Diana-Maria Rivais ready for the Sunnysideof life…
NBC has picked up to series the Queens immigrant comedy Sunnyside, starring the 49-year-old Dominican American actress.
Co-written and executive produced by Kal Penn and Matt Murray and executive produced by Michael Schur, Sunnyside stars Penn as former New York City Councilman Garrett Shah, who finds his calling when faced with six recent immigrants in need of his help and in search of the American Dream. In keeping the authenticity of the project, the producers assembled a cast of predominantly immigrant actors to star opposite Penn, a rarity on broadcast television.
In addition to Riva and Penn, the cast includes Joel Kim Booster, Kiran Deol, Poppy Liu, Moses Stormand Samba Schutte.
Sunnyside is produced by Universal Televisionin association with Fremulonand 3 Arts Entertainment.
Riva previously starred on the short-lived NBC series Telenovela, as well as CBS’ Man with a Plan.
The 71-year-old Puerto Rican actress and Jane the Virgin star has landed a series regular role in Jane the Novela, the CW’s Jane the Virgin spinoff pilot.
The project will be headlined by Jacqueline Grace Lopezand narrated and executive produced by Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez, with Coll providing a little continuity from the original series in front of the camera.
The telenovelaanthology offshoot will also star Remy Hii, Hunter Parrish,Benito Martinez and Holland Roden.
Written/executive-produced by Jane the Virgin writer Valentina Garza, directed/exec produced by Jane the Virgin EP Brad Silberling and executive-produced by Jane the Virgin creator/EP Jennie Snyder Urman, Jane the Novela is a soapy, telenovela-inspired anthology series in the tradition of Jane the Virgin, where each season is based on a different fictional novel “written by” Jane Villanueva and narrated by the author herself.
The first installment takes place at the intersection of Napa Valley wine country and the San Francisco art scene and pairs family secrets and sins of the past with twists, tropes and a bloody bottle of red. It centers on Estela (Lopez), an up-and-coming art curator who has spent years playing it safe and coloring within the lines. But a shocking secret changes everything and forces her to live a double life.
Being “in the tradition” of Jane the Virgin,Jane the Novela mirrors the setup of the original series. It too follows a driven, imaginative twentysomething Latina woman (Lopez) who is torn between her boyfriend, Luen (Hii), and Felix (Parrish), a handsome, rich guy. In this case, Luen is head of security while Felix is in the wine business vs. Jane Villanueva’s cop boyfriend Michael and love interest Rafael, a hotel heir.
Hii’s Luen is Estela’s sweet, dependable, long-term boyfriend. When the life he’s planned for himself and Estela is threatened by Felix, Luen will stop at nothing to win back the woman he loves.
Coll will play Camila, Estela’s adoptive mother. Camila would do anything to protect her daughter and the life they have built, even lie to her. On Jane the Virgin, Coll plays Jane’s grandmother and Xo’s mother Alba.
Martinez portrays Raul, the winery’s enigmatic riddler. Nobody knows Napa’s terrain like he does – he specializes in collecting dirt on everyone.
Coll’s other television credits include Switched at Birth, Teen Wolf, Glee, East Los High and Nip/Tuck.
Martinez is known for his portrayal of Los Angeles politician David Aceveda for seven seasons on FXpolice dramaThe Shield. He had a starring role in John Ridley’s anthology series American Crime Story alongsideFelicity Huffmanand Regina Kingand can next be seen in the upcoming seasons of 13 Reasons Why, The Blacklist, Jack Ryan, and the feature film Queen & Slim.
Diana Maria Riva is looking at the sunnyside of life…
The 49-year-old Dominican American actress has been cast opposite Kal Penn in NBC’s comedy pilot Sunnyside(formerly Untitled Kal Penn/Matt Murray).
Riva joins a cast that includes Kiran Deol, Moses Storm, Samba Schutte, Poppy Liu, Joel Kim Booster and Tudor Petrut.
Co-written by Penn and Matt Murray, Sunnyside is named after the neighborhood in the historically diverse Queens borough of New York where the show is set. It centers on former New York City Councilman Garrett Shah (Penn), who finds his calling when faced with seven recent immigrants — five of them played by immigrant actors — in need of his help and in search of the American Dream.
The single-camera comedy is being executive produced by Penn, writer-producer Murray,The Good Place creator/executive producer Michael Schur and Universal Television.
