Celebrities featured in the pay-it-forward chain include Chiquis, Gina Torres, Jaime Camil, Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, Lauren Jauregui, Michael Peña, Michelle Rodriguez, Pau Gasol, Sofia Reyes, and Wilmer Valderrama.

The 10-episode series is produced by B17 Entertainment and Nuyorican Productions, with Jennifer Lopez, as well as Rhett Bachner, Brien Meagher, and Aliyah Silverstein for B17 Entertainment and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Larry Del Santo for Nuyorican Productions, serving as executive producers. Alex Davies serves as executive producer and showrunner.

The series launches on August 11 on The Roku Channel in the U.S. and at a later date in Mexico.

The post Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Un Millón de Gracias’ Premieres 3rd Season On August 11 on Roku first appeared on .

By Bel Hernandez Castillo

Look around and you will see Latinas rising and driving the cultural conversation in the U.S. From JLO’s recent marriage to Ben Affleck to Actress Ana de Armas (No Time to Die, Knives Out) playing Marilyn Monroe, to Adhara Pérez the young Mexican niña who has an IQ higher than Einstein, and at 9 years of age, is pursuing two degrees at the University of Arizona. And what about the future you ask? The fact that actress Zoe Saldaña is the star of the five Avatar films that are set in the future, well you know Latinas will be kicking butt well beyond “a galaxy far far away” for eons. But just who are these outspoken U.S. Latinas who are seemingly unstoppable in their quest to make a difference? MSNBC’s special The Culture Is: Latina has captured the frank and insightful conversation led by actress Justina Machado (One Day at a Time, Jane The Virgin) with some of these Latinas.

The Culture Is series returns with the second installment of the series of four specials. The Culture Is: Latina one-hour special will premiere Sunday, August 7 at 10 p.m. ET and will feature an exclusive one-on-one interview with Machado and Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress and activist Rosie Perez who currently stars in HBO Max’s dark comedy The Flight Attendant. Perez’s first acting role in Hollywood was in director Spike Lee’s feature Do the Right Thing. It changed the course of her life and eventually lead to an Oscar nomination for her work in Fearless.

Additionally, there will be an open roundtable dialogue with eight other high-profile Latinas who during their conversation explore Latinas’ racial diversity, the power of images and how they shape the perception of what it is to be Latina, and their increasingly growing economic and voting power — all experiences that have shaped them personally and professionally.

Machado‘s smart and sassy role as Army veteran Penelope Alvarez on One Day at A Time garnered her the title of “The most dynamic actress on TV” by the magazine Harpers Baazar. Machado will soon be seen in the upcoming Amazon series The Horror of Dolores Roach which is executive produced by Showrunner Gloria Calderon Kellett, who is also part of The Culture is: Latina conversation. The other women include:

• Bricia Lopez, James Beard Award-Winning Restaurateur and Author
• Janel Martinez, Writer and Founder of Ain’t I Latina? 
• Gina Torres, Actress and Producer (9-1-1: Lone Star)
• Gloria Estefan, Grammy-Award Winning Singer, Actress and Philanthropist 
• Gloria Calderón Kellett, Executive Producer and Showrunner 
• Julissa Arce, Author of You Sound Like A White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation
• Maria Hinojosa,Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist and Anchor of Latino USA 
• Mónica Ramírez, Co-founder and President of The Latinx House

The Culture Is: Latina is the second of a four-part special series highlighting Black, Latina, Asian American Pacific Islander, and Indigenous women.

“The Culture Is amplifies our efforts to elevate diverse voices across MSNBC’s cable and streaming platforms,” said MSNBC president Rashida Jones when the series was first announced in May. “It puts women at the forefront to tell their own stories and share their experiences directly with audiences.”

To watch The Culture Is: Latina tune in Sunday, August 7 at 10 p.m. ET. For more on this follow @MSNBC, and @JustinaMachado  on Twitter. 

The post ‘The Culture is…LATINA!” Conversations With Actress Justina Machado on Being Latina first appeared on .

Lights, Camera, Acciòn is an American Masters project directed by Ben DeJesus and executive produced by John Leguizamo, Michael Kantor of American Masters, and Sandie Viquez Pedlow of Latino Public Broadcasting/VOCES and David Chitel of NGL Collective premieres Tuesday, October 5, on PBS.

A co-presentation of Latino Public Broadcasting’s VOCES and American Masters, Lights, Camera, Acciòn is a celebration of the incredible impact Latinos have made in Hollywood — past, present and future, with a focus on the exciting new wave of talent that is transforming the industry. Featuring prominent Latino voices in film and television, this special captures the candid perspectives of talent from in front of and behind the camera, as they share their challenges, personal journeys and outlook on the future. 

In the documentary we hear from high profile A-talent who have been grandly representing Latinos in Hollywood for years. The documentary also focuses on the current writers and the on-camera talent that are now front and center, reshaping the image of Latinos in Hollywood through their work. The long list of talent include actors Edward James Olmos, Gina Torres, John Leguizamo, Chelsea Rendon, Jimmy Smits, Ivana Rojas, Esai Morales, Xolo Maridueña; showrunners Tanya Saracho (Vida), Peter Murrieta (Mr. Iglesias) and Marvin Lemus (Gentefied), media scholar Chon Noriega, and more.

