Ana Perez

Netflix’s Top Ten list has become a go-to for quality recommendations. Series with Latino participation dominated the list throughout 2020. Among Netflix’s Top 10 charts from Dec. 4, 2020, to Dec. 10, 2020 were: The Queen’s Gambit, Selena: The Series, Mr. Iglesias, and The Umbrella Academy.

Whether it was on-camera or behind the scenes, or shows with Latinos in lead roles consistently ranked high on the Netflix Top 10 lists and have remained there for weeks at a time.

The Umbrella Academy and The Queen’s Gambit are two prominent shows that lived on the Top 10 list for weeks and are Netflix’s biggest superhero series.

To put things in perspective, Nielsen reported that 3.011 billion minutes of The Umbrella Academy were watched collectively in one week, and this is with only two seasons of the superhero streaming series. David Castaneda is one of seven diverse stars on the show and season 3’s cast will expand and feature Genesis Rodriguez (Big Hero 6). 

Since its release in October 2020, The Queen’s Gambit had, according to Netflix, an impressive 62 million households watch within the first 28 days of its premiere, making it the most-watched scripted limited series on the streamer. Lead actress Anya Taylor-Joy, who comes from a large Argentinian family, unlike her character Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit, personally claimed the No. 8 spot on IMDb’s Top 10 Breakout Stars of 2020 list. The drama miniseries is centered around an orphaned chess prodigy.  The series has brought about a resurgence in chess. 

According to The Guardian, eBay reported that chess set sales went up by 60%  and chess accessories have climbed a whopping 215%, which correlates with the screening of The Queen’s Gambit.

Xolo Mariduena is a series regular in the Emmy nominated and fan-favorite Cobra Kai, which after two years on YouTube Red moved over to Netflix for season three.  As of Jan. 1 Cobra Kai became the most popular returning original series, taking the #2 spot on the Netflix Top 10 list on New Year’s Day.

Another hit show on Netflix is the teen dramedy On My Block which was created by Eddie Gonzalez, Lauren Iungerich, and Jeremy Haft. Last year right before season 4 was announced, On My Block was top of the Netflix Top Ten list as the highest rating series with a 94.1% rating, which is based on the week-over-week growth in episodes watched.

Then of course there are other popular series that either have a Latino-themed storyline or have Latino actors in the lead.  Included in this list are Narcos: Mexico, the freshman comedy series Gentefied about a Mexican family chasing the American Dream, already renewed for a 2nd season, however, delayed due to the pandemic. And added to the Netflix lineup beginning on January 1 is Telemundo’s  Jenni Rivera: Mariposa de Barrio, the story about the late singer Mexican singer Jenni Rivera.

Latinos continue to hold down Netflix and hopefully, we’ll have even more Latino representation in 2021. 

Featured Photo: Latin Heat Media

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By Bel Hernandez

“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 .

By Luis Reyes

Dora and The Lost City Of Gold Opens to $17M Nationwide!

Dora the Explorer as a mature teenager as played by Isabela Moner in the live-action Dora and The Lost City of Gold opened to a respectable but underperforming  $17 million box-office weekend (Aug 9-12). The good news is that the targeted U.S. Hispanic audience came out in droves for the reportedly $49M film before marketing costs. According to THR, 40% of the ticket buyers were Hispanic, 37% Caucasian and 12.3% Asian/other and 11% were African-American. I wonder where they get those figures from since I went to the theater and my ticket did not say Black or Hispanic (we will save that for another article). Half of the audience-skewed female mostly made up of parents and kids. 

 Dora, an animated character created almost twenty years ago with its worldwide brand should have brought in numbers closer to the $40M or $60M range in comparison to opening weekends for such family fare as Aladdin or The Lion King. Guillermo Del Toro’s produced Scary Stories pulled in $21M over the weekend with a lot less promotion.

 Dora tries to have it both ways trying to be an Indiana Jones and Jumanji like entertainment. The filmmakers succeeded more on the Jumanji side, over the other but completely missed the charm of the iconic Dora the Explorer character with its core worldwide audiences. Dora is perpetually a six-year-old little girl, not a teenager. 

The film is enjoyable and family-friendly and the only miscalculation, in my opinion, is that the filmmakers should have kept Dora a little six-year-old girl, not a teenager. I believe that many in the young Kiddies audiences had difficulty identifying with or accepting this almost grown-up Dora in the form of Isabela Moner.  

I do not know what led the filmmakers to chose to make Dora a teenager rather than casting a little girl that is closer to the animated character. I suspect that aging Dora up was an attempt to appeal to a broader audience while at the same time not losing the Nickelodeon cartoon’s fan base by essentially keeping her in character.  Even Eugenio Derbez who co-stars in the film as mysterious explorer Alejandro Gutierrez, in a televised interview recalled bringing his little daughter to the set during filming. She was excited about meeting Dora and being disappointed upon meeting the mature 18-year-old Moner when she was expecting to see either a cartoon character or a real live Dora in the form of a little girl.

Eva Longoria, who stars as Dora’s mother Elena, is quoted in an AP story from the films’ Los Angeles premiere, “Such a positive portrayal of a young Latina who is smart and kind and brave and fearless and speaks Spanish, is a reason to celebrate.” 

A large Latino cast in leading roles is at the forefront of a major Hollywood production, that is a rarity in today’s diverse entertainment cultural climate.