The seven recent immigrants are Jin Hao, played by South Korea-born Booster; Mallory, played by UK-born Deol; Mei Lin, played by China-born Liu; Drzen, played by Romania-born Petrut; Hakim, played by Africa-born Schutte; Griselda, played by Riva, a first generation Dominican; and Brady, played by Storm.
Directing the pilot is another immigrant, Oz Rodriguez. The ensemble was put together by casting director Allison Jones who also has worked with Schur on his other shows,Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place.
Riva was last seen in the CBS sitcomMan with a Plan and NBC’s Telenovela. She’ll next appear in the Netflix seriesDead to Me and the Appledrama seriesMorning Show.
The 34-year-old Puerto Rican actress and Jane the Virgin star is attached to serve as part of a potential spinoff of her The CW dramedy.
The network has put in development the untitled project, from the original series’ creator/executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman, Rodriguez,executive producer Ben Silverman, executive producer/director Brad Silberling and CBS Television Studios.
Details of the spinoff, written by Jane the Virgin scribe Valentina Garza and directed by Brad Silberling, haven’t been revealed. But the spinoff is envisioned as a soapy, telenovela-inspired anthology series in the tradition of Jane the Virgin, where each season is based on a different fictional novel “written by” Jane Villanueva and narrated by the author herself.
The first installment, referred to as Tar & Roses, takes place at the intersection of Napa Valley wine country and the San Francisco art scene.
This isn’t considered a character spinoff, although there had been chatter in the past about a potential Rogelio de le Vega spinoff starring Rodriguez’s TV dad Jaime Camil.
Garza and Silberling will executive produce alongside Rodriguez, Urman, Silverman, Joanna Klein and Emily Gipson.
CBS Television Studios is producing with Urman’s Sutton Street Prods., Rodriguez’s I Can and I Will Prods. and Silverman and Howard T. Owners’ Propagate.
Jane the Virgin will kick off its fifth and final season on The CW in early 2019.
The 30-year-old Cuban Americansinger, songwriter and actor is reuniting with his former Telenovela co-star Eva Longoria on ABC’s Grand Hotel, executive produced by the Mexican American actress/producer.
Canela will recur on the drama series from ABC Studios as El Rey, a popular Miami recording artist who’s sexy, charismatic, energetic, and amusingly cocky. He’s a major player both in the industry and with the women. He is offered a chance to be a staple performer at the hotel.
Written by Brian Tanen and based on the popular Spanish format series Gran Hotel, Grand Hotel is a soapy drama set against the backdrop of a Miami Beach hotel, centering on the family who owns the business, the staff who run it and the explosive secrets they hide under the perfect exterior.
Longoria and Ben Spector executive produce via UnbeliEVAble Entertainment alongside Tanen, as well as Ramon Campos and Teresa Fernandez-Valdes via Bambu Producctiones, showrunner of the original Spanish show.
Canela starred opposite Longoria as Xavier Castillo on Telenovela, which aired for one season on NBC. Canela also starred as Jesus Christ in the Fox musical The Passion.
Grand Hotel is slated for a midseason premiere on ABC.
The 43-year-old Mexican American actress and former Desperate Housewives star has been cast in Paramount Players’ live-action feature of Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer.
Longoria is set to portray Elena, Dora’s mother.
The James Bobin-directed movie hits theaters on August 2, 2019 and is already in production over in Australia with castmembers Isabela Moner (as Dora), Eugenio Derbez, Micke Moreno, Nicholas Coombe, Madeleine Madden, Adriana Barraza, and Temuera Morrison.
In the movie, the young explorer takes on high school, and with her new pack of friends as well as her sidekick the monkey Boots and her cousin Diego, leads them on a Goonies-esque quest to save her parents and solve the impossible mystery behind a lost Inca civilization.
Longoria recently starred in LD Entertainment’s Dog Daysand Pantelion/MGM’s Overboard.
Longoria, via her production company UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, is executive producing the ABC drama series Grand Hotel scheduled for a midseason release as well as the recently announced series Ambassadorwhich received a big put pilot commitment from ABC. She was also the EP on Lifetime’s Devious Maids and NBC comedy Telenovelain which she also starred.
