Rosie Perez to Star in Apple TV+’s Limited Series “Before”

Rosie Perez is embracing the before

The 59-year-old Puerto Rican Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actress, choreographer, dancer and activist will star in the Apple TV+ limited series Before alongside executive producer Billy Crystal and Judith Light.

Rosie PerezPerez will portray Denise, a caring and strong-willed foster mother to Noah, one of Eli’s [Crystal] patients.

Written by Sarah Thorp, Before is a 10-episode atmospheric, character-driven psychological thriller about Eli, a child psychiatrist who, after recently losing his wife, Lynn (Light), encounters a troubled young boy who seems to have a haunting connection to Eli’s past.

Seductively enigmatic, Lynn is the love of Eli’s life, but her recent death may not be quite what it seems. As Eli digs deeper into the hidden life of the wife he thought he knew, he soon finds Lynn haunting him from beyond the grave.

Hailing from Paramount Television StudiosBefore will be showrun by Thorp. Emmy Award-winner Adam Bernstein will direct the pilot.

Most recently, Perez recurred in the Showtime drama series Your Honor opposite Bryan Cranston, Netflix’s Human Resources and as a series regular in Max’s The Flight Attendant.

Perez has dazzled audiences on the stage and screen for more than three decades while paving the way for Latinos and women in Hollywood.

She’s best known for her roles in various projects including her breakout in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing and later White Men Can’t JumpIt Could Happen To You and Birds of Prey.

But it all began with her role as choreographer and Fly Girl on the Fox sketch comedy series In Living Colour, which earned her three Emmy nominations.

In 2021, she was nominated again for her work in The Flight Attendant. Additionally, she was nominated for an Academy Award in 1993 for her role in the Peter Weir-directed film Fearless.

Luis Guzmán to Star in Rian Johnson’s Peacock Series “Poker Face”

Luis Guzmán is playin’ poker

The 66-year-old Puerto Rican actor will star in Peacock’s Poker Face, a mystery drama series starring Natasha Lyonne, hailing from Rian Johnson, his T-Street banner and MRC Television.

Luis GuzmánGuzman is among a roster of new cast additions that includes Cherry JonesHong Chau and Reed Birney.

Details of their roles, as well as plot details of the 10-episode anthology-like series are being kept under wraps.

In addition to Lyonne, the four join previously announced cast members Adrien Brody, Angel Desai, Audrey Corsa, Benjamin Bratt, Charles Melton, Chloe Sevigny, Clea DuVall, Danielle MacDonald, Dascha Polanco, Ellen Barkin, Jasmine Aiyana Garvin, Jameela Jamil, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Judith Light, Leslie Silva, Lil Rel Howery, Niall Cunningham, Nicholas Cirillo, Nick Nolte, Ron Perlman, S. Epatha Merkerson, Shane Paul McGhie, Simon Helberg, Stephanie Hsu, Tim Blake Nelson and Tim Meadows.

Johnson is the creator, writer and director of Poker Face and will also executive produce alongside T-Street partner Ram Bergman and the company’s television president Nena Rodrigue. Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman (Prodigal Son, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) serve as showrunners and executive producers. Lyonne also will serve as an executive producer via her Animal Pictures. The company’s Maya Rudolph and Danielle Renfrew Behrens will co-executive produce.

Guzmán is best known for his roles in Steven Soderbergh’s films such as Out of Sight, The Limey, and Traffic, and in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love.

On television, he has had key roles on Showtime’s Shameless, Epix’s Godfather of Harlem and Perpetual Grace, LTD.

Searchlight Pictures Releases Trailer for Anya Taylor-Joy’s Darkly Comic Horror Film “The Menu”

Anya Taylor-Joy’s plate is full… But of what?

Searchlight Pictures has released the first teaser for its darkly comic horror film The Menu, starring the 26-year-old Argentine American actress, Ralph Fiennes and Nicholas Hoult.

Anya Taylor-JoyHailing from director Mark Mylod, the film sees a couple (Taylor-Joy and Hoult) travel to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where Chef Slowik (Fiennes) has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

The trailer shows Slowik welcome guests to a restaurant named Hawthorne.

