Tag Archives: PBS SoCal

Jenna Ortega to Appear on This Season’s “Variety Studio: Actors on Actors”

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Jenna Ortega is talkin’ shop with a fellow former child star…

Variety’s Actors on Actors series returns featuring the biggest stars in this year’s Television Emmys race for Season 18, including the 20-year-old Puerto Rican & Mexican American actress.

Jenna OrtegaOrtega, who stars in Netflix’s acclaimed series Wednesday, will sit down with The Great actress Elle Fanning for their segment.

But Ortega isn’t the only Latinx artist to participate this season…

Pedro Pascal, the star of HBO’s The Last of Use, will sit down with Steven Yeun, who stars in Netflix’s Beef.

Meanwhile, in a Star Wars themed conversation, Diego Luna, the star of Andor, will appear opposite opposite Hayden Christensen of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The four episodes will debut on PBS SoCal on Thursday, June 15th starting at 8:00 pm, followed by encores on KCET and public television stations across the country and the WORLD Channel (check local listings). All episodes will stream on pbssocal.org and the free PBS App following their premieres.

Variety’s Actors on Actors issue will hit newsstands on June 7th and the conversations will start airing on Tuesday, June 6th on Variety.com and its social media channels.

This year’s “Actors on Actors” lineup includes:

Katherine Heigl (“Firefly Lane”) with Ellen Pompeo (“Grey’s Anatomy”)
Jeremy Allen White (“The Bear”) with Jennifer Coolidge (“The White Lotus”)
Ali Wong (“Beef”) with Jason Segel (“Shrinking”)
Jenna Ortega (“Wednesday”) with Elle Fanning (“The Great”)
Kieran Culkin (“Succession”) with Claire Danes (“Fleishman Is in Trouble”)
Melanie Lynskey (“Yellowjackets”) with Natasha Lyonne (“Poker Face”)
Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso”) with Theo James (“The White Lotus”)
Steven Yeun (“Beef”) with Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”)
Diego Luna (“Andor”) with Hayden Christensen (“Obi-Wan Kenobi”)
Meghann Fahy (“The White Lotus”) with Elizabeth Olsen (“Love and Death”)
Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”) with Jennifer Garner (“The Last Thing He Told Me”)
Brian Cox (“Succession”) with Emily Blunt (“The English”)
Rachel Weisz (“Dead Ringers”) with Taron Egerton (“Black Bird”)

Variety Studio: Actors on Actors won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2019, as well as the Los Angeles Area Emmy Award for best entertainment programming in 2015 and 2016.

The series is produced by PBS SoCal in partnership with Variety Media, LLC.

Rodrigo y Gabriela Appear in KCET’s Series “In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl”

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Rodrigo y Gabriela are ready to bowl you over…

The Mexican acoustic guitar duo, composed of Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero, appear in the premiere of KCET’s six-episode series In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

Rodrigo y Gabriela

“It’s one of the most beautiful venues,” says Quintero of performing at the Hollywood Bowl. “And it’s one of my favorite spots, which is the Hollywood Hills. And nearby is the Observatory. Also it has good acoustics and the audiences there are just so loving. It’s magical every time.”

In January — after around two decades as professional musicians —Rodrigo y Gabriela won their first Grammy award for their album Mettavolution.

“Oh my goodness, this year was going to be a very busy one. We had a full year [of touring] booked,” says co-founder Quintero. Instead — as concert tours around the world were cancelled due to the coronavirus epidemic — the duo have spent the past few months in the Pacific coast Mexican town of Zihuatanejo.

Even though live shows are on hold, Rodrigo y Gabriela can be seen in action in a never-before-televised performance on In Concert at The Hollywood Bowl, which runs on PBS SoCal and which runs through September 23.

Produced in association with The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the shows are a selection of some of the best performances at the iconic L.A. venue over the last 10 years, all drawn from the L.A. Phil’s archives. The Bowl itself closed this summer for the first time in its 98-year history.

The first episode — hosted, as all in the series are, by L.A. Phil Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel — is titled “Hecho en Mexico” and also features Los Angeles Azules with Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) and Paolo Bortolameolli, La Santa Cecilia and Natalia Lafourcade.

“Even though we met for the first time at the rehearsal, it felt like he was an old friend,” says Quintero of working with Dudamel. “It felt so familiar. And then working with him, it was incredible to feel his energy and watch him with the Philharmonic. As a human being, he’s a really nice guy and very down to earth.

Upcoming episodes of the weekly series will feature performers like Kristin Chenoweth, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, Carlos Santana and ballet star Misty Copeland.

Cannavale to Appear in “Variety Studio: Actors on Actors” Series

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Bobby Cannavale is ready to talk shop…

Variety and PBS SoCal have announced the line-up for the fourth installment of their awards season series “Variety Studio: Actors on Actors,” with the 45-year-old half-Cuban American actor making the final cut.

Bobby Cannavale in Vinyl

Available to stream on Variety.com, the new “Actors on Actors” season will feature one-on-one discussions between this year’s Emmy contenders.

