Rivera Reveals She Has a “Bun in the Oven”

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Naya Rivera is preparing for an important personal role…

The 28-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer and Glee star is expecting her first child with her actor husband Ryan Dorsey, she revealed Tuesday.

Rivera, who has landed a recurring role on Lifetime’s upcoming third season of Devious Maids, made the announcement with a special “Bun in the Oven” graphic on her Instagram account.

In a blog post titled “Surprise!” on her website, Rivera wrote:

“We’re having a baby! Ryan and I feel so blessed and can’t wait to welcome the newest member of our family.”

Rivera is currently appearing the sixth and final season of Glee on Fox.

Rivera Lands Recurring Role on Eva Longoria’s “Devious Maids” Sudser

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Naya Rivera is downright devious…

The 28-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer has agreed to a recurring role on Marc Cherry’s Lifetime series Devious Maids.

Rivera will portray Blanca, a new maid in the neighborhood who has landed a job with the seemingly picture-perfect Beverly Hills family. But she soon discovers a terrible secret–something that could change her life forever.

It’s Rivera’s first major acting commitment since wrapping the final season of Glee.

Additionally, Rivera, who is in talks for a book deal, has reportedly been asked back on ABC’s morning talk show The View and will do several more episodes as co-host this month. She previously did two appearances in November and two more last month, with virtually all producing soundbites that have gone viral, boosting The View’s social media presence.

There had been speculation that the producers of the embattled daytime talk show may have bigger plans for Rivera, and her return for more guest co-hosting is further in the fuel that.

The Final Season of “Glee,” with Rivera & Lea Michele, Returning on Fridays in January

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Naya Rivera is preparing for Foxy Fridays starting in January…

Fox has announced plans to air the 13-episode final season of Glee, featuring the 27-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer and Lea Michelle, on Fridays at 8:00 pm ET.

Rivera, who portrays Santana Lopez on the musical dramedy, is returning as a recurring guest star for Glee’s sixth and final season.

Glee will return with a two-hour season premiere on Friday, January 9.

Michele at the Center of the Sixth and Final Season of an Ohio-Based “Glee”

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

It looks like Lea Michele’s heading back to the beginning…

The 27-year-old part-Spanish actress and Glee star will be returning to Ohio for the Fox musical dramedy’s sixth and final season.

The truncated season will revolve around Michele’s character Rachel Berry, who returns to Lima after a “humiliating failure” as a television actress.

The former New Directions star will head back home to figure out what she wants to do next and, after discovering that Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) has disbanded the glee club, undertakes the task of reinstating and leading the group that helped launch her career.

Meanwhile, Blaine (Darren Criss), Sam (Chord Overstreet) and Will (Matthew Morrison) have all found new and surprising gigs in Ohio.

Fox notes that other McKinley High alums will also return for Glee‘s final run.

Michele, Criss, Overstreet, Lynch and Morrison will all return as series regulars and be joined by Chris Colfer (Kurt), Dot-Marie Jones (Coach Beiste), Kevin McHale (Artie) and Amber Riley (Mercedes).

Naya Rivera will return with a reduced role. Max Adler has also booked a major recurring role in the final season, reprising his role as Dave Karofsky.

Co-creator Ryan Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter at the Emmys on Monday that he doesn’t currently know what the final scene of the series will be. “I did. I don’t anymore, but I think it will be emotional,” he said.

Murphy told reporters in April that the final season would feature a time jump and focus more on the original castmembers, shifting the focus from its previous relocated home in New York.

“The final season is really its own story and its own location, and while the New York stuff will be alive, the final season is not New York-centric at all,” Murphy said. “It really [will be] a lovely, fitting season that … dwells on the original people that were on the show and what happens to them and how they give back. That really is the last season. … We’ll revisit some of the new kids that came and went. There’s a return of the Jane-Matt characters in a big way. It’s really interesting, a very sweet, satisfying ending to the story.”

Murphy’s original vision for the end of the series featured Rachel and Finn’s (the late Cory Monteith) “star-crossed lovers getting together and having a happy ending and them both getting their dreams.” He added, “The fact that that can’t be is a big pain in all of our hearts.”