“It’ll be our pleasure to feed you,” he says. “Over the next few hours, you will ingest fat, salt, protein and at times, entire ecosystems.”

It sounds fair enough, until Hawthorne’s dark side is quickly revealed, with the Chef warning Taylor-Joy’s Margot that she shouldn’t be there.

“You, my dear guests, are not the common man. Isn’t that right?” he later says. “What happens inside this room is meaningless compared to what happens outside. We are but a frightened nanosecond; nature is timeless.”

While it hasn’t been explicitly stated what “shocking surprises” await those heading to Hawthorne, it seems probable that cannibalism plays some role in this tale.

The Menu‘s cast also includes Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Judith Light, Reed Birney, Paul Adelstein, Aimee Carrero, Arturo Castro, Mark St. Cyr, Rob Yang and John Leguizamo.

Seth Reiss and Will Tracy wrote the script, with Hyperobject IndustriesBetsy Koch and Adam McKay producing, Michael Sledd executive producing, and Hyperobject’s Jenna Go serving as associate producer.

The film is slated for release in theaters on November 18.

Rosie Perez to Take Part in “Stars in the House” Telethon to Benefit Victims of the War in Ukraine

Rosie Perez is helping raise money for the people of the Ukraine

The 57-year-old Puerto Rican Oscar-nominated actress is among an all-star roster of film, television and theater performers who’ve signed up for a 10-hour telethon to raise money for the victims of the war in Ukraine.

Rosie PerezEntitled “Stars in the House,”the special will air on Saturday, March 26 from noon-10:00 pm Eastern.

In addition to Perez, the other celebrities scheduled to appear on the telethon include Steve Martin, Annette BeningBilly PorterAudra McDonald, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Chenoweth, David Hyde Pierce, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin, as well as Tituss Burgess, Kelli O’Hara, Donna Murphy, Annaleigh Ashford, Jessie Mueller, Josh Groban, Judith Light, John Stamos, Lindsay Mendez, Laura Benanti, Norman Lear, Betty Buckley, Mandy Patinkin, Rachel Bloom, Patrick Wilson, Shoshana Bean, James Monroe Iglehart, Brittney Johnson, Santino Fontana, Judy Kuhn and Norbert Leo Butz.

The event also hopes to feature Ukrainians, including Oleg Karpenko, a Ukrainian theater and film actor who co-starred with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Servant of the People.

The special can be viewed and listened to on the series’ site, the Stars in the House YouTube channel, as well as SiriusXM Stars109.

Donations made during the event will benefit the International Rescue Committee and its humanitarian efforts for those affected by the war in Ukraine.

Stars in the House is a live-streamed concert series created by SiriusXM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky and producer James Wesley that has raised over $1 million for the Actors Fund’s COVID-19 relief program and other nonprofits.

It’s just one way the theater community has tried to help Ukrainians: Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS awarded $300,000 in emergency grants to ameliorate the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and a portion of ticket sales for “The Minutes” will go to Save the Children’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund.

Arturo Castro to Star in the Gourmet Dark Satire “The Menu”

Arturo Castro is ordering off The Menu

The 35-year-old Guatemalan actor has been cast in Searchlight Pictures’ gourmet dark satire The Menuwhich is currently filming in Savannah, GA.

Arturo Castro

Castro joins a roster of new cast additions that includes Paul Adelstein, Rob YangMark St. CyrRebecca KoonPeter Grosz and Christina Brucato.

They join the previously announced line-up of the Mark Mylod-directed feature: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau (Elsa), Janet McTeer (Lillian Bloom), John Leguizamo (as Movie Star), Aimee Carrero (Felicity), Reed Birney (Richard) and Judith Light (Anne).

Based on an original screenplay by Seth Reiss and Will TracyThe Menu follows a young couple, Margot and Tyler (Taylor-Joy and Hoult), who travel to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where Chef Slowik (Fiennes) has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

Castro will portray Soren.

He previously appeared on the Comedy Central series Broad City and the Netflix series Narcos.

Netflix Releases Trailer for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Directorial Debut Film “tick, tick…BOOM!”

