There will be a plethora of Latino talent gracing the airwaves this holiday as Lifetime launches its annual It’s a Wonderful Lifetime programming event. Offering joyous cheer will be films that feature stars such as Rita Moreno, Mario Lopez, Camila Banus, Mario Cantone, Ariana Ron Pedrique, Rodrigo Massa and many others. 

Beginning on Novemver 17 at 8/7c Sweet Navidad starts off the season with a focus on a young, hard-working pastry chef Carmen (Camila Banus), who dreams of opening her own Puerto Rican-influenced bakery, like the one her family owned on the island. When hotel owner Victor Flores (David Fumero) discovers Carmen’s treats at a local coffee shop, he invites her to apply for a position as pastry chef for his hotel’s holiday gala.  When she is accepted, she’s paired with chef Jax (Mark Hapka). At first, the two do not mix well. Carmen is messy and cooks from the heart; Jax is a perfectionist fixated on technique. 

Miami-born Banus, of Spanish and Cuban descent, is best known for her role as Gabi Hernandez on the soap opera, Days of Our Lives (2010-2015). “This Lifetime film does reflect my upbringing,” says Banus. “In the film, when all the chefs are competing, they brag about what important culinary schools they attended. When they ask Carmen about her training. She exclaims, ‘I studied at the academy of mi familia…in Miami.’ Also featured in Sweet Navidad are Melissa Marty, Teri Hoyos, Manny Streetz Guevara, Norma Maldonado and J. Santiago Suarez.      

Sweet Navidad is produced by Ninth House Films for Lifetime. Autumn Federici and Jake Helgren serve as producers. Marianne C. Wunch, Hannah Pillemer, Fernando Szew from MarVista serve as executive producers. Script by Cristina Boada with Brittany Underwood as director.

Santa Bootcamp (November 19 at 8/7c) finds event planner Emily Strauss (Emily Kinney, (The Walking Dead) being commanded by mall magnate Ed Mancini (Patrick Cassidy of Castle) to stage the ultimate Christmas Gala for his most important investors. Emily is sent to Santa Bootcamp where she is confronted by Belle (Rita Moreno, (West Side Story), the bootcamp’s drill sergeant with a heart of gold, who helps Emily rediscover the magic of Christmas and find romance along the way. 

“The director, Melissa Joan Hart, was wonderful to work with,” says Moreno. “While keeping a tight rein on the script and the flow of the movie, she allowed me to improvise a bit within the lines. That was wonderful.” Moreno further exclaims, “I have always been a holiday person. I have been known to decorate anyone in my house who happens to stand still for more than a minute, because during the holidays, I turn into a child.” Additional stars include Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur, Justin Gaston, John Schuck, and deaf actors Deanne Bray and Zyra Singleton.

Hart  also serves as executive producer, along with Irene Dreayer, Gina Rugolo Judd, and Paula Hart. The film is produced by Hartbreak Films Inc with a script written by Michael J. Murray.  

Steppin’ Into the Holiday (airing November 25 at 8/7c) features Mario Lopez, portraying a former Broadway star who returns to his hometown after being fired from a TV dance competition series where had served as host-producer-judge. “This has been great for me,” says Lopez. “Netflix reached out to me and asked if I would like to co-star with Jana Kramer. I think the network thought of us both because of our backgrounds, competing on Dancing With the Stars.”

As the title intimates, there is a lot of ‘steppin’ in the show. Lopez’s character, Billy, meets Rae (Kramer), the owner of a dance studio, where Billy’s 12-year-old nephew is her standout student. Billy volunteers to help Rae with the studio’s recital by reviving the town’s traditional Christmas Eve show. Along the way, the holiday spirit affects the disillusioned Broadway star and the hopeful small town dance teacher…in a good way.

Lopez and Kramer are executive producers on the movie, which served them both well. “Jana lives in Nashville where we are shooting and two of my favorite writers created the script, Peter Murrieta (The Wizards of Waverly Place) and his wife, Eliza.”  Lopez, whose parents were both emigrants from Mexico, became a child actor while a student in Chula Vista, California, eventually landing a series regular role on Saved by the Bell (1989-1994). Trained as a dancer from the age of seven, he made his Broadway debut in the 2008 in a revival of A Chorus Line.  

Steppin’ Into the Holiday, which also features Mario’s wife, Courtney Lopez, as well as Cheri Oteri and Mario Cantone, is produced by Via Mar and Roberts Media, LLC. in association with Motion Content Group. Mark Roberts, Mario Lopez, Jana Kramer,  Jeff Stearns, Richard Foster and Chet Fenster serve as Executive Producers. David Kendall directs from a script by Aliza Murrieta and Peter Murrieta.

