The 39-year-old Mexican actor and producer will star in Peacock’s The Resort, a true-crime love story from writer Andy Siara, Sam Esmail and UCP.
Méndez, who has starred in Narcos: Mexico andMurder Mystery, will star alongside Nina Bloomgarden and Gabriela Cartol as series regulars, and Debby Ryan, Dylan Baker, Michael Hitchcock and Becky Ann Baker will recur in the ensemble series.
Written by Siara, The Resort is a multi-generational, coming-of-age love story disguised as a fast-paced mystery about the disappointment of time. An anniversary trip puts a marriage to the test when the couple finds themselves embroiled in one of the Mayan Riviera’s most bizarre unsolved mysteries that took place fifteen years prior.
Méndez will play Baltasar Frías, the head of security at the Oceana Vista Resort in 2007. He’s always in detective mode, quietly suspicious of all activity, and somehow connected to all of the unusual events in 2007.
Cartol is Luna, the concierge at the Emma and Noah’s resort. Prior to becoming the concierge, Luna was in housekeeping at the Oceana Vista Resort back in 2007 prior to its abrupt closure.
The series is produced by UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group and Esmail Corp.
Siara will write and executive produce the series alongside Allison Miller.
Ben Sinclair will also direct and executive produce episodes 1-4.
The 61-year-old Cuban actor and comedian has been cast in Netflix’s upcoming quarantine anthology series Social Distance.
Hailing from Orange is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan, the series will also star Scandal’s Guillermo Diaz, Love Victor’s Isabella Ferreira, Katy Keene & In The Heights star Daphne Rubin-Vega, Danielle Brooks, Mike ColterAsante Blackk, Peter Scanavino, Lachlan Watson, Max Jenkins and Marsha Stephanie Blake.
Set in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Social Distance is an eight-part anthology series that showcases the power of the human spirit in the face of uncertainty and isolation. Each standalone episode is told through a virtual lens and captures the unique emotional experience of being forced apart by circumstance and having no choice but to communicate remotely and rely on technology to maintain any sense of connection. Through these varied and deeply human stories, Social Distance aims to provide some much-needed catharsis during a tumultuous time while also capturing a snapshot of this singular moment in history.
The project was conceived, cast and executed entirely remotely during quarantine. The writers never met during the writing process, Diego Velasco directs talent remotely, Hilary Weisman Graham runs production from her living room and the cast acts and films themselves from home. Some of the actors’ real-life relatives also guest star in the series.
“Many of these stories required casting actors who were quarantined with other actors. That hurdle seriously hindered our options and so casting non-actors was sometimes essential,” said Weisman Graham on the decision to cast actors’ family members. “It was definitely a roll of the dice, but thankfully, we were thrilled to discover that talent really does breed talent. These family members may not have had aspirations to be in front of the camera when we first started, but they should all quit their day jobs immediately.”
Weisman Graham, who also serves as showrunner, executive produces with Tara Herrmann, Blake McCormick and Kohan. Velasco, who directed an episode of Orange Is the New Black and is working with Kohan on her upcoming series Teenage Bounty Huntersis directing and will co-executive produce.
Social Distance cast members include (in no particular episodic order):
Danielle Brooks with real-life mother LaRita Brooks and brother DJ Brooks; Marsha Stephanie Blake with real-life daughter Rocco Luna; Misha Brooks; Isabella Ferreira; Oscar Nunez; Daphne Rubin-Vega with real-life husband Tom Costanzo and son Luca Costanzo; Guillermo Diaz; Miguel Sandoval; Camila Perez; Olli Haaskivi; Giana Aragon; Mike Colter; Okieriete Onaodowan; real-life spouses Heather Burns and Ajay; Shakira Barrera; Steven Weber with real-life son Jack Hohnen-Weber; Helena Howard; Asante Blackk with real-life father Ayize Ma’at; Lovie Simone;
Max Jenkins; Brian Jordan Alvarez; Peter Vack; Rana Roy; Peter Scanavino with real-life son Leo Bai-Scanavino; Ali Ahn; Tami Sagher; Barbara Rosenblat; Michael Mulheren; real-life spouses Becky Ann Baker and Dylan Baker; Sunita Mani; real-life spouses Raymond Anthony Thomas and Marcia Debonis; Kylie Liya Page; Lachlan Watson; David Iacono; Will Meyers; Niles Fitch;and Ava Demary.
Nuñez is best known for starring on NBC’sThe Office.
The 46-year-old part-Spanish actress has signed on to star in Turks & Caicos, the second television movie based on David Hare’s The Worricker Trilogy.
From Carnival Films and BBC Two, Turks & Caicosis the follow-up to the first installment Page Eight, which aired in 2011 on BBC Two and PBS and starred Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes and Judy Davis.
Nighy will reprise his role as British intelligence officer Johnny Worricker for part two Turks & Caicos and part three Salting The Battlefield. Fiennes also returns for both.
In addition to Bonham Carter, Turks & Caicos will also star Christopher Walken, Winona Ryder, Dylan Baker and Zach Grenier.
Davis, who was nominated for a supporting actress Emmy for Page Eight, will return for Salting The Battlefield, as will Bonham Carter, along with Saskia Reeves, Kate Burdette and Malcolm Sinclair.
Page Eight, which closed the Toronto Film Festival in 2011, saw Worricker uncover a plot to turn control of MI5 directly over to the prime minister after the head of the organization’s death. Part two will pick up after Worricker leaves his MI5 post and heads to Turks & Caicos where the CIA forces him to deal with a group of ambiguous Americans who are on the islands for a high-level conference. At the same time, an old girlfriend is being asked to betray her boss in London in order to establish an illicit connection between the prime minister and dark goings-on in the war on terror. Salting The Battlefield sees Worricker and the girlfriend on the run from MI5 until Worricker returns home to confront the prime minister in a duel of wits.
She’s played a “good wife” on Showtime’s Golden Globe-winning series Homeland… And, now Morena Baccarin will be sharing screen time with The Good Wife.
The 32-year-old Brazilian-born American actress will guest-star on CBS’ hit drama series, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Baccarin—who plays dutiful wife Jessica Brody on Homeland—will appear as a high-powered executive who gets entangled with accused wife killer Colin Sweeney, played by Dylan Baker.
“She’ll be playing the executive-event planner at a large corporation who accuses our old friend Colin Sweeney — the deliciously creepy Dylan Baker — of sexual harassment,” explain series creators Robert and Michelle King.
The Firefly, V, and Stargate SG-1 will appear in episode 17, which is slated to air in early March.
Baccarin’s tweet from last April, in which she wrote “Watching The Good Wife. Soooo gooooooood!,” reportedly helped with her casting
“I’m a huge fan of the show, I’ve watched every single hour of it,” Baccarin tells EW. “Every actor in the cast is phenomenal and I’m so excited to be asked to join them for this episode.”
Meanwhile, the show’s creators are happy to have her appearing on the show.
“We’ve loved Morena going all the way back to Firefly,” say the Kings. “And she is doing just stunning work on Homeland.”
Méndez, who has starred in Narcos: Mexico and Murder Mystery, will star alongside Nina Bloomgarden and Gabriela Cartol as series regulars, and Debby Ryan, Dylan Baker, Michael Hitchcock and Becky Ann Baker will recur in the ensemble series.
