Dani Toro to Perform at New York City’s Pride Island LGBTQ Music Festival

It’s a Pride moment for Dani Toro.

After two years of at-home or hybrid celebrations, New York City is bringing back its in-person Pride Month activities, with the Spanish deejay among the participating artists.

Dani Toro,NYC Pride, the organization responsible for organizing Pride Month festivities in New York, announced this year’s Pride Island, a three-day LGBTQ music festival, will take place June 24-26.

Kim Petras will serve as the official headliner.

“Can’t believe I’m headlining NYC Pride,” Petras tweeted. “The dolls keep winning. See you on June 26th it’s gna be amazingg!”

Along with announcing Petras as their Sunday headliner, NYC Pride also announced that the annual festival would be changing locations. While past iterations of Pride Island took place at Manhattan’s Pier 97, the 2022 festivities will be taking place at the Play Lawn on Governor’s Island.

“With our first ever trans headliner and our move to Governors Island, this will truly be a historic weekend in the history of Pride” Lauren Cheeseborough, Pride Island’s event manager said in a statement. “The expansion of Pride Island to a 3-day event creates new experiences for the community to love and live their truth by dancing freely without fear of consequence.”

In addition to Petras and Toro, NYC Pride announced a number of the other performers set to appear at Pride Island, including Papi Juice, Eddie Martinez and Alex Chapman. Additional performers will be announced closer to the event.

Discounted tickets to Pride Island are available now for Mastercard holders, while general ticket sales will launch on Wednesday, April 6.

Rene Rosado to Star in Sofia Yepes’ Indie Thriller “The Low End Theory”

Rene Rosado is theorizing

The Latino actor has joined the cast of the indie thriller The Low End Theory from Atomic Features Production.

Rene RosadoRosado is among a roster of cast additions that includes Eddie MartinezRicky Russert and actor/rapper Scotty Tovar.

They join previously announced lead Sofia Yepes who is also a co-writer and producer on the film.

The Low End Theory—based on a story by Yepes—centers around Raquel (Yepes), an aspiring beats producer in the low-budget hip-hop world moonlighting as a drug money launderer, who ends up stealing from her crime-lord boss to pay off debts owed by the woman with whom she is having an obsessive affair.

The project reunites Yepes with Francisco Ordoñez, who wrote the screenplay for The Low End Theory and will also serve as the films’ director in his debut.

Yepes’ first on-screen role was in Ordoñez’s short film St. Paul, winner of the Imagen Foundation award.

“I grew up almost never seeing people that looked like me in the films I loved, and it’s my hope that we can now start to inhabit the classic Hollywood genres with our unique perspectives and experiences,” said Yepes in a statement to Deadline.  “In the years since Francisco first cast me in St. Paul, we have built a close-knit community of Latinx storytellers that have supported each other’s artistic endeavors, and this film is an outcome of that.”

Added Ordoñez, “Sofia and I have dreamt of bringing this project to fruition for many years, so it’s gratifying to arrive in a film climate that is finally supporting diverse and representative stories like this one. We hope that this film, while deeply personal, can also be universal in its appeal, both within our communities and beyond them.”

Described as a fresh take on a film noir, the movie is one of the first to take this classic genre and set it within the Latinx and LGBTQ+ world, and its crew will be heavily represented by these communities.

“This film is an exciting opportunity for our company to continue its focus on stories and filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities. As producers who came up on the creative side ourselves, our mission is to support, protect and empower these filmmakers to achieve their vision, and bring their distinct and compelling voices to the marketplace,” said producer Daniel Ragussis of Atomic Features.

The film is set to shoot in Los Angeles this summer.

Luis Guzmán to Star in Jacquelyn Quinones Feature Directorial Debut “Miles Away”

Luis Guzmán is miles away

The 65-year-old Puerto Rican actor has joined the cast of Miles Away, an upcoming indie from writer, director and producer Jacquelyn Quinones.

Luis GuzmanProduced by Quinones, Miles Away is a dramedy that explores a day in the life of a rideshare driver, with short vignettes of passengers all feeding into the story of the driver learning to deal with no money, a thankless job and a sister with mental illness.

Andre Royo, Noel Gugliemi, Alberto Frezza, Norma Maldonado, Henri Esteve, Jennifer Bartels, Eddie Martinez, Jessica Sarah Flaum, Marilyn Camacho and Charo Toledo round out the cast of the Puerto Rican filmmaker’s feature directorial debut, in which she also appears.

“Excited to be part of this project. Jackie Quinones is a new voice for a new generation. Her work personifies the social and cultural diversity reminiscent of the now and necessary for the future,” said Guzmán. “She is an insightful creative, her work transcends stereotypes. Miles Away finds a unique harmony toeing the line of conventional storytelling and inventive hybrid genre narratives focusing on social change.”

Guzmán is an Independent Spirit Award nominee who has garnered nearly 160 screen credits over the course of his five-decades and change in entertainment.

He can currently be seen in the Starz drama Hightown and will next appear in Tim Burton’s Netflix series Wednesday, among other projects.

The actor is also known for turns films like Top FiveWe’re the MillersJourney 2: The Mysterious IslandHe’s Just Not That Into YouYes ManSchool for ScoundrelsFast Food NationWaiting…A Series of Unfortunate EventsDumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met LloydAnger ManagementPunch-Drunk LoveBoogie Nights and Traffic, among many others.

Additional television credits include Ultra City SmithsShamelessGodfather of HarlemCode BlackRoadies, Narcos and Oz.

Eddie Martinez to Star in Season Three of USA Network’s Anthology Crime Thriller Series “The Sinner”

Eddie Martinez has landed a new project…

The 38-year-old Colombian actor has been cast as one of the leads on the upcoming third season of USA Network’s anthology crime thriller series The Sinner.

Eddie Martinez

Martinez will star opposite Jessica HechtParisa Fitz-Henley, Bill PullmanMatt Bomerand Chris Messina.

Season 3 follows Detective Harry Ambrose (Pullman) as he begins a routine investigation of a tragic car accident on the outskirts of Dorchester, in upstate New York. He uncovers a hidden crime that pulls him into the most dangerous and disturbing case of his career.

Martinez will play Vic Soto, a hardworking former Marine and rising star detective at the Dorchester Police Department who works with Ambrose.

Adam Bernsteinis set to direct the first two episodes and also will executive produce. 

Martinez had recent guest appearances on Orange Is the New BlackNarcos: Mexico and Hawaii Five-O. He’ll next be seen on the big screen in the upcoming Kill Chainand the 2019 Sundance Film Festival award-winning film The Infiltrators, which was also the opening-night film at the 2019 Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival