“I am thrilled to welcome these two exceptionally qualified media experts to the Telemundo team,” said Peter Blacker, EVP, Chief Commercial Officer, and Head of DTC Licensing. “Ezequiel and Malu each bring a unique and deep set of media expertise in Spanish and English, which will help us expand the formats and multilingual experiences across AVOD, SVOD, and DTC platforms that Telemundo has pioneered for over ten years in the US and across the globe.”

Fonseca Zas will be responsible for growing and fostering Telemundo Enterprises’ content monetization and distribution strategies, in close coordination with Telemundo’s Content Owners (Entertainment, Global Studios, Sports and News) as well as NBCUniversal Distribution and Licensing teams. He will also oversee sourcing and development of future large-scale revenue-generating projects across the business, taking advantage of the transformation of the U.S. and global media markets.

Carmona-Botana will be responsible for strategic planning and managing key partnerships including development, implementation, and short to long-term growth strategies. Carmona-Botana will also work closely with the content teams to align the network content strategies and NBCUniversal’s Peacock team in order to increase the company’s income across all platforms.

Fonseca Zas has held several leadership roles overseeing emerging businesses, multiplatform and digital strategies. As General Manager of Streaming Platforms and Senior Vice President of Mobile Partnerships, Fonseca Zas led the international streaming/OTT strategy and business plans for AVOD (Pluto TV) and SVOD platforms (Paramount+ & Noggin). Prior to that, Fonseca was at La Nación newspaper in Argentina for over a decade, where he held multiple positions in the company’s marketing, branding and digital divisions.

Carmona-Botana has worked all around the world including Gedeth in Shanghai, Zebra Producciones in Madrid, Televisa in Mexico City and Viacom in New York. She joins the Telemundo team from A+E Networks, where she was previously Director of Content Distribution Strategy where she provided strategic support to the President of Distribution.

— Latin Heat Media Services

The post Telemundo Expands Leadership Team first appeared on .

Actress Terri Hoyos was born in Los Angeles, CA on January 18. She is the daughter of Mexican actor Rodolfo Hoyos Jr. (Charlie’s Angels, Chico and the Man), and granddaughter of actor Rodolfo Hoyos. She began her career in Hollywood as a make-up artist working on several TV shows.  Later she studied acting at Los Angeles City College 

Hoyos made her screen debut in 1984, with a small part in Crimes of Passion.  She went on to do guest-starring roles on television shows that included: Hill Street Blues, Gimme a Break!, Cheers, ER, Dharma & Greg, Frasier, NYPD Blue, Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family. From 2009-2010 she was a recurring character in the CBS police procedural Cold Case. 

In 2003 she landed her first series regular role in the Fox sitcom The Ortegas. A family sitcom that in addition to Hoyos starred, in addition to Hoyos, Al Madrigal, Cheek Marin, and Renee Victor. Unfortunately, the series was canceled before its debut. 

In 2014, she was cast as the mother in the ABC comedy series Cristela starting stand-up comedienne Cristela Alonzo.   
Most recently, in 2020, Hoyos appeared as Victor’s grandma in Hulu series Love, Victor in which Michael Cimino plays the title role of half-Puerto Rican, half-Colombian-American teenager. Season two of the series is expected to begin airing Summer of 2021.

Featured Photo: Cristela/ABC

— Latin Heat News Service

The post Happy Birthday To Actress Terri Hoyos! first appeared on .

Freddy Rodriguez was born January 17, 1975 in Chicago, Illinois to Puerto Rican parents.  At 13, Freddy discovered a theater program for inner-city youth, which led to a scholarship to the Pulaski International School of Chicago.   He moved into the Hollywood limelight playing Federico Diaz on HBO’s Six Feet Under which ran for five years.  For this role, he received two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series, and an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

His first leading role in a major film was in David Ayer’s Harsh Times in which he starred alongside Christian Bale and Eva Longoria.