Along with Cannavale, who stars in HBO’s Vinyl, this year’s conversations, which will be printed in the June 7 issue of Variety, will also include Aziz Ansari (“Master of None”), Rachel Bloom (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones”), Jamie Lee Curtis (“Scream Queens”), Kirsten Dunst (“Fargo”), Jay Duplass (“Transparent”), Billy Eichner (“Difficult People”), Sam Heughan (“Outlander”), Tom Hiddleston (“The Night Manager”), Felicity Huffman (“American Crime”), Lady Gaga (“American Horror Story”), Jennifer Lopez (“Shades of Blue”), Rob Lowe (“Grinder”), Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot”), Thomas Middleditch (“Silicon Valley”), Aaron Paul (“The Path”), Sarah Paulson (“American Crime Story”), Krysten Ritter (“Jessica Jones”), Tracee Ellis Ross (“Black-ish”), Patrick Stewart (“Blunt Talk”), John Travolta (“American Crime Story”), Courtney B. Vance (“American Crime Story”) and Kerry Washington (“Confirmation”).

“Variety is thrilled to cover the best actors on television in this season’s ‘Actors on Actors’ for PBS stations,” said Variety‘s executive TV editor Debra Birnbaum in a statement. “This season’s lineup includes actors from some of the top new television programs and showcases the wide diversity of roles for actors on broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.”

PBS SoCal will premiere the segment in two episodes, one on June 12 and the other on June 19.

“Through their craft, the actors interviewed on ‘Actors on Actors’ effortlessly spark our imaginations and take us to new places,” said PBS SoCal president and CEO Andy Russell in a statement. “Through this partnership with Variety we are pleased to enhance the experience of fans of great television – providing them greater insight into the people who bring them their favorite dramas, comedies and more.”

Gomez Among This Year’s Imagen Award Nominees

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Selena Gomez’s return to the wizard world has resulted in critical acclaim…

The 20-year-old half-Mexican American actress/singer has received an Imagen Award nomination for reprising her role as Alex Russo in the Disney Channel’s The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex.

Selena Gomez

Gomez will face off against Once Upon a Time’s Lana Parrilla, Meddling Mom’s Sonia Braga and Chicago Fire’s Monica Raymund in the Best Actress/Television category.

Gomez earned five nominations for her star-turning role on the network’s Wizards of Waverly Place, winning the award in 2011.

Presented by the Imagen Foundation, the awards honor portrayals of Latinos and Latino cultures in television and film.

Trophies will be handed out August 17 at the Beverly Hilton and air on PBS SoCal as an hourlong special later.

Here’s the list of nominees:

Best Primetime Television Program
Castle
Chicago Fire
Dallas
Grey’s Anatomy
Private Practice
Switched at Birth

Best Primetime Program: Special or Movie-of-the-Week
George Lopez: It’s Not Me, It’s You
Meddling Mom
We Love Jenni Special

Best Actor/Television
Benjamin Bratt, Private Practice
Guillermo Diaz, Scandal
Jon Huertas, Castle
Danny Pino, Law & Order: SVU

Best Actress/Television
Sonia Braga, Meddling Mom
Selena Gomez, The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex
Lana Parrilla, Once Upon a Time
Monica Raymund, Chicago Fire

Best Supporting Actor/Television
Kevin Alejandro, Golden Boy
Nestor Carbonell, Bates Motel
Carlos Gómez, The Glades
Joe Minoso, Chicago Fire
Oscar Nuñez, The Office
Jon Seda, Treme

Best Supporting Actress/Television
Jordana Brewster, Dallas
Wanda De Jesus, Sons of Anarchy
Julie Gonzalo, Dallas
Constance Marie, Switched at Birth
Aubrey Plaza, Parks and Recreation
Gina Torres, Suits

Best Young Actress/Television
Victoria Justice, Victorious
Cierra Ramirez, The Secret Life of the American Teenager
Raini Rodriguez, Austin & Ally
Brittany Underwood, Hollywood Heights
Bella Thorne, Shake It Up!

Best Children’s Programming
Dora The Explorer
Handy Manny
The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex

Best Documentary/Film or Television
Cubamerican
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
Harvest of Empire
Mariachi High
Precious Knowledge
Voces: Tales of Masked Men
We Women Warriors
Who is Dayani Cristal?

Best Variety or Reality Show
24/7 Chavez-Martinez
Latino 101
Project Runway
Real Time with Bill Maher
The Voice

Best Feature Film
Bless Me, Ultima
Border Run
Dreamer
Tio Papi
Trouble in the Heights

Best Actor/Supporting Actor – Feature Film
E.J. Bonilla, Four
David Castro, Tio Papi
Joey Dedio, Tio Papi
Luke Ganalon, Bless Me, Ultima
Rayniel Rufino, Trouble in the Heights
Jeremy Ray Valdez, Dreamer

Best Actress/Supporting Actress – Feature Film
• Miriam Colon, Bless Me, Ultima
Veronica Diaz-Carranza, Blaze You Out
Eva Mendes, The Place Beyond the Pines
Fatima Ptacek, Tio Papi
Patricia Rae, The Big Wedding
Elizabeth Rodriguez, Tio Papi

Best Theatrical Short or Student Film
POV: Sin Pais
The Shooting Star Salesman
Viva America

Best Web Series: Drama
Caribe Road
Fixing Paco
Sin Vergüenza

Best Web Series: Comedy
Noah Comprende
East WillyB
When the Bomb Drops

Best Web Series: Reality or Informational
Energy House Calls
Sin Vergüenza