Tag Archives: Xochitl Gonzalez

Aubrey Plaza to Star in the Second Season of HBO’s Dark Comedy “The White Lotus”

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Things are in full bloom for Aubrey Plaza…

The 37-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/comedian will star as a lead in the second installment of HBO’s dark comedy series The White Lotus.

Aubrey PlazaPlaza, the Parks & Recreation and Legion alum, will be a series regular.

She is the second confirmed cast member for the upcoming follow-up to Mike White’s breakout social satire limited series, joining previously cast Michael Imperioli.

The six-part original series followed visitors vacationing at the White Lotus, an exclusive Hawaiian resort. The second installment — also written, to directed by and executive produced by White — will leave Hawaii behind for a new location and is expected to follow a different group of vacationers at another White Lotus property.

Plaza will play Harper Spiller, a woman on vacation with her husband and his friends. Imperioli plays Dominic Di Grasso, a man traveling with his elderly father and recent college-graduate son.

Of the original cast, standout Jennifer Coolidge has been rumored to be returning. White executive produces alongside David Bernad and Mark Kamine.

Plaza will next be seen starring in Guy Ritchie’s Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre opposite Jason Statham, Hugh Grant and Josh Hartnett.

Additionally, she stars in and produced Emily the Criminal, which will premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. On television, Plaza is starring in and producing the upcoming Hulu drama series Olga Dies Dreaming, which is based on the novel by Xochitl Gonzalez.

Most recently, Plaza starred opposite Michael Caine in Best Sellers, which premiered at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival.

She won the 2021 Imagen Award for Best Actress for Black Bear and the 2018 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature for producing Ingrid Goes West.

Jessica Pimentel to Star in Hulu’s Drama Pilot “Olga Dies Dreaming”

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Jessica Pimentel is livin’ the dream(ing)…

The 38-year-old Dominican American actress will star opposite Aubrey Plaza, Ramón Rodríguez and Wanda De Jesús in Olga Dies Dreaming, Hulu’s one-hour drama pilot based on the novel by Xochitl Gonzalez.

Jessica Pimentel

The pilot for Olga Dies Dreaming, written by Gonzalez and to be directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, tells the story of a Nuyorican brother (Rodríguez) and sister (Plaza) from a gentrifying Sunset Park in Brooklyn who are reckoning with their absent, politically radical mother (De Jesús) and their glittering careers among New York City’s elite in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

Pimentel will play Mabel Ortiz, who is as street smart as she is book smart. She loves a good time; the first on a dance floor and the last off. She has opinions and isn’t afraid to express them, and she refuses to take the time to wrap them in a nice bow. Her big personality masks a more sensitive interior. She worships her cousin Prieto (Rodríguez) but, despite having been raised like sisters, her relationship with Olga (Plaza) is now more fraught.

Jesse Williams also stars.

Gomez-Rejon, who partnered with Gonzalez after reading her novel in manuscript form, executive produces the pilot; Plaza and Rodríguez are producing. 20th Television is the studio.

Pimentel is best known for her role as Maria Ruiz on all seven seasons of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black.

Her other previous television credits include recurring roles on Law & Order: SVU and Person of Interest.

She can currently be seen in Theodore Schaefer’s feature Giving Birth to a Butterfly. 

Hulu Orders Drama Pilot for TV Adaptation of Xochitl Gonzalez’s “Olga Dies Dreaming”

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Xochitl Gonzalez is die-dreaming…

Hulu has given an official pilot order to Olga Dies Dreaming, a one-hour drama based on the forthcoming novel by the Latina writer.

Xochitl Gonzalez

In anticipation of the official green light for the project from Gonzalez, Emmy-nominated and Sundance-winning filmmaker Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and 20th Century Television , the pilot has already has been casting.

Written by Gonzalez and to be directed by Gomez-Rejon, Olga Dies Dreaming is the story of a Nuyorican brother and sister from a gentrifying Sunset Park, Brooklyn, reckoning with the absent, politically radical mother and their glittering careers among New York City’s elite in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

Olga Dies Dreaming

Gomez-Rejon partnered with Gonzalez after reading her novel in manuscript form. Together, they developed the series from the ground up and will executive produce the pilot. 20th Television is the studio.

Gonzalez is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she is an Iowa Arts Fellow and the recipient of the Michener Copernicus Award for Fiction. She was the winner of the 2019 Disquiet Literary Prize and her work has been published by Vogue, The Cut, Ninth Letter and Joyland magazine. Her debut novel, Olga Dies Dreaming was sold to Flatiron Books after a 10-way auction and will publish in January.

Prior to beginning her MFA, Gonzalez was an entrepreneur and strategic consultant for nearly 15 years.

Gomez-Rejon directed the award-winning Sundance film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and The Current War: Director’s Cut among others. He most recently served as executive producer and director on Hunters.