He is also known for playing El Wray in Robert Rodriguez’s  Planet Terror, in the double-feature film, Grindhouse.  He has worked on several movies with Latino actors and/or filmmakers: A Walk in the Clouds directed by Alfonso Arau; alongside Roselyn Sanchez Chasing Papi (directed by Linda Mendoza); a music video for the Santana song Into the Night; a cameo in Fergie’s music video for the song Glamorous; and in Nothing Like the Holidays directed by  Alfredo Rodriguez de Villa, starring alongside John Leguizamo, Elizabeth Pena, Luis Guzman, and Jay Hernandez (Magnum PI)

Other film credits include the film Poseidon and M. Night Shyamalan’s film Lady in the Water. On TV Rodriguez starred for three years as Giovanni Rossi in Ugly Betty; and Dr. Michael Ragosa in two seasons of NBC’s The Night Shift (2014–15).  From 2003- 2004 he played Carla Espinoza’s (Judy Reyes) brother in Scrubs. 

Since 2016 Rodriguez has been starring in CBS’s crime drama Bull.

Featured Photo of Bull: CBS

— Latin Heat News Service

The post Happy Birthday to Actor Freddy Rodriguez! first appeared on .

Celebrating a birthday today is rapper, singer, songwriter, and philanthropist Armando Christian Pérez AKA PitBull.  He was born in Miami on January 15, 1981, and began his career recording reggaeton, Latin hip hop, and crunk music, eventually rebranding himself as a pop artist. Now he has been immortalized with a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.

Pitbull has sold over 7.5 million studio albums and over 100 million singles worldwide.  As of May 2020, he has over 15 billion views on YouTube. He was ranked by Billboard as the 45th Top Artist of the 2010s and the 24th Top Latin Artist of the 2010s. As of May 2019, Pitbull had won 35 Billboard Latin Music Awards and has received Grammy Awards, Latin Grammy Awards, Nickelodeon, Premio Lo Nuestro, IHeart Radio Award among many others.

Pitbull’s Planet Pit album is the most commercially successful album to date, according to Wikipedia.

The immensity of his work is breathtaking having released music in both Spanish and English throughout his career.  He has performed to support causes bringing awareness to issues like Global Warming, Feeding America, COVID 19, Hurricane Maria, and others.  He has performed alongside and/or collaborated with some of the most well-known recording artists and celebrities around the world including Britany Spears, John Travolta Blake Shelton, Jennifer Lopez,  Priyanka Chopra, Flo Rida, Jessica Mauboy, Belinda, Jason Derulo, and Gloria Estefan, Janet Jackson, Pharrell Williams, Christina Aguilera, Cypress Hill, Paulina Rubio, and so many more

He is determined to help the Latino community. Pitbull’s social impact focus for the last decade has been closing the poverty gap through educational initiatives. During Hurricane Maria, Pitbull used his private plane to bring cancer patients from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States for treatment.

Pitbull also donated all proceeds from song sales, streaming, and views to Feeding America and the Anthony Robbins Foundation from the single titled I Believe That We Will Win (World Anthem) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On December 31, 2020, Pitbull performed for a crowd of first responders in Times Square adhering to the COVID-19 pandemic guideline for the famous New Year’s Eve celebration.

— Latin Heat News Service

The post Happy Birthday To Music Powerhouse Pitbull first appeared on .

They quickly rose to fame with the recording of the 2000 album Los Reyes del Nuevo Milenio. They later made the jump to a major label in 2003 with Mi Vida… My Life. De Nuevos a Viejos (2001), Mi Vida… My Life (2003) and De Otra Manera (2004), all of which were certified gold. The duo went on to receive the Tu Música Award for Best Rap/Reggaeton Duo in 2002.

In 2013, after their Líderes tour, Winsin and Yandel each went their separate ways.  Yandel’s solo studio album after the split, De Líder a Leyenda, was released in November 2013, which was certified Gold (Latin) by the RIAA in 2014.  

But after five years of being on their own, they reunited in February 2018, and four months later they did their first U.S. concert at Madison Square Garden. 

