Cristela Alonzo is preaching the gospel…

The 38-year-old Mexican American stand-up comedian/actress has been cast as the female lead opposite Jason Ritter in ABC’s The Gospel of Kevin, an hourlong drama pilot from ABC Studios.

Directed by Paul McGuigan, The Gospel of Kevin is a light one-hour about Kevin (Ritter), a down-on-his-luck man who is tasked by God with a mission to save the world. Kevin is a cluelessly self-serving jerk who’s on a dangerous path to despair. After a failed suicide attempt, he’s going home to stay with his widowed twin sister and niece for a time, only to be met with a crisis in the person Yvette (Alonso). Tough-talking but not without compassion, a “source of luminescence” and clearly divine, Yvette is a “warrior for God,” who explains to Kevin that he’s been “tasked with a sacred mission.”

Alonzo, the first Mexican American woman to create, produce, write, and star in her own US network show, has been courted to return to series television for awhile now.

Her 2014 sitcom Cristela was a Cinderella story, with a full pilot shot on a shoestring budget that beat the odds and landed on the ABC schedule, subsequently earning a full-season order. She appears regularly on Conan and The View, in addition to being featured on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham and Gabriel Iglesias Presents Stand Up Revolution. She most recently can be seen in her comedy special Lower Classy on Netflix.