Additional It’s A Wonderful Lifetime Latino-themed films include:  Cloudy, With a Chance For Christmas, starring Valerie Ortiz (11/5); Well Suited For Christmas, starring Mercedes de la Zerda (11/6); A Show-Stopping Christmas, starring Jamie Perez 11/20); and Merry Textmas, starring Ariana Ron Pedrique & Rodrigo Massa (12/4).

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Two Latinos stars will be the subject of PBS’s highly rated series Finding Your Roots, hosted by university professor Henry Louis Gates, this week. Mario Lopez and Melissa Villaseñor represent a first and a breakthrough presentation for Finding Your Roots as two Mexican American celebrities appear in the same show.

Lopez, who is probably best known for his role in the NBC teen comedy Saved by the Bell, has since distinguished himself as an accomplished director, writer and actor. He hosted Warner Bros.’s entertainment news show Extra for over a decade, winning two Daytime Emmys. Lopez currently hosts NBC’s Access Hollywood.

Villaseñor, a marvelous stand-up comedian and comic actress, is a current cast member on NBC’s long-running hit show Saturday Night Live.

Both Lopez and Villaseñor are proud Latinos who make no bones about acknowledging and honoring their Mexican American heritage. So, what historical facts and unknown buried family secrets will Gates’ investigation into their cultural backgrounds reveal to the two bright lights of Latino Hollywood?

In past programs, Gates has produced documents, records, photos and letters that often evoke powerful emotional responses from his guests. Some guests have had to come to grips with disturbing family histories. Others have found joy and new pride in their family background when an ancestor proves to be someone of importance or a significant accomplishment.

Culturally and ethnically, Mexico is a rich country. Of Indigenous and Spanish roots, the country has also embraced and absorbed cultures from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, making Mexico a most delectable international menudo. It will be interesting and enlightening to find out what ingredients went into the making of the menudos of Lopez and Villaseñor.
Finding Your Roots airs Tues., Feb. 1 on PBS. Check local listings for times.

Featured Photo: Mario Lopez (Photo: NBC) / Melissa Villaseñor (Photo: Courtesy)

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Every year, when I was a kid, my Mexican family celebrated Christmas in the same labor-intensive but absolutely delicious way. Dad would buy 40-pounds of masa fina para tortillas along with an almost equal amount of pork and beef, dried chilis, several bags of corn husks and enough manteca to coat the entire outside and inside of the house in lard. Thus we would begin the annual holiday ritual of making enough tamales to feed our large extended family, all the neighbors plus all the starving kids in Africa, India and China.

Beginning on Christmas Eve until Easter, we ate tamales for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snacks. Who cared if our HDL and LDL cholesterol numbers were higher than our zip code? So what if we had to buy our summer clothes at Tent city? Tamales meant Christmas to us. I’m sure Jesus, Mary and Joseph would have appreciated it more if one of the Three Wise Guys had brought them an olla full of warm tamales rather than myrrh. What the hell is myrrh anyway and what good is it in a freezing stable in Bethlehem on Christmas Day?

But of course, the other tradition was watching our three favorite Christmas films: Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol and It’s A Wonderful Life. All the years I watched those and other beloved “White” Christmas movies, it didn’t dawn on me: “Hey, how come no Latino Christmas films?” We can linguistically claim Christmas is a Latino holiday. Baby Jesus has a uniquely Hispanic first name. As far as I know, there are no Jews, Muslims, Amish, Upper Patagonians or Anglo-Saxon Protestants named Jesus. 

I have a cousin named Jesus. Hell, all Chicanos have a cousin named Jesus. Jesus had long hair, a beard and hung out with twelve dudes. So did my cousin, Jesus, until he got busted on some exotic “import, export” charges and is doing hard time in Huntsville where they don’t show Christmas movies of any kind.

Now that I have established a dubious cultural Latino link to Christmas, here are three Latino-themed holiday flicks to consider adding to your viewing list:

NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS

This dramedy deals with a Puerto Rican family facing what may be their last Christmas together.

Stars: John Legizamo, Luis Guzman, Freddy Rodriguez, Alfred Molina, Jay Hernandez, Debra Messing, Elizabeth Peña. Written by:

EL CAMINO CHRISTMAS

In this wacky comedy crime film, some unlucky liquor store mart customers find themselves being shot at by a drunk local cop.

Stars: Kentwood Smith, Dax Shepard, Jessica Alba, Hope Diaz

HOLIDAY IN HANDCUFFS

A struggling artist working as a waitress kidnaps one of her customers to bring home to meet her parents at Christmas.

