Guerrero to Star in CBS’ Comedy Pilot “Distefano”

Diane Guerrero is preparing for a culture clash…

The 30-year-old Colombian American actress has been cast as the female lead opposite Chris Distefano in Distefano, CBS’ comedy pilot from How I Met Your Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas and Sony Television.

Diane Guerrero

Inspired by the Distefano — an Italian American from Brooklyn and a new dad who married a Puerto Rican woman — Distefano centers on Izzy (Guerrero) and Chris (Distefano), two twentysomethings raising their newborn daughter and merging their meddling families – one Colombian American, one Italian.

The script was originally written with Izzy as Puerto Rican, but the character is now being reworked for Guerrero’s background, as representing her community is extremely mportant to her.

Guerrero’s Izzy is the love of Chris’ life and the mother of their 3-month-old baby. Annie Potts portrays Chris’ Irish Catholic mother Helen.

Bays and Thomas wrote the script based on a story they co-wrote with Distefano, with HIMYM director/executive producer Pam Fryman directing and executive producing.

Guerrero, best known for her role on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, was previously attached to star and executive produce a drama series project for CBS/CBS Television about undocumented immigrants based on her memoir In the Country We Love.

She’s also had a recurring role as best friend Lina on the CW/CBS Television Studios dramedy Jane the Virgin, teamed with Jane exec producers Jennie Snyder Urman, Ben Silverman and Paul Sciarrotta.

Guerrero and her OITNB castmates recently picked up their third straight Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Guerrero to Star in CBS’ Immigration Drama “In the Country We Love”

Diane Guerrero has gone Country

The 30-year-old Colombian American actress, a recurring guest star on Jane the Virgin, has partnered with executive producer/showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman, executive producer Ben Silverman and co-executive producer Paul Sciarrotta for In the Country We Love, a potential drama project for CBS.

Diane Guerrero

Guerrero is attached to star in the drama, which is based on her memoir. Jane the Virgin producer CBS Television Studios is the studio.

Written by Sciarrotta, In the Country We Love centers on a successful corporate attorney who starts taking pro bono cases for undocumented immigrants after her past as the child of deported parents is revealed by a family emergency.

Guerrero’s memoir In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, co-written with best-selling author Michelle Burford, chronicles Guerrero’s harrowing experience as a teenager.

She was 14 when her parents were taken from their Boston home by immigration agents and deported to their native Colombia while she was at school. From then on, Guerrero, who was born in the U.S., had to rely on the kindness of family friends.

Guerrero was named a White House Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization in 2015 and is an outspoken advocate for common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform, having worked with Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Mi Familia Vota, a nonpartisan Latino civic engagement organization to promote citizenship and voter registration.

This is the second broadcast drama project in development for next season that touches on the hot-button issue of immigration, along with The CW’s Casa, from Warner Bros Television and Berlanti Prods.

Guerrero is best known for her role as Maritza Ramos on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. She plays Jane’s (Gina Rodriguez) best friend Lina on Jane the Virgin.