Lin-Manuel Miranda is readying for a BOOM’in release…

Netflix has released the trailer, key art and the first single from the film’s official soundtrack entitled “30/90” for tick, tick…BOOM!the film directed by the 41-year-old Puerto Rican Tony Award-winning talent behind the hit musicals Hamilton and In The Heights.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

An adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical pre-Rent musical, the film stars Andrew Garfield as Larson.

Netflix’s tick, tick…BOOM! will premiere in theaters on November 12, 2021 and will hit streaming a week later on November 19th.

Garfield plays Jon, a young theater composer who’s waiting tables at a New York City diner in 1990 while writing what he hopes will be the next great American musical. As described by Netflix: Days before he’s due to showcase his work in a make-or-break performance, Jon is feeling the pressure from everywhere: from his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp), who dreams of an artistic life beyond New York City; from his friend Michael (Robin de Jesús), who has moved on from his dream to a life of financial security. Amidst an artistic community being ravaged by the AIDS epidemic, Jon feels the clock ticking and faces the question everyone must reckon with: What are we meant to do with the time we have?

Larson, of course, would not live to see the success of his “next great American musical,” dying at age 35 on Januaruy 25, 1996, the morning of Rent’s first Off Broadway preview. The cause of death was an aortic aneurysm caused by undiagnosed Marfan’s Syndrome.

The film, which also stars Joshua Henry, MJ Rodriguez, Bradley Whitford, Tariq Trotter, Judith Light and Vanessa Hudgens, will mark Miranda’s feature directorial debut.

In 2001, Miranda, then 21, was writing In The Heights when he attended an Off Broadway revival of tick, tick…BOOM! In 2014, Miranda, who would later say that Rent inspired him to begin writing musicals, portrayed Jon in a two-week Encores! production of tick, tick…BOOM!

tick, tick…BOOM!, with a screenplay by Steven Levenson based on Larson’s musical and choreography by Ryan Heffington.

 

The first single from the film’s official soundtrack entitled “30/90” is available here. Performed by Garfield and featuring additional vocals by Henry, Hudgens, Rodriguez, Shipp and de Jesús, the track is the lead offering from the full soundtrack of music written by Jonathan Larson as heard in the film

 

The first single from the film’s official soundtrack entitled “30/90” is available here. Performed by Garfield and featuring additional vocals by Henry, Hudgens, Rodriguez, Shipp and de Jesús, the track is the lead offering from the full soundtrack of music written by Jonathan Larson as heard in the film.

Netflix Releases Trailer for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Feature Directorial Debut “tick, tick…BOOM!”

Lin-Manuel Miranda is tickin’ ahead…

The first trailer has been released for tick, tick…BOOM!, directed by the 41-year-old Puerto Rican actor, singer, songwriter, rapper, director, producer, and playwright.

Lin-Manuel Miranda 

It’s a film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical pre-Rent musical.

Starring Andrew Garfield in the Larson-inspired lead role, Netflix’s tick, tick…BOOM! will hit the streaming service and theaters this fall.

Garfield plays Jon, a young theater composer who’s waiting tables at a New York City diner in 1990 while writing what he hopes will be the next great American musical. As described by Netflix: Days before he’s due to showcase his work in a make-or-break performance, Jon is feeling the pressure from everywhere: from his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp), who dreams of an artistic life beyond New York City; from his friend Michael (Robin de Jesús), who has moved on from his dream to a life of financial security. Amidst an artistic community being ravaged by the AIDS epidemic, Jon feels the clock ticking and faces the question everyone must reckon with: What are we meant to do with the time we have?

Larson would not live to see the success of his “next great American musical,” dying at age 35 on January 25, 1996, the morning of Rent’s first Off Broadway preview. The cause of death was an aortic aneurysm caused by undiagnosed Marfan’s Syndrome.

The trailer begins with Garfield singing “Boho Days,” a song from the earliest incarnations of tick, tick…BOOM! It was the title song when Larson first performed the musical as a one-man show in 1990.

The film, which also stars Joshua Henry, MJ Rodriguez, Bradley Whitford, Tariq Trotter, Judith Light and Vanessa Hudgens, will mark Miranda’s feature directorial debut.