Stars: Melissa Joan Hart, Mario Lopez, Timothy Bottoms, Markie Post

None of the movies cited here will ever find their way into the sacred canon of traditional holiday movies. But our day will come. As Latino Hollywood continues to make inroads in telling our stories on streaming platforms, movies, TV and theater, our Latino Christmas traditions will find their way into the collective unconscious of our increasingly diverse country.

All three films featured are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

¡Feliz Navidad! Don’t eat too many tamales. Save some room for the flan and capirotada.

Featured Photo: Mario Lopez in Holyday in Handcuffs (Photo: ABC Family/Freeform)

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The OndaLive! Chicano Music + Culture Fest is back for its second annual edition as a two-day virtual celebration of the Mexican American pop culture experience in the U.S., featuring more than 20 renowned and accomplished artists who have made their mark in America. The event is slated for Nov. 12 and 13. 

The fest will be co-hosted by the “Queen of percussion” and Latin Grammy-recipient Sheila E; Daytime Emmy Award-winner Mario Lopez, actor and Access Hollywood; and comedienne/actress Anjelah Johnson-Reyes of MADtv fame.

The festival will feature three hours of free, exclusively produced, themed segments of Chicano lifestyles, musical mashups, spoken word and live concerts, all of which will amplify Hispanic contributions and success, according to organizers. People of Mexican descent are the largest Latino demographic group by national origin, accounting for little more than 60 percent of the US Latino population, according to the U.S. Census.

“This three-hour Chicano prime-time programming is a tribute to the nearly 37 million Mexican-Americans in the U.S., who for many years have contributed to pop culture throughout all facets of society,” said David Chavez, Ingeñuity CEO and OndaLive! creator. “OndaLive! celebrates the immense talent and social impact of the vibrant Latino community.”

The program will feature “Chicano Music Mashups,” a set of virtual jam sessions across music genres. San Francisco-based Los Mocosos will play with Santana band members Karl Perazzo and Andy Vargas. Another headlining artist of this segment is the East Los Angeles band Las Cafeteras, whose music has been featured in the Telemundo TV series Mi Familia Perfecta and Netflix series Vida.

Regional and traditional Mexican music be spotlighted with “Estrellas de Mariachi,” a segment hosted by Juan Ortiz of Campanas de America and presenting mariachi music’s stars and ground-breaking artists like Grammy and Latin Grammy nominee Lupita Infante, the granddaughter of famed Mexican composer Pedro Infante; Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Ángeles, dubbed as the world’s first LGBTQ mariachi group; and New York’s Mariachi Tapatio de Álvaro Paulino Jr. 

The festival will feature the taped reunion of Tejano superstar Jay Perez and the pioneering The Latin Breed, who performed together live in concert this summer at the Vegas Tejano Music Week 2021.

The comedy program “Loud Mouth Comedy Roadshow,” hosted by Carlos Mencia, is described by fest spokespersons as a “cyber highway of comedy, cars and comida” featuring performances by Willie Barcena, Elizabeth Covarrubias, Deejay Vasquez and Tania Estrada. Also joining the funny show is syndicated radio personality Manic The Hispanic.

Tejano music will also be under the spotlight at OndaLive! Grammy Award-winner Chris Perez of Selena y Los Dinos fame will host Tejano America: Best of Season Two, presenting the memorable moments and performances by Tejano and conjunto artists from the second season of the lifestyle variety web series.

The festival will also feature an excerpt presentation of actor Pepe Serna’s one-man show El Ruco Chuco Cholo Pachuco. A prolific actor, Serna has appeared in more than 100 feature films and 300 television shows, according to his IMDb page. His movie credits include Scarface, Silverado, The Rookie and American Me. 

The cultural segment “Fantasma: The Awakening!” will present cultural creators and artists in a showcase that uses the theme of the Mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos as a backdrop. The program will feature metal-fueled, Mariachi-infused Tequila Rock Revolution, the intricate metalwork of Made By Tony Perez and Coco artist and cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, whose comic strip La Cucaracha is the first nationally syndicated, politically themed Latino daily comic strip in the U.S.

Additionally, OndaLive! will pay homage to two renowned artists, comedy legend Paul Rodriguez and Tex-Mex conjunto master and multiple Grammy Award-winner Flaco Jimenez. 

Born in the Mexican state of Sinaloa and a former resident of Compton, Rodriguez is among the best-known Latino comedians and Hollywood actors and celebrities. His success in stand-up comedy led him to host his own sitcom on ABC, a.k.a. Pablo. His other TV credits include Trial and Error, The Newlywed Game, El Show de Paul Rodriguez on Univision, MTV Tr3?s’ comedy home video series Mis Videos Locos. As an actor, he has appeared in about 50 films, including Born in East LA, The Whoopee Boys, Blood Work, Tortilla Soup and Ali. He is a recipient of an NCLR Bravo Award. 