“When I set out to make this film, my goal was to shed light on the incredible contributions – often unacknowledged – that Latinos have made to the history and success of Hollywood since the very beginning,” says director DeJesus. “I also wanted to showcase the new generation of talent that are now blazing their own trails, both on-screen and behind the scenes.”

“Visual media is such a powerful medium. It has the power to change the way we look at the world around us,” says executive producer Leguizamo. “Ben is on a 24/7 mission to get more of our stories out there because if people are able to see the incredible contributions that Latinx people make and have made to our society, imagine how they would look at our community. And more importantly, imagine how we would look at ourselves.”

The 24-minute documentary film premieres on Tuesday, October 5, immediately following the broadcast of American Masters — Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It at 9 p.m. (check local listings). The film will also be available for streaming on all station-branded PBS platforms, including pbs.org/americanmasters  and the PBS Video App beginning October 5.

Lights, Camera, Acciòn is a co-production of NGL Studios and Latino Public Broadcasting in association with American Masters Pictures, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Directed by Ben DeJesus. Produced by Jill Krikorian and Cionin Lorenzo. Executive Producers: Sandie Viquez Pedlow, Michael Kantor, John Leguizamo, and David Chitel. Series Producer for VOCES: Luis Ortiz. Series Producer for American Masters: Julie Sacks.

The post ‘Lights, Camera, Accion’ Celebrating Latinos in Hollywood Then and Now first appeared on .

By Elia Esparza

There is no splendid beginning without a spectacular ending, and for Gina Torres, she is living the actor’s dream– as one TV series ends, another one awaits. Pearson premieres on July 17, 2019, where Torres portrays Jessica Pearson, the super cool and calculating lawyer she played for seven seasons on the top-rated drama, Suits. And. Pearson will mark the first time she is a producer aside from the lead actress.

Torres is well known for her Jessica Pearson role on Suits and now, she is taking her character to Chicago, where she will topline the spinoff series, Pearson.

The role of Jessica has been a life-changing one, earning Torres an ALMA Award, an Imagen Award (as well as multiple additional Imagen nominations), and the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s Award for Outstanding Performance in a Television Series and the Visionary Award from the LA Femme Film Festival.

Born in New York City, Torres is the youngest of three children in a close-knit Cuban-American family. She graduated from Fiorello LaGuardia School of Arts where, before entering the world of acting, she studied opera and jazz as a vocal major. She is a gifted mezzo-soprano and also sang in a gospel choir. She was married to actor Laurence Fishburn, who divorced in 2018 after 16 years together. This marriage produced a daughter, Delilah Fishburne, born in 2007.

When speaking about how she views herself with regard to being of Afro-Cuban descent, she has said:

“My view of myself doesn’t change. I know who I am. I am a Cuban-American. Both my parents are Cuban– one was a little browner than the other. That’s who I am. I feel sorry that it’s taken so long for the film industry to figure it out and to catch up.”

Since the start of her acting career, Torres has consistently worked and amongst her most notable television credits are her performances on Alias, Firefly, and Angel with dozens more. Torres also recently appeared on The Catch. She has also voiced the roles of Vixen in The Justice League series and Superwoman in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. But it was her collaboration with producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert on four different shows – MANTIS, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and Cleopatra 2525 (the latter of which earned her an ALMA Award) – that brought her to the masses and promptly shifted her career. Torres’s film credits include The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Jam, South of Pico, I Think I Love My Wife with Chris Rock, Hair Show with Mo’Nique, Five Fingers opposite Laurence Fishburne and Don’t Let Me Drown.

On July 17th, Torres will take the reins of Pearson, and her character will drive the show’s drama of twist and turns. If you remember Jessica Pearson on Suits, well here she is all that and everything that makes Chicago politics sizzle! Brace yourselves, we’re in for a gloriously, deliciously addicting TV series!

No doubt, this is a monumental moment in Torres’ career, considering that Pearson was her idea and successfully pitched it. She stated in a media interview that Suits wrote her exit as a woman who had to take care of some family matters. “Sometimes there are characters that stay with you,” Torres said in her interview. “so I was like, ‘Well, I wonder what Jessica would be doing?’ I was obsessed with the 2016 election and was seeing the best and worst of us…” she explained. “I looked at Kellyanne Conway as a personality. There’s a lot there, and I began to wonder what was happening. ‘Is that person a believer? Is it an opportunistic sort of ambition?’ I sort of superimposed Jessica on top of her because I realized that’s kind of what Jessica did– she would hop across the line and blur it, all for the sake of what she truly believed was the greater good. I wanted to put her in a political arena. That was the genesis of the show.”

Pearson cast: Gina Torres, Morgan Spector, Bethany Joy Lenz, Chantel Riley, El Goree, Simon Kassianides, Isabel Arraiza, and Doug Liman.

Torres is repped by Domain Talent (Agent), Framework Entertainment (Management), Artist & Brand Management (Talent Commercial Agent), and 42West (Publicist).

Follow Gina Torres on Instagram: @Iamginatorres

The post Gina Torres: “Suits” Ends, “Pearson” Begins a New Journey first appeared on .