In May 2018, they did a concert at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in Puerto Rico selling out the show quickly and resulting in adding more shows, totaling 8 back-to-back shows at this venue. 

Later that year they released Reggaetón En Lo Oscuro the lead single from their upcoming tenth studio album Los Campeones del Pueblo / The Big Leagues, which features collaborations with many artists including Ozuna, Maluma, and Bad Bunny.

Back on track, Yandel continues to make beautiful reggaeton music again with Winsin.

— Latin Heat News Service

The post Happy Birthday to Singer/Producer Yandel! first appeared on .

Michael Pena was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 13,1976 to parents who are originally from Mexico.  Pena’s breakout film role was Daniel in the film Crash directed by Paul Haggis.  Other notable performances include End of Watch, directed by David Ayer and worked alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.

After high school Pena went to an open casting call for Peter Bogdanovich feature To Sir, with Love II (1996), and beat out hundreds of other young men for a role. He then moved to Los Angeles and booked several small roles in films like Star Maps, My Fellow Americans working along  Jack Lemmon and James Garner), and the Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer feature Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). 

He appeared in 5 movies nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award – Million Dollar Baby, Crash, Babel, American Hustle, and The Martian – with the first two movies winning.

Peña has said in interviews that in every film he’s cast in, he asks the writers to include a reference to his character being Mexican-American because, he says, he gets to mainly play characters who are not stereotypes & clichés, and that it is a source of pride to Mexican-American fans who go to his films to see him playing non-stereotypical roles

He recently played DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in Netflix TV series Narcos: Mexico; and Dr. Roarke in Columbia Pictures Fantasy Island. 

Pena will next star in the sci-fi epic film Moonfall where he plays Tom Lopez, a wealthy car dealer.  The film is to be directed by Roland Emmerich.

Featured Photo: Wiki Commons

— Latin Heat News Service

The post Happy Birthday Michael Pena! first appeared on .

Arau’s first film appearance in his native Mexico was in 1954 as an uncredited dancer.  By 1973, he acted in and directed the humorous political critique film Calzónzin Inspector, aimed squarely at the then Mexican ruling party, the PRI.

By the 60’s he was already one of the very first “crossovers” talents working in U.S. big-budget films both as an actor as well as a director.  He was cast in Sam Peckinpah’s classic western The Wild Bunch; He starred alongside Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone and played “El Guapo” in Three Amigos starring alongside Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short.

In 1995 he directed  Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn the 20th Century Fox film A Walk in the Clouds, and in 2003 he directed A Painted House, a TV film adapted from John Grisham’s novel. 

In December 2004, the Santa Fe Film Festival honored Arau for his work in cinema. He recently did the voice of Papa Julio in Disney’s Coco and has two projects in development.

Featured Photo: Subject Courtesy

— Latin Heat New Service

The post Happy Birthday To Actor/Director Alfonso Arau first appeared on .

In addition to reprising his role in two more of The Twilight Saga (Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) Meraz’s film credits also include Suicide Squad and Bright where he worked alongside Will Smith and Edgar Ramirez. He also starred in the latest season of CSI: New York and A&E’s The Glades, among others. 

Meraz identifies as “Purepecha” and indigenous people from the Mexican state of Michoacan. He started off as a breakdancer going by the name of “Nomak” and is versed in indigenous and contemporary dance  He attended the New School of the Arts and is an avid painter and illustrator. He was named one of the 55 faces of the future by Nylon Magazine.

His feature film Bad Dad, which he wrote, directed, produced, and stars in, about a struggling single dad who discovers his six-year-old son suffers from an eye condition that leads to blindness, is currently awaiting a release.

— Latin Heat News Service

The post Happy Birthday Alex Meraz! first appeared on .

Joan Baez is considered the “most accomplished interpretive folk singer/songwriter of the 1960s”. She was born in Staten Island, New York to a Mexican father Albert Baez, and her mother Joan Chandos Baez who was from Edinburgh, Scotland.  She is revered as a singer, songwriter, musician, and activist.  Her father, a professor at MIT moved the family a lot, but mostly she grew up in the San Francisco area and Boston, Massachusetts. 