Tejano music legend Jimenez has 27 studio albums under his belt. The Texas-born musician has won six Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as additional nominations. He is also the recipient of the Billboard Latin Music Lifetime Achievement Award.

“As the Chicano soul celebration OndaLive! returns, we are thrilled to see the festival come to life and celebrate with performances that bring our Latino community together,” said Yvette Peña, vice president in the office of diversity, equity and inclusion at AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, the main sponsor of the festival. “AARP is committed to supporting Latinos around the nation and celebrating our heritage, so we are proud to sponsor OndaLive! with this talented lineup of artists.”

For more information visit LaOndaLive.com.

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Movie-making dreams took San Antonio-born Danny Ramos to Hollywood. After working in popular television series and films for many years, the Texan actor, producer and screenwriter returned to his hometown to make his feature film directorial debut. That movie, The Margarita Man, is a coming-of-age comedy starring Anthony Guajardo, Jesse Borrego and Danny Trejo, is now streaming on Amazon Prime and other streamers.

The story is inspired by Ramos’s brother, Miguel, who had a side hustle as the guy who rented margarita machines for parties and events in the late 1990s. “Many times, after he delivered the machine and mix, the guests would invite him to stay for the party! He always had funny stories and strange experiences,” recalls the filmmaker. Ramos added that he once jokingly promised his brother that one day he would make a movie about him. It took him quite a few years due to his busy Hollywood career but that jest ultimately and seriously turned into a film.

The script was written by Aaron Lee Lopez and David Reyes, with Ramos supplying the story. Set on a college campus, the story is about a young man who goes to college where his love for a good party gets him cut off financially from his family, forcing him to sell frozen margaritas at parties in order to pay for his schooling. 

BIG NAMES & UP-AND-COMERS
With a long career in the World’s Movie Mecca, Ramos secured top Latino talent for his film.  

Award-winning actor Trejo (Machete, From Dusk Till Dawn) plays the college president. Ramos’s fellow Texan stars Anthony Guajardo (The Walking Dead) and Jesse Borrego (Fame, Con-Air) play brothers Jimmy and Miguel Martinez. The cast also features the seasoned and prolific Pepe Serna, who has appeared in more than 100 films that include Scarface, Silverado and American Me, starring Al Pacino, Kevin Costner and Edward James Olmos, respectively. Also appearing in the film are Valeria Jauregui (Colossal Youth), Arlene Cavazos (It Came Upon a Midnight Clear) and Shira Lazar (Celeste & Jesse Forever).

Ramos had worked with Borrego on another project and Serna joined as both an actor and one of the film’s producers. Coming full circle, Ramos returned to his alma mater, San Antonio College, to film The Margarita Man. “Stepping back on campus, this time with a camera crew, that was a proud moment, one I won’t forget,” he said with pride in his voice.

The acting and production bug bit him in his teen years when he also discovered he could wear many creative hats. 

In high school, he joined the school’s Drama Club with the goal of becoming an actor. “All the students were actors on stage and at the same time had to work on the production crew,” he recalls. “I would jump from saying my lines on stage to backstage to operate the lighting board. It was crazy but a lot of fun and you learned a lot quickly.” He became fascinated with the behind-the-scenes production. 

Ramos was also a big fan of Entertainment Tonight, the entertainment news TV program. “Sometimes they would visit a movie set and show what was happening behind the camera,” recalls of the popular series. “I would see the lights and camera crew, and now and then, a guy with a clapboard shouting, ‘Quiet on the set! We’re rolling!’ And I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”

A FILMMAKER IS BORN
Serious about a career in Hollywood, Ramos enrolled at San Antonio College and majored in radio, television and film. When Dick Clark Productions came to Texas for ABC Celebrity All-Stars at SeaWorld, Danny joined the production as an intern and was soon hired on in the all-important Cue Card Department. That was his first professional job as a freelance production crew member. Soon after that, Lifetime Network set up shop in San Antonio for the show Attitudes, a soap opera talk show and Ramos then joined the Directors Guild of America as a 2nd assistant director/unit production manager.

When word got out that the Selena movie, starring Jennifer Lopez and Edward James Olmos, was going to be filmed in San Antonio, Ramos mailed his resume to the production office. Weeks later, he got a call from the film’s producer, Moctezuma Esparza. “I had just finished working on a film called The Big Green as a key set production assistant and as a second AD on (the) second unit, and Mr. Esparza was looking for local hires and Latinos with production experience,” says Ramos. “I had some great experience, but had not been a second-second assistant director, which is what they needed at the time.” 