The 52-year-old half-Mexican American actress and former Telenovela star has landed a recurring role on the upcoming fourth season of The CW’s hit dramedy Jane the Virgin.
Meneses will play Katherine, owner of the Cortes Hotel Conglomerate, who is a possible investor of Rafael (Justin Baldoni) and Petra’s (Yael Grobglas) hotel.
There are few details about the Season 4 storyline, but Jane the Virgin creator/executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman told Deadline after the Season 3 finale that the fourth season would be about “recapturing the joy.”
“I want to see Jane fight for her joy,” she said. “I want to see her go after her happiness. I want to see her open herself up to a new, evolved version of ‘happily ever after.’”
In addition to Telenovela, for which she was nominated for an Imagen Award,Meneses is known for her recurring role as Stefania, Brad Garrett’s Italian girlfriend on Everybody Loves Raymond.
Additional credits include The Goldbergs, CSIand Prison Break.
The network has put in development a single-camera comedy fromThe Real O’Neals co-creators Casey Johnson andDavid Windsor and writer Rob Sudduth.
Penned by Sudduth with Johnson and Windsor supervising, the untitled multi-generational family comedy follows a man who, along with his husband and son, moves back in with his Mexican-American family in the heart of Texas, where he struggles to navigate his family’s deep-rooted traditions.
The project is semi-autobiographical: Sudduth was born and raised by a Latino family in Texas and is married to longtime The Young & the Restlessactor Greg Rikaart; the two have a son.
Johnson and Windsor will executive produce, with Sudduth serving as co-executive producer. ABC Studios, which also produced the ABC comedy The Real O’Neals, is the studio.
This is the first project to be taken out this summer by Johnson and Windsor who also are working on several others under their ABC Studios overall deal. The duo co-created and executive produced The Real O’Neals, which aired on ABC for two seasons. They also served as co-executive producers on ABC’s Galavantand onDon’t Trust The B—- In Apt. 23.
Actor-turned-writer Sudduth also was a writer onTelenovela, GCB, The New Normal, The Crazy Ones, and Red Band Society.
The 31-year-old Latino actor has landed a recurring role on Freeform’s original comedy series Young and Hungry.
Source: NBC OK for web and print —
Moreno Brooks, who starred opposite Eva Longoria in the NBC sitcom Telenovela, will play Juan Carlo, a Mexican street vendor and Casanova that Sofia (Aimee Carrero) falls for while on vacation.
In the fifth season, Gabi and Josh try to prove to everyone that they won’t let feelings get in the way of their new arrangement, Sofia continues on the path to a career in journalism, and Josh faces an unexpected reunion with his estranged father.
Brooks recently played the series regular role of Gael Garnica on NBC’s Telenovela and recurred on Freeform’s Baby Daddy. He also appeared on Jane the Virgin, The Game and The Nine Lives of Chloe King.
The 42-year-old Mexican American actress and former Desperate Housewives star will play the lead in Type-A, Fox’s single-camera workplace comedy pilot from the Life in Piecesduo of executive producer Jason Winer and writer-producer Lesley Wake-Webster.
Written by Wake-Webster and loosely based on the book Assholes: A Theory by Aaron James,Type-A — in the vein of Up in the Air — is an office comedy about a group of consultants hand-picked to do the dirty work most professionals can’t handle: layoffs, downsizing, generally delivering horrible news. To everyone else, they’re the enemy – to one another, they’re family.
Longoria will play Axler, the ambitious, brutally honest consultant who is at war with her inner “nice girl.”
Winer is directing as well as executive producing with Wake-Webster, while James serves as consultant for 20th Century Fox Television.
Fox and 20th have been high on Longoria, courting her for multiple projects. She also is set for a high-profile guest-starring turn this spring on the Fox flagship drama series Empire, playing Charlotte Frost, the formidable director of the Nevada Gaming Commission who has the power to make or break Lucious’ (Terrence Howard) dreams of expanding Empire’s reach to Las Vegas.
Through her production company UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, Longoria executive produced the Lifetime series Devious Maids and NBC comedy Telenovela, in which she also starred.
Longoria next stars opposite Demian Bichir in the featureLowriders and is featured in the British miniseries Decline and Fall opposite Jack Whitehall, which premieres in the spring. She recently directed an episode of the CW’sJane the Virgin and is set to direct an episode of ABC’s Black-ish.