Glee‘s final season returns midseason on Fox. An exact premiere date has not yet been determined.

Rivera Marries Actor Ryan Dorsey in Mexico

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Naya Rivera is officially off the market…

The 27-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer and Glee star tied the knot over the weekend, marrying actor Ryan Dorsey in Cabo San Lucas on Saturday, Rivera’s rep confirms to The Hollywood Reporter.

A small group of close family members were on hand for the intimate ceremony, which was first reported by People magazine.

“We feel truly blessed to be joined as husband and wife,” the couple told People. “Our special day was fated and everything we could have ever asked for.”

Rivera was previously engaged to rapper Big Sean before they broke up in April.

Rivera and Dorsey were reportedly longtime friends whose relationship grew once Rivera was single again this spring.

Rivera reportedly wore a Monique Lhuillier gown and Dorsey wore a Dolce & Gabbana suit during the ceremony.

Dorsey has guest-starred on Southland, Parks and Recreation and Mob City.

Rivera already made it official on her Twitter account, changing her name to Naya Rivera Dorsey.

Rivera Returning as a Recurring Guest Star for the Sixth and Final Season of “Glee”

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Here’s news to cheer about… Naya Rivera is returning for the final season of Glee.

Despite being absent in the season five finale, the 27-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer will return to Fox’s musical dramedy as a recurring guest star.

It’s reportedly Rivera’s own request to be downgraded from a series regular, according to TVLine.com.

The report comes following Rivera’s alleged on-set feud with co-star Lea Michele, but Michele denied it.

“It’s really unbelievable the amount of the things that can just be completely made up,” she said when visiting Late Show with David Letterman in May, adding that the rumors were “really frustrating.”

Series creator Ryan Murphy also told Extra, “I don’t think there is a story between Naya and Lea. I always marvel at the things that become headline news that most of the time are completely fabricated. Naya’s coming back next year, Lea’s coming back next year. Anybody ever in that cast has an open invitation to come back and finish the character they so beautifully started.”

A source, however, said Rivera had a disagreement with the show’s producers, though another insider insisted that it “had nothing to do with Lea.”

Glee sixth season will air in spring 2015.

Murphy has discussed the concept for the final season, saying, “It really feels like it’s getting back to its roots, which I love. I’m sort of reinvigorated about it. It’s getting back to what I was initially interested in with the show, which was arts in school.

The last season is really about the importance of arts education in our high schools… I think people will like it.”

Rivera Directs Special Immigrant History Month PSA

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Naya Rivera is at the helm of history…

The 27-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer and Glee star has made her directorial debut, helming a special PSA for the first-ever Immigrant History Month.

The nationwide effort, which runs during the month of June, aims to showcase and gather inspirational stories of immigration in America.

The video, which shows an envelope being passed from person to person, highlights everyone’s backgrounds and immigration stories.

“Aside from being a Latina, my family immigrated from Puerto Rico and Yugoslavia so I know all about that,” she told BuzzFeed. “I wouldn’t be able to do what I do today if they didn’t come to America. Everybody has an immigration story.”

IFC Midnight Acquires the U.S. Distribution Rights to Rivera’s Thriller “Home”

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

All’s moving forward on the home front for Naya Rivera…

IFC Midnight has acquired the distribution rights to 27-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress and Glee star’s feature film Home, following its premiere last month at the SXSW Film Conference and Festival.

From writer-director Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact), the thriller stars Rivera, Academy Award-nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno, Awkward’s Ashley Rickards, Wyatt Russell and Ava Acres.

It centers on an ambitious real estate agent (Moreno) who is selling a house with a checkered past. When she tries to help the runaway daughter of the property’s owners, she and her sister (Rivera) cross paths with a sinister supernatural force.

IFC Midnight will release Home in theaters and via video on demand (VOD) this year.

Coll to Star in the CW’s Telenovela Adaptation “Jane the Virgin”

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Ivonne Coll has landed another abuelita role…

The 66-year-old Puerto Rican actress, who has portrayed the grandmother to Naya Rivera’s character on Glee and Katie Leclerc’s abuelita on Switched at Birth, has landed a series regular role on the CW’s drama pilot Jane the Virgin.