FILM ADMINISTRATIVE WORK
The San Antonio native got the Selena job, handling all the paperwork associated with actors on the set–schedules, production reports, accounting and time cards, often feeling lost in a whirlwind of paperwork. But he preserved and survived. “I just got through it,” he says. “It’s the kind of job where the job description just happens to you.”

Ramos’s advice to newbies coming onto a production, “Take it all in. Ask questions. Learn as quickly as you can and hold on! Then take what you’ve learned from that experience and build on it for the next gig.”

That’s exactly what the filmmaker did, building a solid filmmaking foundation one job at a time and knowing almost every production position on a film set. All that proved helpful when directing The Margarita Man. 

Celebrating his movie’s release, Ramos is promoting the “Margarita Man Weekend” September 15 through 19, offering audiences the opportunity to send in their favorite margarita recipe to win a bottle of premium tequila–the prime ingredient in any margarita. Just send your favorite margarita recipe to MargaritaManMovie@yahoo.com

The Margarita Man is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, TubiTV and IMDB-TV. The DVD is available to purchase on Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy as well as Turner Classic Movies’ website, www.shop.TCM.com.

The post Danny Ramos Makes Feature Directorial Debut With ‘The Margarita Man’  first appeared on .

Chavez is Flora, the fairy of nature from the planet Lynphea that draws her power from plants as she makes her first appearance in the popular teen series.

San Antonio-born Chavez has joined returning cast members Abigail Cowen, Hannah van der Westhuysen, Precious Mustapha, Eliot Salt, Elisha Applebaum, Sadie Soverall, Freddie Thorp, Danny Griffin, Theo Graham, Jacob Dudman, Ken Duken and Rob James Collier. Other new cast members include Brandon Grace and Éanna Hardwicke. Fate: The Winx Saga was created and is executive produced and showrun by Brian Young, an executive producer and writer of the CW teen series The Vampire Diaries. 

“I feel great,” says Chavez in a video tweeted by the streamer this week showing the cast members coming together for a table read in Ireland. She should. Her character almost didn’t happen.

Flora, widely believed to be Latina, was magically absent in season one. That in spite of being among the original pixies of the Nickelodeon animated series Winx Club that served as the basis for the Netflix live-action drama. (The animated Flora was reportedly inspired by Jennifer Lopez and voiced by actress Alejandra Reynoso.)

Instead of Flora, who appeared in all eight seasons of Winx Club, the producers created Terra, a new character played by Salt, who was introduced incidentally as Flora’s cousin.

All that did not escape Winx fandom’s attention, who was asking what happened to three of their favorite fairies: Flora; Musa, considered to be Asian (now played by Applebaum); and Tecna, the fairy of technology that totally vanished from the new show.

Whitewashing accusations of what used to be a diverse series ensued. Even leading actress Cowen, who plays Bloom, reportedly supported bringing in Flora on season two. 

The pressure for and conversation about diversity and inclusivity in the Netflix fairy drama seems to have had an impact. 

Now Chavez’s live-action Flora may be doing what her animated version did: decorate her room with many plants as if it were a greenhouse, protect friends and the environment and use her herbology expertise for good.

Chavez comes into Fate: The Winx Saga after recently playing the lead in another Netflix series, The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia, created and executive produced by Daytime Emmy Award-winning Extra host and actor Mario Lopez (Saved By the Bell). Chavez’s role as a teen science prodigy earned her a nomination for an Imagen Foundation Award. The 19-year-old actress also co-starred with Lopez in the Christmas movie Feliz NaviDAD, directed by Melissa Joan Hart and written by Aliza Murrieta and Peter Murrieta. 

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By Ana Perez

Mario Lopez to Star in Ollie

Clay Epstein’s Film Mode Entertainment company has been busy acquiring film rights and newest on that list is Ollie. The live-action/animated family comedy. The film will star Mario Lopez (Saved By The Bell) alongside skateboarder and musician Tony Alva. 

The story follows CJ, a 13-year-old boy who is having a tough time at his local skate park. His life takes a dramatic, adventurous and positive turn when he is befriended by Ollie, a skateboarding bulldog who was just fired from his watchdog job. The film is currently in development. 

San Diego native Lopez, who is best known the host of Access Hollywood and his role as A.C. Slater on Saved By The Bell.  However, he has been expanding his role as a producer, more recently with Netflix’s The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia and the upcoming Lifetime movie Feliz NaviDAD.

Lopez will produce Ollie as well as voice the character Ollie. Also producing are Mark Roberts through Roberts/David Films, along with Lorena David with Clay Epstein executive producing.   

Lopez also stars in Feliz NaviDAD as a single dad whose daughter’s Christmas wish is that he find love once again. The movie is set to release on November 21.

