The action series Professionals, co-starring Elena Anaya, has found a home at The CW. The network acquired the show’s U.S. distribution rights. The series, also starring Tom Welling of Parkland and Brendan Fraser of The Mummy, was produced by Most Media. A premiere date is yet to be announced.

Palencia, Spain-born Anaya plays a visionary doctor who is engaged to a billionaire futurist. When the couple’s advanced medical satellite explodes on deployment, they hire a hardened former counterintelligence officer to investigate possible sabotage. The fate of the world is also in the balance as a potential global catastrophe threatens humanity. Soon it becomes clear that the rocket disaster is the work of corporate rivals, corrupt government officials and a shadowy crime syndicate.  

Anaya is also an executive producer of the series as are fellow co-stars Welling and Fraser.

A co-production of Ireland and South Africa, Professionals was shot in locations in both countries. The ensemble cast also features Saïd Taghmaoui (John Wick 3), Ken Duken (Inglourious Basterds), Lisa Loven Kongsli (Force Majeure), August Wittgenstein (The Crown), Stevel Marc (The Mauritanian), Tanya Van Graan (Raised by Wolves) and Nic Rasenti (Outlander).

Anaya is an award-winning actress best known for her leading role in La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I Live In), an acclaimed film by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar that won two awards at Cannes. The film also earned Anaya the Goya Award, Spain’s top film prize that is considered that nation’s equivalent of the Oscar. Anaya’s other notable credits include Room in Rome and Todos Están Muertos, for which she received additional Goya noms.

Along with her career in Spain, Anaya has made inroads in Hollywood with appearances in popular films. She was as Aleera, one of Dracula’s brides in the 2004 horror action film Van Helsing and Doctor Poison in the superhero blockbuster Wonder Woman.

Most recently, the Spanish actress appeared in Woody Allen’s 2020 comedy Rifkin’s Festival. Other Hollywood credits include the Cinemax series Jett and the BBC miniseries MotherFatherSon.

Professionals is a production of Most Media, Subotica, Spier Films and Roadside Attractions in association with Jeff Most Productions, Leonine Studios, Nent Group and The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. The series was created by Jeff Most (The Crow, The Specialist) and Michael Colleary (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) both of whom serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. Other exec producers include Tristan Orpen Lynch, Michael Auret, Howard Cohen, Eric d’Arbeloff, Jennifer Berman, Maijang Mpherwane, Dipak Chiba, William Smith, Herbert Kloiber, Thomas Augsberger, Cosima von Spreti, Fredrik Ljungberg, Maxim Korostyshevsky, Daniel Wagner and Bharat Nalluri. 

The producers are Katy Most, Lwazi Manzi and Aoife O’Sullivan. The series is distributed by Rainmaker Content for Leonine Studios.

Featured Photo: Professionals (Credit: CW)

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For the second time in her career, Victoria Cartagena will play heroine Renee Montoya, a popular character from the CW’s live-action Arrowverse franchise. The actress will reprise the role of the crime fighter in the upcoming season of Batwoman.

“I guess #Reneemontoya and I have some unfinished business,” she tweeted after her casting was official. “So very excited to join this new group of talented artists, writers & crew who are doing their thing over here! They have welcomed me wholeheartedly! Grateful, humbled, hype AF… #batwoman #fullcircle.”

The “unfinished business” may refer to Cartagena’s previous incarnation of Montoya on the sister series Gotham, where the heroine made her live-action debut after years of mainly living in the DC Comics books since her creation in 1992.

Cartagena is another welcome addition of a BIOPC actor to a diversifying cast that features the first Black Batwoman in the history of DC comics in the previous season when Javicia Leslie took on the series’ lead after Ruby Rose left the show. 

The cast also includes Camrus Johnson, Rachel Skarsten, Meagan Tandy, Nicole Kang, Dougray Scott, Rachel Maddow, Sam Littlefield, Allison Riley, Christina Wolfe, and Nathan Owens. Cartagena is the first main cast member of a Spanish surname in a major role on the CW’s Batwoman. The show is executive produced by Caroline Dries, who is also the creator and showrunner and a writer.