Based on the successful Venezuelan telenovela Juana la virgen, Jane the Virgin centers on Jane (portrayed by Filly Brown sensation Gina Rodriguez), a hardworking religious girl who, due to a series of outrageous events, is accidentally artificially inseminated.

Coll will portray Alba, Jane’s 60ish doting grandmother who teaches her at an early age the importance of staying pure until marriage. It’s later learned that Alba has actually been harboring a lifelong secret.

Early in her career, Coll, a former Miss Puerto Rico, starred in the films The Godfather, Part II and the Lean on Me.

Coll has appeared on television in shows like Teen Wolf, L.A. Law, Malibu Shores and Chicago Hope.

Rivera to Perform “Valerie” on the 100th Episode of “Glee”

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Naya Rivera is preparing to reinterpret one of her most memorable Glee performances…

The 27-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer will offer a new take on her acclaimed performance of Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson’s version of “Valerie” for the Fox musical dramedy’s 100th episode.

In the second season episode entitled “Special Education,” Rivera sang lead on the track by The Zutons during the New Directions’ performance at the 2010 Western Ohio Sectional Championship.

Rivera also performed the track in the Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, which was released in 2011.

This time around, she’ll perform the song alongside Heather Morris (Brittany).

In addition, Rivera will also perform Britney Spears’ “Toxic” with Morris and Diana Agron (Quinn), and “Be Okay” with Lea Michele.

The music in the two-part episode was chosen by the show’s fans, who were asked to pick 10 of the show’s 30 most beloved performances to be remixed and featured on the series’ landmark episode.

Set to air on March 18 and 25 at 8 p.m., the 100th episode will center on Jane Lynch‘s principal Sue Sylvester, who after years of disdain for the New Directions and Matthew Morrison‘s Will Schuester, finally succeeds in ending the glee club in Lima.

Many original castmembers — Morris (Brittany), Harry Shum Jr. (Mike), Mark Salling (Puck), Dancing With the Stars winner Amber Riley (Mercedes), Agron (Quinn) as well as Kristin Chenoweth (April) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Holly Holliday) — will return to say their final goodbyes to Will and each other in the emotional episode.

To honor the milestone, Columbia Records will release Glee: The Music Celebrating 100 Episodes, which will include brand-new versions of Glee favorites from the original cast — including Journey‘s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Pink‘s “Raise Your Glass” and the original song “Loser Like Me.”

The album will be released on March 25.

Here’s the complete 100th Glee tracklist:

1. “Keep Holding On”* featuring Mark Salling (Puck)
2. “Valerie”* featuring Naya Rivera (Santana) and Morris (Brittany)
3. “Defying Gravity”* featuring Lea Michele( Rachel), Chris Colfer (Kurt) and Riley (Mercedes)
4. “Raise Your Glass”* featuring Morrison (Will) and Chenoweth (April)
5. “Toxic”* featuring Rivera (Santana), Morris (Brittany) and Agron (Quinn)
6. “Happy” featuring Paltrow (Holly), Chenoweth (April), Morrison (Will), Darren Criss(Blaine) and Riley (Mercedes)
7. “Party All the Time” featuring Paltrow (Holly)
8. “Total Eclipse of the Heart”* featuring Morrison (Will) and Chenoweth (April)
9. “Loser Like Me”* featuring Criss (Blaine), Kevin McHale (Artie), Chord Overstreet(Sam) and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina)
10. “Be Okay” featuring Michele (Rachel) and Rivera (Santana)
11. “I Am Changing” featuring Riley (Mercedes) and Colfer (Kurt)
12. “Just Give Me a Reason” featuring Agron (Quinn) and Salling (Puck)
13. “Don’t Stop Believin’”* featuring Michele (Rachel), Criss (Blaine), Colfer (Kurt), Morrison (Will), McHale (Artie) and Ushkowitz (Tina)

* Season-five version

Glee returns from its midseason break on February 25 in its new night and time on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox.

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