She began recording in 1960 and was an instant success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2, and Joan Baez in Concert, all achieved gold record status. In 1969 Baez was one performer at the Woodstock Festival. 

In the 60s she recorded fourteen records with Vanguard, thirteen made the top 100 on Billboard’s mainstream pop chart, eleven made the top forty, and eight made the top twenty, while four made the top ten. 

From early on Baez emerged at the forefront of the American roots revival, where she introduced her audiences to the then-unknown Bob Dylan and was emulated by artists such as Judy Collins, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, and Bonnie Raitt. On November 23, 1962, Baez appeared on the cover of Time Magazine—a rare honor then for a musician. 

Baez has always been committed to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights, and the environment and her song reflected that. Her social activism was influenced by Pete Seeger, Odetta Holmes, and decades-long friend Harry Belafonte.  She was friends and a major supporter of Martin Luther King and his civil rights movement. 

Through her music, she has advocated throughout her career for civil rights, the end of the Vietnam war, the environment, LGBTQ, and was instrumental in founding the USA section of Amnesty International in the 1970s.  In 1987 she traveled to the Middle East to visit with and sing songs of peace for Israel and the Palestinians.

In 2007 Baez received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. And in 2017 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

On the occasion of her birthday, the platform Seated has scheduled the Mischief Makers 2: An Intimate Evening with the Artist. It will showcase her portraits of individuals making the world a better place.  Her portraits include singer-songwriter Patti Smith, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, filmmaker Michael Moore, former NFL quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick, gun control activist Emma Gonzalez, counterculture icon Wavy Gravy and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and activist Alice Walker. 

FOR TICKET to the streaming event CLICK HERE  

Featured Photo: Joan Baez

The post Happy Birthday To Singer/Activist Joan Baez first appeared on .

Latin Heat News Services

The documentary Once Upon a Time in Venezuela, that country’s official 2021 Oscar submission, will start streaming in the US and Canada Dec. 31.

The film is being released in North American by Topic, the streaming service from First Look Media. 

The documentary centers on the decline of a little town on stilts called Congo Mirador, located near Latin America’s biggest oil field that extracts from what reportedly are the world’s largest crude reserves at Lake Maracaibo in northeastern Venezuela. That nation enjoyed the riches brought by oil through the 1990s. But socialism arrived in 1997, bringing the nationalization of the oil and banking industries and a contentious relationship with the United States. 

OIL PROBLEMS & MIGRATION
With extreme falling prices of oil in recent decades, Venezuela has been broke and facing a humanitarian crisis that has seen more than 4 million countrymen leave the nation. With millions more expected to flee Venezuela, experts warn of what could be the world’s biggest refugee crisis in modern times—bigger than the one caused by the war in Syria.

Film director Anabel Rodriguez arrived in the middle of Venezuela’s crisis during the first half of the 2010s. She started documenting the decay of what used to be a thriving fishing community. The director focused her camera on two women leaders who come from opposing political camps and offer competing visions for the floating village—and their whole motherland.

This is Rodriguez’s third doc, preceded by the documentary short The Barrel in 2012 and 2018 TV movie doc Los Venezolanos, Retadores de lo Imposible. Based in Vienna, Rodriguez has a master’s degree in filmmaking from the London Film School.

WINNING AWARDS & MAKING FILM HISTORY
Once Upon a Time in Venezuela has won awards at the Cine Latino Minneapolis Saint Paul, Festival de Cine Venezolano, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, and International Film Festival Watch Docs. The film competed at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2020, becoming the first Venezuelan doc at the Park City, Utah fest.

In addition to Topic.com, Once Upon a Time in Venezuela will also be available on Apple iOS, Apple TV, Android, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Amazon Prime Video.

All Photos: First Look Media

Check out this trailer of this award-winning documentary:

The post Venezuelan Doc to Stream on First Look Media first appeared on .