In 2001, Miranda, then 21, was writing In The Heights when he attended an Off Broadway revival of tick, tick…BOOM! In 2014, Miranda, who would later say that Rent inspired him to begin writing musicals, portrayed Jon in a two-week Encores! production of tick, tick…BOOM!

The film adaptation of Miranda’s In The Heights, directed by Jon M. Chu, hit theaters and HBO Max today.

Roberta Colindrez to Star in Amazon’s Comedy Pilot “A League of Their Own”

Roberta Colindrez is in a league of her own

The 33-year-old Mexican actress has been cast as a series regular in Amazon’s comedy pilot A League of Their Own.

Roberta Colindrez

She joins a cast that includes Chanté AdamsKelly McCormackPriscilla DelgadoGbemisola Ikumelo and D’Arcy Carden, along with writer-executive producer Abbi JacobsonMelanie Fieldis set to recur.

The hourlong pilot, a fresh approach to Penny Marshall’s 1992 feature film of the same name, hails from writers/executive producers Jacobson and Will Graham and Sony Pictures Television

The show will follow brand new characters who embody the spirit of a generation of incredible women who dared to play professional baseball. The show begins with the formation of the All American Girls Professional Baseball Leaguein 1943 and follows our heroes as they fight to keep the League alive through close games, injuries, sexual awakenings and road trips across a rapidly changing United States.

Colindrez will portray Mita, a cool, calm and collected pitcher from the Texas ranch country, Mita’s got a killer poker face, on and off the field. She won’t reveal her secrets easily.

Delgado is Izzy. Straight from Havana, Izzy is the youngest, most enthusiastic Peach.

A League of Their Own is produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television in association with Field Trip Productions

Colindrez has been a series regular on Starz’s Vida for the past two seasons and also recurred in seasons two and three of the HBO drama The Deuce. She was previously seen on Amazon comedy I Love Dick.Colindrez also recently starred alongside John Ortizand Judith Lightin Ms. White Light, which premiered at SXSWand won the audience award at the 2019 Torino Film Festival

Puerto Rican actress Delgado previously starred in Julieta, La chica de ayer and Paco’s Men. 

Facebook Watch to Release Victoria Justice’s “Queen America” in November

Victoria Justice is ready for a royal November…

The 25-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer’s new Facebook Watch series with Catherine Zeta-JonesQueen America, will premiere Wednesday, November 21.

Victoria Justice

The 10-episode scripted series stars Zeta-Jones as Vicki Ellis, a renowned and ruthless pageant coach in Oklahoma. Her reputation is at stake when she is paired to make an unpolished young woman named Samantha (Belle Shouse) to make her the winning pageant queen.

In addition to Zeta-Jones, Shouse and Justice,  who starred as Tori Vega on Nickelodeon’s Victorious, additional cast members include Judith Light, Jennifer Westfeldt, Teagle Bougere, Rana Roy, Isabella AmaraMolly Priceand Megan West.

Queen America was created, written and executive produced by Meaghan Oppenheimer and hails from wiip, the new independent studio launched and led by Paul Lee and Bruna Papandrea‘ Made Up Stories, which will serve as co-studio partner.

Click here to see the trailer.

Nunez to Appear in ABC’s Comedy Pilot “The Winklers”

It’s Paco time for Joseph A. Nunez

The Latino actor/comedian has been in cast in ABC’s comedy pilot The Winklers.

Joseph A. Nunez

From Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal; Henry Winkler’s son, director Max Winkler; and son-in-law, actor Rob Reinis, The Winklers centers on Jack (portrayed by Domenick Lombardozzi), an emotionally reserved construction worker who learns about love, life and hugs while unexpectedly living with his in-laws — successful actor Henry (portrayed by Henry Winkler) and Tita Winkler (Judith Light), the fabulous, fierce momma bear of the family.

The comedy pilot is based on Henry Winkler’s relationship with his son-in-law, Reinis.

Nunez will portray Paco, a construction worker on Jack’s crew whose secret passion is dance.

Nunez is best known for his recurring role as Manche Sanchez on the show Prison Break.

His film credits include The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Pursuit of Happyness and Bridesmaids.