoot the rest of the season. We still have to find out when we’re shooting it, where we’re shooting, how many episodes. I am thinking it will premiere in October, but I am really guessing. It is all TBD. The only thing I am sure about is my costume. All the ghosts are in the attire they were wearing when they died.”
While Carrasco is waiting to get in front of the camera, she is determined to write a new play. She muses, “I don’t think this will be a solo show, though. I actually want to write a large Latino ensemble, kitchen sink kind of play. I don’t believe we have enough of those. I want to write my version of it. And of course, I want to write for television. I’ve always enjoyed writing TV scripts and pilots. I want to take advantage of every opportunity I have. I think I am going to take some time to just think about some things. But what is lovely right now is I have some options.”
For now, you can see Carrasco in her virtually solo comedy, Anyone But Me, which she wrote and performs. It was filmed live at L.A.’s Pico Playhouse, directed by Margaux Susi, and you can see it at www.iamatheatre.com, continuing through April 25. “The play deals with eight different women. They’re based on ladies I’ve known, and there’s a little of me in each of the characters,” Carrasco says. “Anyone But Me is an exploration of all my different alter egos and the insecurities I’ve had in my life.”
Carrasco also has Native American roots but from South America. Half Chilean/Mapuche Tribe, she is originally from the South Side of Chicago and an alumna of NYU. She was selected to perform as one of the JFL New Faces of Comedy CBS Showcase (as both a performer and head writer). She has performed with the Groundlings, American Repertory Theatre, Moscow Art Theatre, Steppenwolf Garage and Chicago’s Court Theatre. Carrasco is a creator for Más Mejor, Broadway Video’s premium comedy studio for Latinx voices.
On TV, she’s been seen in I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, The Good Place, Jane the Virgin, Outmatched, The Odd Couple, Life in Pieces, American Housewife and #VanLife for NBC/Universal.
— Featured Photo: Sela Shiloni
The continuation of Netflix’s Selena: The Series Part 2 is almost here! In Part 2 we find Selena Quintanilla on the brink of stardom. Viewers will journey through the Tejano music world as her label pushes her to leave Los Dinos behind as she prepares to make the big crossover.
Throughout the next nine episodes, fans will see a more independent Selena, played by Christian Serratos, and get a closer look into her wedding with Chris Perez, played by Jesse Posey. The trailer reveals that although Selena wants to be independent, she will always need her family.
“Learning how to handle her newfound success, Selena struggles to balance, family, love and a burgeoning career,” Netflix shared. “Part 2 of Selena: The Series chronicles the years of hard work and sacrifice the Quintanilla family navigate together as she becomes the most successful female Latin artist of all time.”
Though we know the tragic end to Selena’s life, the series will highlight the impact she made on her family, friends and fans.
“I just want to be remembered as somebody who gave it her all,” the trailer teases Selena’s own words.
Part 2 the two-part series premieres on May 4, 2021. The series stars Serratos in the titular role, Gabriel Chavarria, Ricardo Chavira, Noemiì Gonzalez, Seidy López, Posey, Julio Macias and Natasha Perez as Yolanda Saldivar.
Selena: The Series will be available on Netflix
— Featured Photo: Netflix