Oz Rodriguez Signs Two-Year Deal With Universal Television

Emmy-winning Saturday Night Live (SNL) director Oz Rodriguez solidified his relationship with Universal Television by signing an exclusive two-year producing deal with the studio.

Rodriguez has been with SNL since 2013 and went on to become head of the film unit. He won an Emmy for his behind-the-scenes series Creating SNL. He’s set to direct all six episodes of SNL star Michael Che’s new HBO Max sketch series from Universal TV.

“We feel so lucky to be solidifying our relationship with Oz, who has been in the family for many years and has played a key role in our success,” said Jim Donnelly, Universal Television EVP of Comedy Development. “He brings a creative vision and distinct visual style to every project he is involved in, and we couldn’t be more excited for all that’s to come.”

Rodriguez has directed multiple episodes of NBC’s AP Bio and the pilot for Sunnyside. He just completed the pilot of AMC’s Kevin Can F***k Himself. He most recently directed NBC and Peacock’s 30 Rock reunion. 

Rodriguez wrote and directed Vampires Vs. the Bronx for Universal and Broadway Video, which premiered on Netflix earlier this month. “I am very excited to continue my partnership with Universal Television,” said Rodriguez. “The studio has been my home for the last eight years, starting with my first season of Saturday Night Live. There are so many opportunities at the studio right now and we have a chance to tell stories that reflect characters that have been missing from television for far too long. It feels great to keep this creative partnership going with the studio that gave me my first big break.”

Featured Photo Credit:  Mario Lopez, Lifetime; Oz Rodriguez, Universal.

The post Mario Lopez Produces, Stars in Ollie; OZ Rodriguez’s Universal Deal first appeared on .

By Karina Noelle Castillo

Influenced by his experiences as a Mexican-American, television and film producer Mark Roberts is passionate about bringing Latino stories to the screen. “There’s a lot of conversation about Latino stories, about Mexican American stories, about Mexican immigrant stories. There’s so many different stories that fall into the category of Latino, now Latinx,” Roberts explains, and is why he feels he and actor/producer/TV host Mario Lopez work so well together.  “I think Mario and I have a tendency to really connect on our journeys as Mexican Americans. So we have a tendency to really be positive about who we are, about what we’re capable of”.

Roberts and Lopez recently teamed up to produce Feliz NaviDAD, one of the first movies to go into production during the pandemic for the Lifetime Network. This marks over a handful of collaborations for Roberts and Lopez over the past fifteen years, which includes their current hit TV show The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia currently airing part two of their first season on Netflix. 

Roberts began his career on the iconic film The Three Amigos when he was 19 years old. Transitioning from a studio tour guide, Roberts jumped on the opportunity to become a production assistant on the film. He was responsible for wrangling the extras on this comedy classic and the experience helped fuel his passion for filmmaking. 

His first break was on Los Angeles station of Telemundo when Eddie Dominguez, the general manager at the time, brought him on board to produce a Christmas Special. Although Roberts didn’t have any experience as a full fledged producer at the time, Dominguez didn’t see a problem. He recognized that Roberts was not afraid of the challenge and gave him the support to dip his toes into his first major producing endeavor. 

Roberts is also a seasoned documentary producer. His most recent project was Carlos Almaraz: Playing with Fire. The documentary premiered last year at the  Palm Springs International Film Festival. Almaraz, who passed in 1989 from his struggle with AIDS, was a prominent Mexican American artist and early proponent of the Chicano street arts movement. Carlos Almaraz: Playing with Fire is a retrospective of his impact on the Chicano and American arts community through his influential art and cultural activism. “His story was so rich and he was so talented and I didn’t understand why people didn’t understand who he was,” states Roberts. “Through the documentary work I figured out that, Latinos and Mexican artists that lived here in the United States weren’t categorized in the same way that American and European Artists were. So they were sort of a forgotten bunch.”

Continuing with the goal of bringing the Latino experience to the masses, The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia is a perfect example of what Roberts does so well. The series premiered early this year on February 17th. It spotlights a 15 year old scientist Ashley Garcia (Paulina Chavez) as she moves across the country to pursue a career in robotics, all while trying to navigate the peaks and valleys of her newfound teen-dom. 

Roberts talked about how he and Lopez came to the idea for the show.  “Originally our conversation was very small about ‘Hey let’s do something about a genius kid that happens to be Latino and that comes from this great line…and is a genius.’ And over a ten year period it developed into Ashley Garcia. The evolution of it was Seth Kurland coming in, and Netflix coming in…But the heart of it is creatively was wanting to do something that’s positive.” 

