Showtime Renews Rosanny Zayas’ “The L Word: Generation Q” for Third Season

Rosanny Zayas is getting another (L) word in…

Showtime has renewed The L Word: Generation Q, starring the 31-year-old Afro-Dominican American actress, for a 10-episode third season.

Rosanny ZayasThe new season of series, a sequel to the groundbreaking LGBTQ series The L Word, will premiere later this year.

Created by Ilene ChaikenThe L Word: Generation Q follows a group of LGBTQ friends in Los Angeles as they experience love, heartbreak, sex, setbacks and success.

In addition to Zayas, the series also stars Jennifer Beals, Leisha Haily, Katherine Moennig, Arienne Mandi, Leo Sheng, Jacqueline Toboni, Sepideh Moafi and Jordan Hull.

There are a lot of loose ends to tie up in Season 3. In Season 2, Bette (Beals) dealt with Tina (guest star Laurel Holloman) and Carrie’s (guest star Rosie O’Donnell) engagement, and daughter Angie’s (Hull) search for her birth father; Shane (Moennig) ramped up her business and her feelings for Tess (Jamie Clayton); and hot new author Alice (Hailey) wrestled with her own complicated feelings for her book editor. Meanwhile, a newly single Dani (Mandi) leaned on Gigi (Moafi) during her father’s trial; Finley (Toboni) and Sophie (Zayas) tried hard to make it work despite Finley’s spiraling addiction; and friends Micah (Sheng) and Maribel (Jillian Mercado) fell hard for each other. Series

The L Word: Generation Q season three is executive produced by showrunner Marja-Lewis Ryan, along with series creator Chaiken, Kristen Campo, Allyce Ozarski, Melody Derloshon, and original series stars Beals, Moennig and Hailey.

Jai Rodriguez to Star in HBO Max’s LGBTQ+ Landmark Events Docuseries “Equal”

Jai Rodriguez has found his Equal

The 41-year-old half-Puerto Rican actor/musician and original culture guide on Queer Eye has joined the cast of HBO Max’s Equal, its upcoming four-part docuseries chronicling landmark events and the forgotten heroes of the LGBTQ+ movement.

Jai Rodriguez

The project hails from Greg Berlanti’s Berlanti Productions, Jim Parsons and That’s Wonderful Productions, Scout Productions, Jon Jashni and Warner Horizon Unscripted Television.

In addition to Rodriguez, who’ll portray José Sarria, the first openly gay candidate for public office in the United States, the cast includes Samira Wiley, Cheyenne Jackson, Anthony Rapp, Sara Gilbert, Shannon Purser, Heather Matarazzo, Jamie Clayton, Isis King, Gale Harold.

They’ll allportray the LBGTQ+ visionaries in the docuseries that contains never-before-seen archival footage.

Part one of the docuseries explores the rise of early organizations, The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis in Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively; part two stories chronicles the 20th century trans experience, bookended by the 1966 Compton Cafeteria riots in San Francisco; part three examines the contributions from the Black community on the growing LGBTQ+ civil rights movement; and part four ties in the decades long struggles with the culminated Stonewall uprising – the beginning of the Pride movement.

Stephen Kijak is the showrunner and director of episodes one, three and four alongside ground-breaking trans director Kimberly Reed, who directs episode two.

Here’s a full list with character descriptions:

Cheyenne Jackson as Dale Jennings. Dale was a gay rights activist, playwright and author. He was one of the founding members of the Mattachine Society in the early 1950s, one of the earliest gay rights groups in the United States. Following his entrapment and arrest on sex charges, Jennings fought the charges in a successful court cast which became a landmark moment for the movement. He was also one of the founders of One Magazine, the first pro-gay publication in the U.S.

Anthony Rapp as Harry Hay. Harry was the founder of The Mattachine Society. His manifesto, “The Call,” written feverishly one night in 1948 called for the protection and improvement of the rights of homosexuals and was the foundation on which the group was built.

Shannon Purser & Heather Matarazzo as Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon. Del & Phyllis were a lesbian couple (together for 56 years until Martin’s death in 2008) who founded the Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco in 1955, the first social and political organization for lesbians in the United States. They also published The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the US. Active in both gay and feminist politics their whole lives, they were the first same-sex couple to legally wed.

Sara Gilbert as J.M. From Cleveland. “JM” is an “anonymous reader” of The Ladder, representing the isolated lesbians of the 1950’s who found a lifeline in the pages of the magazine, but who were forced to live closeted lives for fear of losing jobs, friends and family.

Anne Ramsay as The FBI Agent: A composite character, the FBI kept active files on the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis – gay groups were often linked to communism and considered to be dangerous subversives.

