TV Writer Shea Serrano has created an eight-episode coming-of-age, single-camera comedy, inspired by Serrano’s life growing up on the southside of San Antonio. It follows a San Antonio teenager balancing college aspirations, societal expectations and a hectic home life anchored by his single mom and five uncles who each think they know best and are intent on steering their nephew in “the right” direction in FreeVee’s Primo.

Co-executive produced by Mike Shur (co-creator of Brooklyn Nine-Nine). Primo follows the daily life of Rafa Gonzales (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio), a wide-eyed 16-year-old, being raised by his relentlessly matriarchal mother, Drea (Christina Vidal), who not only rules Rafa’s life but also his five overbearing uncles, Rollie (Johnny Rey Diaz), Mike (Henri Esteve), Ryan (Carlos Santos), Jay (Jonathan Medina) and Mondo (Efraín Villa), as they survive day-by-day.

Diaz-Siverio, a relative newcomer with Primo being his series regular role, admits he did not have prior experience of growing up with older brothers. “I had a lot of older cousins whom I spent Summer vacations with,” he explained. “They let me know I was at the lower end of the pecking order.” While Christina Vidal, chimes in about her sibling rivalry experience. “I was the youngest with two sisters and a brother. I remember my brother practicing karate on me. Someone was always bossing me around.”

Vidal, on the other hand brings an extensive career as an actress and singer to the table. She is best known for her roles in films such as Life with Mikey (opposite Michael J. Fox and her debut at age 12), Brink!, Freaky Friday, See No Evil, and her title role in the Nickelodeon sitcom, Taina (2001–2002), followed by Code Black (2015-16) and Training Day (2017). As a singer, at age 17, she joined a girl group called Gemstone (with Jade Villalon and Crystal Grant). In 2002, she provided guest vocals on the remix of Will Smith’s summer hit, Black Suits Comin’ from the Men in Black II soundtrack. She also recorded a track for the workout CD called Byou from Sabrina Bryab of The Cheetah Girls.

Vidal understands the dilemma for Rafa in this series, navigating his way through his junior year in high school, attempting to find his place in a family that has no boundaries. “It is chaos for Rafa,” she affirms. “All the uncles are at the house all the time, eating the food, bossing Rafa around as if they live there.”

“Rafa is used to the chaos. He’s never known anything else”, Diaz-Silverio adds. “Through it all he is trying to concentrate on three things: he wants to bond with his friends as he is nearing the end of high school; he’s sure he just met the girl of his dreams, Mya (Stakiah Lynn Washington); and he just found out he has a real chance to become the first person in his family to go to college.”

Diaz-Silverio started his acting career at a young age in live theater and film. Now 21 years old, although he plays a lot younger, Diaz-Silverio also has a film e starred in with Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman in Zach Braff’s A Good Person (MGM). Other works include Samuel D. Hunter’s A Bright New Boise at the Signature Theater and he was nominated for a 2023 Helen Hayes Award for his work in John Proctor Is The Villain at Washington D.C.’s Studio Theatre.

“I was raised by a single mother and I did have five uncles who all lived nearby in South San Antonio,” screenwriter Serrano tells us. He mixed in elements of his married life. “Mya is based on my wife, Laramie, who I met during my first year of college. We both graduated and went on to become teachers.”

Serrano’s road to screenwriting was serendipitous. “After college, I became a middle-school science teacher. My wife went through a difficult pregnancy and couldn’t work for a while. I looked at different jobs I could do while still teaching. I became a sports writer for a local neighborhood paper, making fifteen dollars per article.” Then over the next eight years, Serrano worked his way up to writing for ESPN.

“Then one night I was out having dinner with Laramie and discussed with her writing a series about the people who were important to me,” he explained. She thought it a was brilliant idea. Serrano called his friend Mike Schur. “Mike liked the concept and guided me through the whole process,” he recalls fondly. “I am amazed. This is my first screenwriting job, an eight-episode television sitcom. I am simultaneously overwhelmed and overjoyed.”

Primo debuts May 19, streaming on Amazon Freevee. Over the course of the eight episodes, Rafa, his mom, uncles, friends, and crush—will all help one another grow in ways they expected…whether they like it or not. It is also very, very funny.

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Filmmaker Natasha Kline treasures her childhood memories with her many Mexican-American cousins and is now turning those “recuerdos” into a new animated comedy series. Disney Branded Television has ordered Klines’s Primos. 

The series is partly biographical and deals with family relations and children’s empowerment, according to Kline “Primos is set in childhood summers spent with my cousins under one roof, and the comedy that’s borne from that wonderfully hectic setting,” and she continues. “As a kid, I didn’t see myself or my culture represented onscreen, so I’m excited to share my family dynamic through these new Disney characters and stories.”

Disney’s greenlighting of the show is a significant accomplishment for Kline with Mickey Mouse’s company, where she has worked in various capacities in two other Disney Channel animated series for a few years. She directed Big City Greens, in which she also wrote and storyboarded a few episodes, and worked briefly as a writer on Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

With Primos Kline, she is now donning the hat of executive producer, her first major production credit on her IMDb page. She is also credited as a writer. The show introduces Tater, an eccentric 10-year-old girl with big dreams who is unaware of her exceptional qualities. That changes when her 12 cousins, “primos” in Spanish, move in for the summer, helping her discover just what is so special about herself.

“It’s been especially gratifying to see Natasha directing more than 30 episodes of our #1 series Big City Greens while also creating her own new show that bears her authentic comedic voice and her family’s culture and values,” says Meredith Roberts, senior vice president/general manager of Television Animation with Disney Branded Television. “We’re looking forward to delivering it to kids and families worldwide.”

Produced by Disney Television Animation, each half-hour Primos episode will consist of two 11-minute stories. Tater’s aspirations and larger-than-life imagination are seen through entries in her super-secret diary, which turn her deepest thoughts into grandiose animation sequences.

Kline has more than a decade of experience in animation. She spent six years and a half as a storyboard artist and designer on Comedy Central’s multiple-Primetime Emmy-winning series South Park. Before coming to Disney, she freelanced for various animated projects like Nickelodeon’s Hey Arnold!, The Jungle Movie and Pinky Malinky, and DreamWorks Animation’s Home: The Adventures of Tip and Oh, Too Loud! and Harvey Street Kids. She also worked as a story artist in Warner Bros.’ LEGO Ninjago movie and as a storyboard artist in Netflix’s Bojack Horseman. 

The filmmaker is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton, where she earned a degree in illustration, and studied animation at the California Institute of the Arts.

Featured Photo: Natasha Kline (Disney/Craig Sjodin)

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