The idea for the TV film Feliz NaviDAD was hatched while Roberts walked and talked from one of Lopez’s jobs to another. With such a busy person, Robert says you have to catch him in between jobs. “On this one day, we had been wanting to do a Christmas movie ourselves, [with a ] Latino theme because there’s not a lot of Christmas movies with a Latino theme. So, we were in the elevator and he looks at me and says ‘How hard could this be?’ So that afternoon I sort of wrote what we talked about,” said Roberts. 

As luck would have it, Roberts was having dinner that night with one of their investors in their Casa Mexico Tequila venture. The investor expressed interest in the creative duo’s next filmmaking project and upon hearing the news of their Christmas film, he signed on to fund the script and get things started. From there, screenwriters Peter and Eliza Murrieta were hired and they found themselves in pre-production film. 

“It’s this beautiful story about a father and a daughter and how ‘this song’ became an anthem for her when she was little; she didn’t know it was the Feliz Navidad song [by Jose Feliciano], she thought it was Feliz NaviDAD about her dad. So they connected on this different level and she wants him [her dad who is a widower] to find a new love and she wants him to find the spirit again, and that happens in the movie.”

The shoot began in the first week of June and as one of the first project to shoot during the pandemic. There was much more to prepare for, as Roberts explained it, a “wild” ride. He detailed the extra precautions the production needed to take in order to get the go ahead from SAG-AFTRA and the other unions/guilds.

“It added an additional layer to everything we did, on and off the set. We put a lot of thought and research into our protocol and learned from the CDC, state, county and industry groups as they adjusted each week. I’m not sure if we were the first, but I know we were one of very few films shooting at the beginning of June, so we had to make sure our crew and cast understood the plans clearly. This was a new experience for everyone. 

As filmmakers, we are used to obstacles, big and small – we sort of thrive on forcing a square peg into a perfect circle. But add the ever present gravity and unknown of unpredictable Covid-19 and it felt like producing a film while being a contestant on Wipeout! Was today the day a crew member tested positive? Would our actors be affected? We started each day with precautions and protocol and when the DP was ready with the first shot, we all focused on what we came to do. I did get the sense it was important for people to work and for those of us who put Feliz NaviDAD together, we were committed to bringing this film to completion for the holidays 2020. 

We did follow strict protocol. A negative test was required before arriving on location. Testing once a week was mandatory. Temps, heart rate and a questionnaire before anyone went on set, everyday. Temps before you received your individually wrapped lunch. No craft service! That was tough. Movie sets love snacks.”

Mission accomplished by the team.  Feliz NaviDAD is now in post production and is due out for the holidays in December 2020.

In addition to the film and television projects Roberts has is also partnered with Lopez on the Casa Mexico Tequila brand with Olympian boxer Oscar de La Hoya as a partner. Casa México was a big hit at Lopez’s wedding a few years back, with his friends and family becoming major fans, so when the opportunity arose, they decided to become partners with Don Buccio, the founder of the tequila. The group of partners recently travelled to Mexico to shoot a commercial as they are getting ready to launch a major marketing campaign for the brand.

And if his talent and working on multiple productions didn’t extend far enough, Roberts also has a podcast called Let’s Get Into It with fellow filmmaker and makeup artist Rod “Tuddy” Rinks, in which the pair look to inspire aspiring filmmakers by providing them with invaluable lessons from their experiences with production over the years. For more information on Roberts’ projects you can follow him on @iceroberts on Instagram.

The post Mark Roberts Producing A Special Brand of Latinx Content first appeared on .

“I’ve never been so busy,” writer/producer Luisa Leschin exclaimed.  “In one week I met with Mario Lopez in the morning and Eva Longoria in the evening and both projects are moving forward”. She is also pitching a half hour comedy with “a star” and working on another half hour single camera TV show called Sunny Days with Steven Canals (Pose) on board as executive producer. “He is so busy, and so big and he just loves this [project]. He has an overall deal at 20th and he’s taken us under his wing…how fabulous is that?,” she revealed on an interview on the IGTV Show TheTRENDTalk , via Zoom, explaining that she has never been busier in spite of sheltering in during the Pandemic.

Two weeks after the interview, Leschin received the good news about one of the projects she spoke about the interview.  The “star” that had come to her to help her develop a half hour sitcom was none-other than actress Sherri Shepherd, who plays the Principal in Netflix’s sticome Mr. Iglesias, the show where Leschin currently serves as co-executive producer.  

The pilot, Just Sherri, will be based on Shepherd’s life and family with Shepherd in the title role.  The show centers around families having to live together, especially during these times, and the emotional baggage you can’t escape because it’s sitting in your living room. 