Alexandra Grey as Lucy Hicks Anderson. Socialite, chef, and prohibition-era entrepreneur – and one of the first documented Black transgender persons in the USA — Lucy Hicks Anderson was one of the most prominent citizens of Oxnard, CA until 1945 when a syphilis outbreak at her brothel became her undoing, outing her to the community.

Theo Germaine as Jack Starr. Jack is a little-known character in the history of folks who probably would have self-identified as trans. He was a prominent local outcast at the turn of the century in Montana, in and out of jail and in and out of the local headlines for refusing to wear clothes that conformed to the gender assigned to Jack at birth. A Jack-of-all-trades and teller of tall tales, Jack Starr (aka Jacques Moret) is an enigmatic early figure who pushed the boundaries of gender expression.

Jamie Clayton as Christine Jorgensen. Widely known as the world’s first transgender celebrity, Christine became an internationally known figure following the publicity surrounding her gender confirmation surgery in the early 1950’s. She became a popular nightclub entertainer, author, and lecturer and used her celebrity to advance the cause of transgender rights.

Isis King as Alexis. “Alexis” is a composite character, the spirit of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot in 1966, one of the first known instances of trans and queer folk rising up against police harassment – three years before the Stonewall Riots.

Samira Wiley as Lorraine Hannsberry. Author of the landmark play “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry was the first African American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. She was a radical and forceful voice within the Civil Rights Movement, who died far too young at age 34 of pancreatic cancer. While closeted during her lifetime, she wrote extensively under a variety of pseudonyms – in plays, stories and letters that discussed her lesbianism and the oppression of homosexuals in society.

Keiynan Lonsdale as Bayard Rustin. Bayard was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. He was a close mentor and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and one of the chief architects of the March on Washington. Because of a 1953 arrest on sex charges his sexuality was often weaponized against him and the movement, but he remained a tireless advocate for social justice his entire life – and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barak Obama in 2013.

Jai Rodriguez as José Sarria. In 1961 José became the first openly gay candidate for public office in the United States, running for a seat on the SF Board of Supervisors 16 years before Harvey Milk. He is also remembered as a beloved and inspiring drag performer at SF’s Black Cat Bar, who raised the spirits and political consciousness of the bar’s gay male patrons with his rousing anthem “God Save Us Nelly Queens”! A lifelong advocate and activist, José founded the Imperial Court System, one of the oldest and largest LGBT organizations in the world.

Hailie Sahar as Sylvia Rivera. Sylvia was a Latina American gay liberation and transgender rights activist. Prominent as an activist and community worker in New York, Rivera, along with close friend Marsha P. Johnson, co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries in 1970, a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth, and trans women. Whether true or a bit of self myth-making, Sylvia placed herself at the center of the Stonewall Riots – either way, her perspective on the riots and its aftermath are an indelible part of the oral history of Stonewall.

Scott Turner Schofield as Craig Rodwell. Craig was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors. A witness and participant in the Stonewall riots, he was one of the prime movers in the creation of the first New York City Pride demonstration.

Cole Doman as Mark Segal. Mark is an American journalist and prominent gay rights activist. He participated in the Stonewall riots and was one of the original founders of the Gay Liberation Front where he created its Gay Youth program.

Elizabeth Faith Ludlow as Stormé DeLarverie. Stormé was a gay civil rights icon and entertainer whose scuffle with police was, according to many eyewitnesses, the spark that ignited the Stonewall riots, spurring the crowd to action. She worked for much of her life as an MC, singer, bouncer, bodyguard and volunteer street patrol worker, the “guardian of lesbians in the Village.”

Gale Harold as Howard Smith. Howard was an Oscar-winning film director, producer, journalist, screenwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. At the peak of the historic Stonewall Riots in New York City in 1969, he managed to get inside the now famous bar with his Village Voice reporter’s police credentials. He was the only journalist who reported about the siege from that dangerous vantage point.

Sam Pancake as Dick Leitsch. Dick was a prominent LGBTQ rights activist and president of the Mattachine Society in the 1960s. He is also known for being the first gay reporter to publish an account of the Stonewall Riots, which appeared in a special edition of the Mattachine Newsletter the day after he witnessed the first night of the riot.

Netflix Releases Trailer for Season 2 of Silvestre’s Sci-Fi Drama “Sense8”

Miguel Angel Silvestre is still trying to make Sense(8) of his abilities…

The official trailer has been released for for Season 2 of Sense8, Netflix’s sci-fi drama series starring the 35-year-old Spanish actor.