The “Batfamily” members have rolled out the welcome mat to the Phillapdelphia-born newcomer actress.

“Soooo excited that @VickiCartagena is joining our Bat-family!!!,” posted Leslie the Batwoman on Twitter. “Welcome, Vicki!!”

“How dope is this,” tweeted Johnson, who plays Luke Fox/Batwing. “Welcome to the Batfam, Vic. Gotham’s missed ya.”

Cartagena played detective Montoya in the first season of Gotham back in 2014 but was largely absent in that series’s subsequent seasons. Reportedly, Batwoman’s Montoya is a new version, presented as an ex-police officer who fights crime on her own in the company of other misfits.

In between the two Montoyas, the actress appeared in episodes of the series The Path, Jessica Jones, Deception, You and Manifest and a minor role in 21 Bridges, the crime drama starring the late Chadwick Boseman. Most recently she landed a main role in the series Almost Family and a few episodes of Servant.

Featured Photo: Victoria Cartagena as Renee Montoya in ‘Gotham’ (Credit: CW)

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Alexandra “Alex” Meneses, has forged an impressive career on stage, television and film, and is now recurring on the CW’s Walker, a reboot of the long-running 90s series, Walker, Texas Ranger. “I play the mother of Lindsey Morgan, who plays Micki Ramirez, series lead Cordell Walker’s (Jared Padalecki) new partner in the Texas Rangers,” says Meneses. 

The actress, who was first embraced by audiences playing Teresa Morales in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, is now enjoying the opportunity to be playing a doctor herself. “My character, Dr. Adriana Ramirez, is a psychologist who works for the police, proofing the actions of its officers,” and she goes on to explain. “The Rangers have been portrayed as being historically anti-Mexican, and that is a big problem for Micki and Adriana, who are trying to change that image. Adriana originally goes after Cordell when he is charged with brutality while working the case, and, of course, that is a problem for her daughter, Micki. There are challenges Micki and Adriana we are working through in their mother/daughter relationship.”

Chicago born, Meneses became interested in acting while still attending high school, enrolling in Chicago’s famed Second City Improv theater program. Soon after she landed a modeling contract and moved to Europe. Upon her return to the U.S., Meneses moved to Los Angeles to attend the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute to hone her acting skills. Her efforts were rewarded, when she was cast as a regular on the Showtime comedy series Sherman Oaks, followed by her stint on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Meneses has also done live theater in Los Angeles. She worked at the Geffen Playhouse, where she received acclaim for her role as Julia in the production of Oscar and Felix, an adapted revival of The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. “But after I had my daughter, I really couldn’t take the time to do live theater. I also stopped accepting film and television assignments that would take me away from home. This is the first year I have accepted work out of town.”

“I don’t want to be only an actor,”  Meneses tells us.  As president of her own production company, Alex produced the Sundance Channel hit documentary Damned To Heaven, a look at life inside the FLDS (Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints) of Colorado City, Arizona. She also executive produced Australians Hit Hollywood, an honest look at Australians and New Zealanders who have turned themselves into prominent players in the Hollywood entertainment scenes.

Meneses is also adding writing and producing to her list of accomplishments. “At the moment, I am producing a TV show [that] is in development called Arena. That’s taking up a lot of my time, too,” she told us, adding. “I want to put [projects] out there that I believe in, producing and writing is a great way of doing that.”

She was also in production on a project with Eva Longoria, who she worked with in the NBC series Telenovela. That project is still under wraps. “I can’t talk about it, but it is very close to my heart because it is about my parents.”

For now, Meneses is looking forward to returning to Austin, Texas to work on another episode of Walker. “They closed down for a month because of that cold snap they had down there. But the show has been picked up for another season, shooting nine more episodes,” Meneses tells us. “I believe there will be 19 episodes in all. Here’s hoping we are as successful as the original series.”  

Alex Menses (Credit: Anderson Group PR/Vince Trupsin)

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Erik Valdez and Inde Navarrete are part of the cast of the new CW Network series Superman & Lois, slated to have a two-hour premiere on Feb. 21.

The series follows the world’s most famous superhero and the renowned female journalist of The Daily Planet as they deal with the biggest challenges they will ever face: parenthood. Superman/Clark Kent is played by Tyler Hoechlin (Teen Wolf)  and Lois Lane by Elizabeth Tulloch (Grimm). The couple is raising two boys, who might inherit their father’s superpowers.

Kent and Lane return to Smallville to deal with family matters. Valdez (Graceland) plays the town’s fire chief and Navarrete (Wander Darkly) the fireman’s rebellious daughter Sarah, who is reacquainting with Superman’s sons. It has to be noted the chief’s wife is Lana Lang, played by Emmanuelle Chriqui (Entourage), Kent’s first love.

Valdez, a Texan born in Lubbock and raised in El Paso, is the grandson of a cotton farmer and an artistic, free spirited mother, according to his bio on IMDb.  He had a recurring role in Gilmore Girls, and worked on some of the top television shows, including The O.C., CSI: Miami, and Numb3rs. However, his major break was in General Hospital, in which he played a character named Trey Mitchell, the son of a mobster, from 2012 to 2013.  It earned him an NAACP Image Award nomination. He followed that with a recurring role in Graceland as Carlito Solano Jr. for two seasons.

For her part, Navarrete is a native of California’s coastal city of Redondo Beach. Her mother is Australian and her father Latino. She is best known for playing Estela de la Cruz in the Netflix teen series 13 Reasons Why. Her first major role was Veronica in the TV series Denton’s Death Date. She also appeared in the drama feature Wander Darkly alongside Diego Luna and Sienna Miller.

Superman & Lois is based on the characters from DC created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series is developed by Greg Berlanti and Todd Helbing, who serve as executive producers with Sarah Schechter and Geoff Johns. Helbing wrote the teleplay for the first episode, based on a story by Berlanti and Helbing. Lee Toland Krieger executive produced and directed the first episode. The series is produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

—Cesar Arredondo

Featured Photo: Self Erik Valdez and Inde Navarrete

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With diversity and inclusion now on the radar of broadcast television network executives, advertisers and viewing audiences,  programming that is reflective of American society seems to be what broadcast TV executives had in mind when ordering their 2019/20 pilots for this season.

With the success of shows like the CW’s Jane the Virgin, NBC’s Superstore (America Ferrera), and integrating of Latino leads in shows like FOX’s (Now on NBC) Brooklyn Nine Nine (Stephanie Beatriz and Melissa Fumero), the word is out that hiring Latinos is good for business.

In addition, the casting of Latino actors in non-traditional roles, as fully developed characters that are part of the American scene, is an idea that has been a long time in coming and is reflected well in the following pilots.

This pilot season Latino actors are snagging more lead roles in more high profile pilots and TV Show spin-offs.

Smits Returns Leads in NBC’s Bluff City Law

Emmy award-winning actor Jimmy Smits returns to series television starring as Memphis lawyer Elijah Strait who along with his daughter Sydney Keller (Caitlin McGee) specializes in civil rights cases in the NBC one hour legal drama pilot Bluff City Law.  

Michael Aguilar serves as Executive producer of Bay City Law along with creator and executive producer Dean Georgans and David Janollari.

Smits whose TV career was launched when he starred for as Victor Sifuentes on LA Law has had an impressive television career with other TV show including  NYPD Blue and The West Wing, where he played Matthew Vincente Santos, the first Latino to become president of the U.S.  His film roles include Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Smits is repped by Sarah Clossey at the United Talent Agency

The “Virgin” Lives On At the CW

Jacqueline Grace Lopez (East Los High) has been cast as the lead of the new CW’s Jane The Virgin spinoff pilot show entitled Jane the Novela written by Valentina Garza and to be directed by Brad Silberling. The one-hour anthology series will be executive produced by Jane The Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman, Ben Silverman and Gina Rodriguez.

