Kate del Castillo Signs with Buchwald

Kate del Castillo has new representation…

The 49-year-old Mexican actress and telenovela star has signed with Buchwald.

Kate del Castillo

del Castillo stars in Telemundo’s hit drama La Reina del Sur.

One of the highest rated Spanish-language series in the world, La Reina del Sur adapts the bestseller by Spanish novelist Arturo Perez-Reverte. In the crime drama, which recently wrapped filming for Season 3, del Castillo plays Teresa Mendonza, a woman from Mexico who becomes the most powerful drug trafficker in southern Spain.

Castillo recently completed a two-series deal with Telemundo. Her production company, Cholawood, has a first-look development deal with Boomdog, the Mexico City-based division of Endemol Shine North America.

The actress starred opposite Will Smith as the villain in Sony’s Bad Boys for Life, also recently featuring on NBC’s sitcom Mr. Mayor, from creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, and the Netflix animated series Maya and the Three, created by Jorge R. Gutiérrez.

She rose to acclaim in America with her performance in Fox Searchlight’s Under the Same Moon, which is one of the highest-grossing Spanish-language theatrical releases in U.S. history, and has also featured in such films as BordertownNo Good Deed and All About Nina.

del Castillo has also appeared in series including PBSGolden Globe and Emmy-nominated drama American Family, The CW’s Jane the Virgin and Showtime’s Weeds, among others. Her one-woman Off-Broadway show, The Way She Spoke, made her the first Latina actress to earn Drama Desk, Drama League and Lucille Lortel Award nominations.

A philanthropist and outspoken global activist, del Castillo was appointed Ambassador for the Mexican Commission on Human Rights to combat human trafficking in 2009.

Valentina Garza Signs with William Morris Endeavor (WME)

It’s a new endeavor for Valentina Garza.

The 45-year-old Cuban-American writer and producer has signed with William Morris Endeavor (WME).

Valentina Garza

Garza, whose credits include co-executive producer roles on the CW’s Jane the Virgin and ABC’s The Baker and the Beauty, is currently under an overall deal at Universal Television.

She also wrote and executive produced the Jane spinoff pilot Jane the Novela; the project ended up not going forward. She also has developed for Lee Daniels Productions/20th as well as ABC Studios/ABC.

This most recent development season, Garza sold a Latinx family drama to NBC. It revolved around an explosive incident that brings a woman’s mentally ill mother crashing back into her life. She’s now forced to revisit her family’s painful past and blur carefully constructed boundaries between her mother and the family she’s chosen.

The project explores themes of race, mental health, housing instability, immigration and generational trauma.

Earlier in her career, Garza spent six seasons on Fox’s The Simpsons rising to supervising producer, then served as supervising producer on Fox’s Bordertown.

Colman Domingo Running for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors

Colman Domingo is ready to represent…

The 50-year-old Afro-Guatemalan American Broadway and television/film actor has thrown his hat in the ring as a candidate for the 2020 Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors

Colman Domingo

Domingo, who appeared on AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, is among the candidates in the Actors category.

In the Writing branch, Gregory Nava is in the running. The 71-year-old Mexican/Spanish American writer and filmmaker’s former projects include El Norte, Selena and Bordertown.

The winner in each branch will be chosen directly from these entries rather than whittling it down to four finalists in each, as has been done in the past.

The winners for the 17 open slots on the 54-member board will be chosen by preferential balloting, just like Best Picture race at the Oscars. Voting is underway with ballots due back June 5.

The Actors branch is the largest in the Academy and has drawn the biggest field of contenders for the one spot available. Domingo is running against incumbent governor Whoopi Goldberg and past governor Ed Begley Jr.