Leschin can now add another credit to her long career as a TV writer, a career that originally began as an actress. However, she found that the roles she was auditioning for all required she have a thick Spanish accent, and most all were small roles as maids, illegal immigrants and mothers, girlfriends and wifes of gang bangers. 

She realized early on, after she co-founded a sketch group called Latin Anonymous with fellow actors Cris Franco, Armando Molina and Diane Rodriguez, that if she was ever going to play other than stereotypical roles she would have to write them herself.

Leschin applied, and was accepted to Walt Disney Television Writing Program. Soon afterward she started her career as a writer on SI Tv’s (now Fuse TV) The Brothers Garcia . From there she has worked herself from staff writer to executive producer with a career that spans over 20 year as a television writer. She currently serves as co-executive producer for Netflix’s hit show Mr. Iglesias with past writing credits which include From Dusk Til Dawn: The Series, Everybody Hates Chris, East Los High, George Lopez and many others. 

From 2016 to 2018 she was the co-executive producer for Amazon’s TV show Just Add Magic and in 2019 she was awarded the Norman Lear Writer’s Award for her writing career at the 34th annual Imagen Awards.

One of the other projects Leschin mentioned working on, is an animated project about dinosaurs. For this project she teamed up her husband, who is also a writer and her son Dario who is the artist.  She was excited to announce that right before her interview on TheTRENDTalk, a “major producer” had come on board to champion the project.

Soon we will find out the fate of the other project Leschin has in development, but for now she continues her work as co-executive producer on Mr. Iglesias, which just a month ago was renewed for a 2nd season. 

Luisa Leschin is repped by William Morris Endeavor and is managed by Inclusion.

The post EXCLUSIVE: Luisa Leschin Sells Pilot to FOX and Is Developing Projects With Eva Longoria, Mario Lopez and Steven Canals first appeared on .

The 2020 Daytime Emmy Awards, will be airing live on television, on CBS, June 26, 2020. However, due to COVID-19, this year’s awards ceremony will be virtual. Hosting this year’s virtual awards ceremony is veteran Daytime Emmy host Mario Lopez.

The multi-talented Lopez, looks to be everywhere at once. While the Access Hollywood co-host just finished filming the Saved by the Bell reboot for the NBC Universal streaming service Peacock TV, Lopez is currently in Carson City, Nevada, filming the Lifetime’s Christmas rom-com Feliz NaviDad. This is one of the first movie sets to begin shooting since the initial Covid-19 outbreak. Lopez will be hosting the first televised Daytime Emmy Awards show, after a five-year on-screen hiatus.

Along with Lopez, Latino representation is visible as nominees in a diversity of categories from animation to talk show programs.

Highlighted Latino nominees/nominated Latino shows include:

Access Hollywood (Lopez)

Outstanding Entertainment News Show

Carmen Sandiego:

Outstanding Casting for an Animated Series or Special

Outstanding Directing for an Animated Program

Outstanding Sound Mixing for an Animated Program

Outstanding Special Class Animated Program

Café CNN

Outstanding Morning Show in Spanish

The Casagrandes

Outstanding Main Title for an Animated Program

Despierta America

Outstanding Morning Show in Spanish

Destinos

Outstanding Entertainment Program in Spanish

El Corazon de Sergio Ramos

Outstanding Entertainment Program in Spanish

Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design for a Live Action Program

Outstanding Sound Editing for a Live Action Program

Elena of Avalor

Outstanding Casting for an Animated Series or Special

Outstanding Directing for a Preschool Animated Program

Outstanding Music Direction and Composition

Outstanding Original Song in a Children’s, Young Adult or animated Program

Outstanding Sound Editing for a Preschool Animated Program

Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Preschool Animated Program

Outstanding Writing for a Preschool Animated Program

Elena of Avalor: The Magic Within

Outstanding Special Class Animated Program

El Gordo y la Flaca

Outstanding Daytime Talent in a Spanish Language Program (Katrina Banda)

Outstanding Daytime Talent in a Spanish Language Program (Tanya Charry)

Outstanding Daytime Talent in a Spanish Language Program (Oscar Petit)

Outstanding Daytime Talent in a Spanish Language Program (Gelena Solano)

LOL: Last One Laughing

Outstanding Daytime Talent in a Spanish Language Program (Eugenio Derbez)

Outstanding Entertainment Program in Spanish

Nuesto Mundo

Outstanding Entertainment Program in Spanish

The People’s Court (Marilyn Milian)

Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program

Un Nuevo Dia

Outstanding Morning show in Spanish

Vera’s Latin America: Panama

Outstanding Directing for a Singe Camera Daytime Program

The View (Ana Navarro)

Outstanding Informative Talk Show

Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host

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