Continuing the “telenovela” them Jane the Novela each season will be based on a different “novela” written by Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez’s character in Jane the Virgin)

The pilot episode of Jane the Novela takes place in the Napa Valley where Jane (Lopez), following in the “novela” tradition is a young twenty-something who is torn between her boyfriend and a handsome rich guy.   

Lopez honed her acting chops on Hulu’s East Los High, a web series created by Carlos Portugal which gave much of the young Latino talent you see now booking leads roles, their first opportunity.  Lopez is repped by Kevin Turner at Daniel Hoff Agency, Matt Rosen at SGSBC, and Commercial Talent Agency.

Jane the Virgin Spinoff for Jaime Camil

CBS has added a late pilot order for the multi-camera comedy which will star and be executive produced by actor Jaime Camil who is currently seen as Rogelio in the CW’s Jane the Virgin. Alex Herschlag (Will & Grace), is the writer

Produced by Jennie Snyder Urman’s (Jane the Virgin) Sutton Street Productions and Ben Silverman Propagate, the executive producing team also includes Herschlag, Guillermo Restrepo, Gonzalo Cilley and Maria Lucia Hernandez Frieri.

The comedy series will revolve around a wealthy trust-fund couple whose money pipeline is cut off by the father. The couple is then relegated to living with an estranged sister in her condo in Reseda, California.  

Camil is represented by Christine Holder of Zero Gravity Management.

E.J. Bonilla Leads in Until The Wedding

E. J. Bonilla, who played the wisecracking Detective Danny Padilla on the final season of A&E’s Unforgettable is set as the male lead opposite Olivia Thrilby in ABC’s Until The Wedding, a one hour romantic drama pilot based on an Israeli TV show format. Until The Wedding will explore the intimate relationships of a group of friends and family as Adrienne (Thrilby) and Danny (Bonilla) are forced to reckon with their own romantic lives and careers. Becky Mode wrote the pilot and producers are Sarah Timberman Carl Beverly and Alon Aranya.  Bonilla will be seen in the upcoming New Line / DC/Vertigo crime comic series film, The Kitchen with Melissa McCarthy.

Bonilla is repped by Jaime Misher at Innovative Artist

Velez Back on New York Undercover

Luna Lauren Velez will reprise her role as Detective Nina Moreno in a new ABC reboot pilot of the Dick Wolf’s original 1990’s New York cop drama series New York Undercover where she starred alongside Michael de Lorenzo and Malik Yorba.  New York Undercover broke new ground in the 90’s as the first police drama on U.S. television to feature two American Latinos and an African-American in starring roles. Wolf serves as producer along with Universal TV and ABC Studios.

Velez’s most recently voiced the role of Miles Morales’s mother in the Oscar winning animated feature, Spider Man: Into The Spider Verse. Velez has extensive film and television including seven seasons on Showtime’s hit show Dexter.

Velez is repped by Estelle Lasher of the Lasher Group out of New York

Gomez & Vidal  on ABC’s The Baker and The Beauty

Carlos Gomez (Law & Order: True Crime The Menendez Murders) and Lisa Vidal (Being Mary Jane) will join Dan Bucatinsky (Second Act) as series regulars in the ABC comedy pilot The Baker and The Beauty.  Set in Miami, the romantic comedy is the story of a young Cuban-American baker Danny Garcia (Bucatinsky), who falls in love with an international superstar. Gomez portrays the family patriarch and owner of the bakery along with his wife Mari played by Vidal and a young daughter played by newcomer Belissa Escobedo.  The young actress is an alumnus of the ABC Discover Showcase that promotes diverse young talent. The series adaptation is from Dean Georgaris and Dave Frankel.

For all the new shows, there is the hurdle of being picked up for a full season.  It is hoped that these television shows and their casts fill out the fall 2019 Network Broadcast schedules and make it as successful long running series.

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