Here’s the full list of nominees by branch (* = incumbent):

Actors
Michael Lee Aday
Ed Begley, Jr
Robert Carradine
Nicolas Coster
Colman Domingo
Richard Dreyfuss
Spencer Garrett
Bruce Glover
Whoopi Goldberg*
James Keach
Stacy Keach
Peter Kwong
Jodi Long
Tim Matheson
Joe Pantoliano
Lou Diamond Phillips
Andrea Riseborough
Andrew Stevens
Rita Wilson

Cinematographers
Kerry Barden
Richard Hicks
Margery Simkin
Debra Zane
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Richard P Crudo
Svetlana Cvetko
Steven Fierberg
Michael Goi
Janusz Kaminski
Newton Thomas Sigel
Eric Steelberg
Kees Van Oostrum
Amelia Vincent
Roy Wagner
Mandy Walker*

Costume Designers
Molly Maginnis
Judianna Makovsky
Isis Mussenden*
Rita Ryack

Directors
Niki Caro
Scott Cooper
Ava DuVernay
Reginald Hudlin
Kasi Lemmons
Michael Mann
Philippe Mora
Kimberly Peirce*
Brett Ratner
Peyton Reed
Jason Reitman
Frances-Anne Solomon
Lewis Teague

Documentary
Kate Amend*
Geralyn Dreyfous
Karen Goodman
Lauren Greenfield
Tom Neff

Executives
Pam Abdy
Victoria Alonso
Michael W Barker
Thomas Bernard
Mark C Canton
Erica Huggins
David Linde*
Mike Medavoy
James W Morris
Gianni Nunnari
Stephen Strick
Patrick Wachsberger

Film Editors
Mark Helfrich
Michael Jablow
Nancy Richardson
Stephen Rivkin
David Rosenbloom
Paul Seydor
Terilyn A Shropshire

Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
Linda Flowers

Marketing and Public Relations
Stephen D Bruno
Kevin Goetz
Barry Dale Johnson
Michael Kaplan
Christina Kounelias*
Robert A Levine
Michele Robertson

Music
Charles Bernstein*
Paul Chihara
George S Clinton
John C Debney
Sharon Farber
William Goldstein
Jan A P Kaczmarek
Emilio Kauderer
Carole Bayer Sager

Producers
Khadija Alami
Jason Blum
Lawrence David Foldes
Jennifer Fox
Lynette Howell Taylor
Steven-Charles Jaffe
Robert Lantos
Lori McCreary
Chris Moore
Michael Peyser
Michael S Phillips
Peter Samuelson
Michael Shamberg
Jeffrey Sharp
Richard W Stevenson
Irwin Winkler

Production Design
Marcia Hinds
Geoffrey A Kirkland
John A Kuri
Carolyn A Loucks
John Muto
Rusty Smith
Melissa Stewart
Wynn P Thomas*
Thomas A Walsh

Short Films and Feature Animation
Jon Bloom
Edwin Catmull
Ron Diamond
Chris Donahue
Raul Garcia
Matthew Gross
Tom Sito*
Erik Smitt
Chris Tashima

Sound
Bobbi Banks
Teri E Dorman*
Nicholas Eliopoulos
Scott Gershin
Mark Mangini
F Hudson Miller
Victoria Rose Sampson
Mark P Stoeckinger
Bruce Tanis
Randy Thom

Visual Effects
Robert Blalack
Rob Bredow
Brooke Breton
Richard Edlund*
Jonathan Erland
Jeffrey M Kleiser
Jeffrey A Okun
Helena Packer
Joshua Pines
Theresa Ellis Rygiel
Rick Sayre

Writers
Carl A Gottlieb
Larry Karaszewski*
Gregory Nava
John Ridley
Howard A Rodmam

Derbez Signs First Look Deal with Universal Television

Eugenio Derbez is ready to crossover into English-language television.

The 54-year-old Mexican comedian, writer and director and his 3Pas producing partner Ben Odell have signed a first-look deal with Universal Television and sold their first two English-language comedies.

Eugenio Derbez

Derbez may be best known for Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film of all time, but he got his start in television.

The UTV deal marks Derbez’s first season developing English-language television, though both he and Odell have experience in the Spanish-language market.

Early in his career, Odell created and wrote some of Colombia’s highest-rated series; Derbez wrote, produced, directed and starred in numerous Spanish-language comedies and dramas for Televisa.

Derbez’s series, which have aired on Univision, have helped him amass a major stateside following that includes nearly 18 million fans on Facebook and Twitter.