Michael Peña, who stars as Dora’s father in the film, told Variety, “ It’s a reason to do this kind of movie. Number one, it’s going to be a fun movie and people are going to like it, but number two, 24 years ago when I started acting, this would have never happened. There was no big-budget movie that I know of that any Latin person was even starring in. It’s cool that this is just kind of normal now in a way but for me, it’s especially satisfying.”

Along with Moner, Longoria, Pena, and Derbez, Dora also stars Danny Trejo as Boots, Jeff Wahlberg as Dora’s famous cousin Diego, and the voice performance of Benicio del Toro as Swiper.  Eugenio Derbez also serves as Executive Producer. 

Dora can still rake in a steady stream of box-office ticket sales as the film’s favorable buzz and social media presence builds with audiences over the final weeks of the remaining summer blockbuster playing time.

Netflix’s Gabriel Iglesias Comedy Mr. Iglesias Renewed for a Second Season

Mr. Iglesias has been renewed for a second season.  Comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias stars as a good-natured high school history teacher who tries to help the gifted misfit students at his high school Alma Mater.  The comedy show features a diverse and inclusive cast including Jacob Vargas, Sherri Shepard, Maggie Geha, Cree Cicchino, Fabrizio Zacharee Guido, Oscar Nunez, and Richard Grant.

Mr. Iglesias has been a critical hit and received a positive response from Netflix subscribers. The school featured in the series, Wilson High, is based on a real high school of the same name in Long Beach, California that Iglesias attended and graduated from in 1994.  Iglesias is currently on a nationwide comedy concert tour and has signed on to voice a leading character in the animated feature Blazing Samurai. Mr. Iglesias, created by Kevin Hench, is also co-executive produced by Luisa Leschin.

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Mr. Iglesias premieres June 21, 2019

Stand-up phenom Gabriel Iglesias stars as a good-natured high school history teacher who tries to help gifted misfit kids.

Iglesias is headlining the classroom in Mr. Iglesias, an all-new Netflix Original Comedy Series filmed in Los Angeles.

Cast and Crew
Bringing their best to the set in order to deliver a funny and heartfelt TV sitcom are TV professionals, Showrunner, Kevin Hench and Executive Produced by Hench, Gabriel Iglesias, Ron DeBlasio, and Joe Meloche.

Mr. Iglesias stars Gabriel Iglesias, Sherri Shepherd, Jacob Vargas, Maggie Geha, Richard Gant, Cree Cicchino, Fabrizio Guido, Gloria Aung, Coy Stewart, Tucker Albrizzi, and Oscar Nunez.

Follow on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mriglesiasnetflix

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mriglesiasnetflix

The post “Mr. Iglesias” Hilarious Trailer Debut! first appeared on .

By Bel Hernandez

Netflix has been under much criticism for the recent cancelling Norman Lear’s reboot of One Day At A Time starring Justina Machado and Rita Moreno, but are now tooting their own horn with a new original sitcom, Mr. Iglesias, starring the Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias that is set to premiere on Friday, June 21, 2019.

Netflix has been on a global TV conquest adding monthly to their already massive content library with incredible original programming and the rebooting of series favorites like Tales of the City, Designated Survivor and many more. 

Stand-up comedian phenom, “Fluffy” Iglesias in recent years has experienced some painful and emotionally hard life experiences when in 2017, while on a national tour, he was forced to cancel sold-out shows. On social media (Instagram) he reached out to his fans with a heartfelt apologize, where he poured his heart out admitting some hard truths:

“…Attempting to work through my problems was not going over and I had to stop everything b4 things got worse. Failing to make better choices and never taking a break in 20 years of intense touring, has finally caught up to me. I need to get better b4 I can return to making people laugh and smile….”

Fast forward to 2019 and Netflix has been all over the media world promoting Mr. Iglesias, a sitcom about a good-natured high school history teacher who tries to help his gifted misfit kids.

And, this type of show and premise makes total sense as a Netflix social media post states that if the 42-year old Iglesias had not become a stand-up comic, he would have been a history teacher.

“So we gave him a chance to live out that alternative reality with Mr Iglesias…” the Netflix post read. 

Another Instagram from Iglesias himself confirmed:

“It’s official, Fluffy has a sitcom. #MrIglesias premiers Friday, June 21^ston @Netflix #GabrielLglesias #mriglesiasnetflix,” as he captioned the post.

Mr. Iglesias co-stars Jacob Vargas, Maggie Geha, Cree Cicchino, Richard Gant, Tucker Albrizzi, Fabrizio Zacharee Guido, Coy Stewart, and Sherri Shepherd. The show follows Gabe as he teaches gifted but misfit kids at a public high school.

Is Mr. Iglesias the current version of the ABC’s 1975 hit sitcom, Welcome Back, Kotter? Well, if Fluffy’s fans are steering this TV ratings ship, Netflix can expect another hit. Plus, it is impossible not to be drawn to Iglesias warm and lovable personality. And, the dude is funny as all heck!

Iglesias is known for the stand-up films The Fluffy Movie and Gabriel Iglesias: I’m Sorry for What I Said While I was Hungry. He has also starred in the stand-up specials Hot and Fluffy, I’m Not Fat… I’m Fluffy and One Show Fits All.

Gabriel Iglesias is repped by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Arsonhouse Entertainment (management), and Marleah Leslie & Associates (Publicist).

Follow Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias on social media:

@fluffyguy (Twitter)
Gabriel Iglesias (FB)
Fuffyguy (Instagram)
Website:  https://www.fluffyguy.com

Netflix’s Mr. Iglesias premieres Friday, June 21, 2019

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