Cedeño, best knownfor his role as Brandon Walker on NBC’s Days of our Lives, is expected to appear in the series’ tweaked pilot and will reportedly be upped to series regular status if they dramedy gets renewed for a second season, according to Deadline.com.
Cedeño will play Alejandro Reyes, a successful recording artist. Back home after three long months on tour, Alejandro just wants to lounge by the pool.
If you’re dying to seeRoselyn Sánchez get downright devious, here’s your chance…
Lifetime has released some sneak-peek videos of Marc Cherry’s new soapy dramedy Devious Maids, which stars the 39-year-old Puerto Rican actress, as well as Ana Ortiz, Judy Reyes, Dania Ramirez, Susan Lucci and Grant Show.
Coming to Lifetime next year, the series—which is being executive produced by Eva Longoria— follows four ambitious Latina maids with big dreams of their own who work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills.
In one promo video, Rebecca Wisocky‘s Evelyn Powell warns a maid to stay away from her husband before the bloodied housekeeper is seen falling into a swimming pool. Another preview shows four other maids discussing whether or not they should go to police with information that might shed light on the maid’s death.
“This show and Marc Cherry’s unique story telling voice perfectly articulate Lifetime’s strategy of attracting top-tier creatives with their most original and exciting projects,” said Lifetime’s president Nancy Dubuc and EVP Rob Sharenow in a joint statement.
Based on the hit Mexican telenovelaEllas son la Alegría del Hogar, Devious Maids follows the lives of a group of ambitious maids who work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills while attempting to make their own dreams reality.
The pilot will reportedly undergo some tweaking and reshoots for its move to Lifetime, according to Deadline.com, including the possible elimination of the role played by Angelique Cabral.
Devious Maids will be executive produced by Cherry, who wrote the adaptation, as well as his producing partner Sabrina Wind and Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria.
Production on Devious Maids will be based in Atlanta, with the series slated to launch on Lifetime in 2013.
Lifetime has had preliminary conversations with Devious Maids’ producers and ABC Studios about bringing the project to life at the women’s cable network, according to Deadline.com.
Lifetime has been looking at several recent pilots, as well as cancelled series like CBS’ Unforgettable. But Devious Maids seems to be closer than most to the new, younger and sexier direction the cable network is taking with series likeThe Client List. Additionally, Lifetime is the off-network home of Cherry’s recently retired hit drama Desperate Housewives, making Devious Maids a match maid in heaven for the show that helped make Eva Longoria an international star.
Based on a Mexican telenovela, Devious Maids—which is being executive produced by Longoria—follows four maids (Ortiz, Ramirez, Sanchez and Reyes) with ambition and dreams of their own while they work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills.
Judy Reyes is trading in her scrubs for a maid’s outfit…
The 44-year-old Dominican American actress—best known for her role as nurse Carla Espinosa on Scrubs—has been cast as the fourth lead in the ABC pilot Devious Maids, from Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry.
Reyes will play Zoila, the senior maid at the Delacourt household whose intelligence is matched only by her humor. She works alongside her teenage daughter Valentina, who serves as the junior maid at mansion.
Along with Milian, other celebrities, musicians and journalists of African heritage appearing in the web documentary are actor Laz Alonso, actress Tatyana Ali and journalist Soledad O’Brien, who relate their own previously untold experiences of working through the unreasonable constraints of stereotypes in both Hispanic and mainstream culture.
“It was kind of like a dual existence because outside of my house I would be just an African-American guy,” says Alonso, who recently appeared in Jumping the Broom. “But once I got home, I was Cuban again.”
Other interviews include The Voice season one winner Javier Colon, actresses Gina Torres and Judy Reyes, pop singer Kat de Luna and music video director Jessy Terrero.
“As part of our commitment to reflecting the diversity and dynamism of US Latino identity, we are honored to share these provocative and poignant stories of celebrities who live and work at the intersection of so many cultures,” says Jose Marquez, Telemundo and mun 2’s VP Interactive Strategy, Telemundo and mun2.
The short, made-for-web documentary also features man-on-the-street interviews with Generation Y Latinos who provide a refreshingly nuanced understanding of race and identity in contemporary America.
She’s received critical acclaim for her feature-film acting debut in “Gun Hill Road”… And, now Harmony Santana could be reaping the rewards too.
The 20-something transgender actress has received a Gotham Award “Breakthrough Actor” nomination for her spectacular performance in the coming out drama.
The film, which co-stars Esai Morales and Judy Reyes, centers around Vanessa (born as Michael), a shy male teenager trying to live openly as a girl while dealing with a disapproving ex-con father and supportive mother.
The half-Puerto Rican, half-Dominican actresses’ only previous acting experience was playing a Boy George look-alike in a high school production of the musical “The Wedding Singer.” But that didn’t stop the film’s director, Rashaad Ernesto Green, from selecting Santana for the hard-to-cast role.
“I looked at attractive gay males who might have had experience with drag to see if they might be able to portray the character,” recalled Green in a recent interview with The New York Times, who was seeking an actor who looked 16, could play a transgender character without what he called ‘significant female development’ and could convincingly convey a Hispanic background. “But they didn’t have the essence I was looking for. There’s a difference between someone who’s pretending to be female and someone who actually believes they are.”
But Green’s luck changed when he discovered Santana at the Queens gay pride parade.
“She said she was at the beginning of her transition, which was like, ‘Bingo,’” says Green.
Santana, who has only been living full-time as a woman since last year, was able to tap into her own experience of growing up in New York as a transgender teenager for the role.
“At one time I hated my father so much because he would always fight with my mother about me,” remembers Santana. “I would hear them through the cracks in the door that I shouldn’t be playing with my little sisters and doing girl things.”
“Gun Hill Road” premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January and has been featured prominently on the gay film-festival circuit before opening commercially in New York City in August.
The Gotham Awards, which honor films produced outside the major studio system, will be handed out in New York on November 28.