As part of their stateside push, ABC is developing single-camera comedy Don’t Judge Me, which is inspired by Derbez’s life and revolves around Ignacio Galves, who is raising three kids with three ex-wives in a story of a man caught between his parenting style, pleasing the mothers of the kids and making room for the new woman in his life. Derbez will exec produce the comedy, which will be written by Aseem Batra and Eduardo Cisneros. Cisneros, who will reunite with frequent collaborator Derbez on the comedy, will co-exec produce.

NBC, meanwhile, has picked up script The Great Brown Hope, a single-camera comedy created by Isaac Gonzalez (Bordertown). The comedy centers on Nick, who after he’s kicked out of UCLA following a legendary semester, moves back home with his smothering, working-class — and very disappointed — Mexican family in Logan Heights, San Diego.

Gonzalez will also be credited as a co-EP on the comedy, which is also exec produced by Derbez and Odell.

Both projects hail from Universal Television.

The comedies come as diversity continues to be a high priority for broadcast networks, who this development season have put a focus on family comedy. “We’re all trying to figure out the family dynamic that’s not currently on the air,” ABC Studios executive vice president Patrick Moran told THR, noting that his studio in particular was looking for diverse voices — particularly Latino.

For its part, ABC recently picked up a family comedy inspired by the life of comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias (Cristela) as the network has found success with such diverse family fare as Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat, Dr. Ken as well as veteran The Goldbergs.

In Derbez, the networks have a brand star with a built-in following attached, which — should either comedy move forward — would give either network a leg up with marketing and public awareness. (ABC, for its part, found success with Pryanka Chopra and Quantico, utilizing her massive social media fan base to help launch the series as one of the few breakouts of the 2015-16 broadcast season.)

Gonzalez Added to Voice Cast of Fox’s Animated Series “Bordertown”

Nicholas Gonzalez has booked a ticket to Bordertown

Fox has announced that the 38-year-old Mexican American actor will voice the character of Ernesto Gonzalez on the network’s new animated series Bordertown.

Nicholas Gonzalez

From Family Guy’s Mark Hentemann and Seth MacFarlane, the series will explore family, politics and everything in between. It centers on two very different families living in a fictional Southwest desert town on the U.S. – Mexico border.

Gonzalez’s character is described as an ambitious immigrant and family man, who has been in the country less than 10 years, but is already doing better than his neighbor Bud Buckwald (voiced by Hank Azaria), which, it turns out, is a bit of an issue for the less-industrious native.

Bordertown

Azaria’s character is a married father of three and a Border Patrol agent who is just a tad behind the times and feels slightly threatened by the cultural changes transforming his neighborhood.

In addition to Gonzalez and Azaria, the voice cast members include Alex Borstein, Missi Pyle, Judah Friedlander and guest voice Efren Ramirez.

Fox Orders Seth MacFarlane’s Culture-Clash-Themed Animated Series “Bordertown”

Seth MacFarlane is bringing Americans an animated view of life along the U.S.-Mexico border…

Fox has given a 13-episode order to the new animated comedy Bordertown from the Family Guy creator and Mark Hentemann to debut during the 2014-2015 TV season.

Bordertown TV Series

The show, created by Hentemann, takes place in a fictitious desert town in Texas near the border with Mexico. The show revolves around Bud Buckwald, a married father of three and a Border Patrol agent not adjusting well to the cultural changes around him, and his next-door neighbor Ernesto Gonzales, a Mexican immigrant and father of four.

Bordertown takes a satirical look at America’s cultural shifts through the evolving relationships between the two families.

Bordertown has been in development at Fox for several years. In 2009, it was considered to be on Fox’s “hot list” along with Bob’s Burgers, which eventually made it on the air.

Now Bordertown will be getting its turn in the spotlight. Fox has room on Sunday night for a new series as American Dad is set to move to TBS next year.

The network also recently scrapped plans to air Murder Police, which had been given a 13-episode order. That show is now being shopped to other networks.

Fox still has additional seasons of The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers in the works, and is also developing a wide array of additional animated projects, including one from Flight of the Conchords Bret McKenzie.

Hentemann and MacFarlane will executive produce Bordertown for 20th Century Fox Television.