Miguel Angel Silvestre

“Rembrandt. His name is synonymous with masterpiece, and this is arguably one of his greatest paintings. An iconic work of individuals setting aside their differences for a common good. But what we see is not what people saw hundreds of years ago. How we see changes, because our senses are evolving,” begins the trailer for the series from Lana Wachowski, Grant Hill and J. Michael Straczynski.

Sense8 revolves around eight characters from different parts of the world, who experience a violent vision and soon find themselves mentally connected by the experience. They become connected, able to see and talk to one another as though they were in the same place, with access to each other’s deepest secrets. Not only must the eight adapt to this new ability and to one another, they must figure out why their lives are now in jeopardy.

In Season 2, dark forces continue to track the cluster of eight connected characters. The sensates will learn more about BPO, the secret organization searching for their cluster and others like them, and will work to protect themselves from this group that is out to hunt and kill them.

The new key art for Season 2 with the tagline “Survive Together” reflects their connection and bond with one another.

In addition to Silvestre, the cast also includes Doona Bae, Jamie Clayton, Tina Desai, Tuppence Middleton, Toby Onwumere, Max Riemelt, Brian J. Smith, Terrence Mann, Naveen Andrews and Daryl Hannah.

Season 2 of Sense8 begins streaming on Netflix on May 5.

Netflix Renews Silvestre’s “Sense8” for a Second Season

Miguel Ángel Silvestre will have another Sense8tional season…

Netflix has renewed its popular sci-fi drama series Sense8, starring the 33-year-old Spanish actor.

Miguel Ángel Silvestre

From J. Michael Straczynski, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, Sense8 revolves around eight strangers from different parts of the world who suddenly become mentally and emotionally linked. The show aims to explore subjects that its writers feel science fiction shows, at least ostensibly, tend to ignore or skim through like as politics, identity, sexuality, gender and religion.

The fate of the series had been uncertain. Last month at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour co-creator Straczynski told reporters, “We’re still waiting word for the final determination, but the talks have been optimistic. It’s Netflix’s call.”

The cast includes Silvestre, who portrays closeted Mexico City-based actor Lito Rodriguez, Freema Agyeman, Aml Ameen, Doona Bae, Jamie Clayton, Tina Desai, Daryl Hannah, Tuppence Middleton, Max Riemelt and Brian J. Smith.

Bautista to Star in Netflix’s Sci-Fi Drama “Sense8”

Ness Bautista is preparing for a sense8-ational role.

The Latino actor has landed a recurring role on Sense8, Netflix‘s 10-episode sci-fi drama series from Lana and Andy Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski, which has been called as “a gripping global tale of minds linked and souls hunted” that incorporates the Wachowskis’ storytelling style.

Ness BautistaNess Bautista

“The series follows eight characters around the world who, in the aftermath of a tragic death, find themselves linked to each other mentally and emotionally,” Straczynski told Deadline.com last month. “They can not only see and talk to each other as though they were in the same place, they have access to each other’s deepest secrets. Not only must they figure out what happened and why and what it means for the future of humanity, they must do so while being hunted by an organization out to capture, kill or vivisect them.”

There’s no word on Bautista’s character in the series, which also stars Alfonso Herrera, Tuppence Middleton, Aml Ameen, Freema Agyeman, Tena Desae, Doona Bae, Max Riemelt,  Erendira Ibarra, Jamie Clayton and Miguel Silvestre.

He currently recurs on TNT’s The Last Ship and previously starred on The Shield, Beauty and the Beast and Prime Suspect.

Herrera to Star in Netflix’s Sci-fi Drama Series “Sense8”

Alfonso Herrera is going global for his next project…

The 30-year-old Mexican actor, a former member of Mexican music group RBD, has joined the international cast of Netflix’s sci-fi drama series Sense8.

Alfonso Herrera

There’s no word not on Herrera’s role in the 10-episode series from Lana and Andy Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski, which is described as “a grippingglobal tale of minds linked and souls hunted” that incorporates the Wachowskis’ storytelling style.

“The series follows eight characters around the world who, in the aftermath of a tragic death, find themselves linked to each other mentally and emotionally,” Straczynski tells Deadline.com. “They can not only see and talk to each other as though they were in the same place, they have access to each other’s deepest secrets. Not only must they figure out what happened and why and what it means for the future of humanity, they must do sowhile being hunted by an organization out to capture, kill or vivisect them.”

In addition to Herrera, the series will starTuppence Middleton, Aml Ameen, Freema Agyeman, Tena Desae, Doona Bae, Max Riemelt,  Erendira Ibarra, Jamie Clayton, Miguel Silvestre and Terrence Mann.

Sense8, which isexpected to debut next year, will be shot in nine locations on four continents: Chicago, San Francisco, London, Iceland, Seoul, Mumbai, Berlin, Mexico City and Nairobi.