Marc Menchaca to Star in Apple TV+’s Limited Series “The Big Cigar”

Marc Menchaca is going undercover…

The 46-year-old half-Mexican American actor has joined the cast of Apple TV+’s six-episode limited series The Big Cigar, which is centered on Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton.

Marc MenchacaMenchaca, who most recently starred on Netflix’s Ozark, will star alongside André Holland, Don Cheadle, Alessandro Nivola and Tiffany Boone in the project.

Based on the eponymous Playboy magazine article by Joshuah Bearman, the series tells the extraordinary, hilarious, almost-too-good-to-be-true story of how Newton relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider (Nivola), the Hollywood producer behind Easy Rider, to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI.

Menchaca will portray Agent Sydney Clark. A former lawyer and Vietnam vet from Oklahoma, Clark lives undercover as a dirty hippie while pursuing Newton, who is wanted on charges of killing a teenage prostitute.

NAACP Image Award winner Janine Sherman Barrois is serving as The Big Cigar‘s showrunner. Jim Hecht wrote the show’s first episode, with Cheadle directing and executive producing the first two.

The show hails from Warner Bros. Television, where Barrois and her Folding Chair Productions are under an overall deal. Barrois and Hecht are executive producing alongside Bearman, Joshua Davis and Arthur Spector through their production company Epic, a division of Vox Media Studios.

Menchaca is best known for his scene-stealing turns as Jack Hoskins on HBO’s hit series The Outsider, and as Russ Langmore on the Emmy-winning Netflix drama series Ozark.

He will next be seen in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, HBO’s miniseries The White House Plumbers, John Hyams’ thriller Sick and Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi pic True Love for New Regency.

 

His additional television credits include Black MirrorHomelandMacGyverBlue BloodsChicago P.D.Sleepy HollowThe Blacklist, Law & Order: SVU, CSI and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

TNT Moves Up Premiere of Fourth & Final Season of Judy Reyes’ “Claws” By a Week

Judy Reyes’ claws will be coming out earlier than expected…

 TNT has moved up the premiere date of the fourth and final season of Claws, starring the 54-year-old Dominican American actress.

Judy Reyes, ClawsThe final season will now kick off with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, December 19 at 9:00 pm, the network has announced. \

It was previously scheduled a week later, on Sunday, December 26.

The dark comedy follows Niecy Nash-Betts’ Desna Simms, who, alongside her crew of manicurists from the Nail Artisans of Manatee County salon, rises to power in the crime world to claim her share of cash and respect.

Co-stars include Reyes, Carrie Preston, Karrueche Tran, Jenn Lyon, Kevin Rankin, Jason Antoon, Harold Perrineau and Dean Norris.

“Over the seasons the friendships have deepened and the character of Polly has deepened thanks to the support of the women around her that helped her through some tough times and brought her to a stronger place,” Preston said of her character. “She has more confidence. She’s still going to con her way through things but at least she’s got the support of her friends.”

Tran, who plays Virginia in the series, looks back at far how her character has come and what she’s facing as the show prepares for its last hurrah.

“Virginia started off as a stripper, and the main thing about her has been her growth and her maturity,” Tran shared. “Towards the end of the season, she starts to get into the business side of things and really starts to become a grown-up. All while seeing all these layers pulled back and you’ll learn more about who she is and where she’s from. She’s also still looking for love but also finding the love within herself.”

Tran was also trying not to give away too much about Virginia’s special abilities, but she revealed a little teaser regarding what’s ahead.

“I don’t want to spoil it, but this is something we had a conversation about with the writers,” she said. “I will say it’s something that I really wanted to keep. … You’re going to have to watch Season 4.”

Jennifer Lyon also looked back on how her character Jen has come since the series premiere and where she’s headed now.

“For Jen, in the beginning, she was so ‘ride or die,’ and as the series progressed, she realized that riding or dying shouldn’t be the only two choices,” Lyon shared. “Is there something in the middle where I could live a life with my family safe, stay sober, love my girlfriends? Her journey of, ‘Can I be a saint in the city?’ continues to progress and at the end of the season you get the answer to that.”

Reyes celebrates Quiet Ann’s progress and laments her struggles.

“Quiet Ann started as the muscle and security for the group, she was just happy to be around and have an opportunity to take care of and learn from these women,” Reyes said. “And she was quiet, all of this has changed and progressed as the series has gone along. She’s found love and lost love and the bond that she had with the women was severed by the conflicts with Desna. I think we’ll see what the result of her having lost the love of her life.”

Claws is executive produced by Janine Sherman Barrois, Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, series creator Eliot Laurence, and showrunners Sharon Lee Watson and Emily Silver.

The series is produced for TNT by Jones and McCormack’s Le Train Train in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Dascha Polanco to Star in the NBC pilot “Dangerous Moms,” Based on Spanish Series “Señoras del (h)AMPA”

It’s a dangerous time for Dascha Polanco

The 38-year-old Dominican actress has been cast as a co-lead opposite Shanola Hampton in the NBC pilot Dangerous Moms, from Warner Bros. Television and Universal Television.

Dascha Polanco

Written by Janine Sherman Barrois and based on the Spanish series Señoras del (h)AMPA, Dangerous Moms is an off-center dark dramedy about four diverse mothers — two of them played by Hampton and Polanco — who accidentally kill the queen bee of their school’s PTA during the demonstration of a new high-end food processor.

The story becomes a female anthem about friendship and family as it tells the story of one completely unprepared group of women who must juggle their everyday lives while their worlds are turned upside down.

Polanco will play Pia, the impeccable nemesis of Monique (Hampton). Pia is the No. 1 salesperson for the state-of-the-art TurboThunder3000 food processor and a popular mommy blogger. She also is the landlord of a few apartment buildings in the community, which she hopes to gentrify.

Barrois executive produces with Rachel Kaplan, Intrigue Entertainment’s Tariq Jalil and Lucas Carter as well as Arantxa Écija from Mediaset España Comunicación and Santi Botello from Producciones Mandarina SL, who produced the original series.

Polanco, currently co-starring in Warner Bros. In the Heights, is best known for her work on Orange Is the New Black, for which she shared in three comedy ensemble SAG Awards.

She’s set to star in the upcoming MGM superhero thriller film Samaritan, opposite Sylvester Stallone, and will make her leading film role debut in Adrian Martinez’s indie dark comedy iGilbert.

TNT Releases Trailer for Reyes’ Dramedy “Claws”

Judy Reyes is clawing her way back into television…

TNT has released a new trailer for Claws, starring the 49-year-old Dominican American actress.

Judy Reyes,

The dramedy, which also stars Niecy Nash, will premiere on June 11 premiere.

TNT describes the hourlong show as “a midnight-dark, wickedly funny meditation on female badness set in a Central Florida nail salon, where there is a lot more going on than silk wraps and pedicures.”

Written/co-executive produced by Eliot Laurence and directed by Nicole Kassell, Claws follows the rise of five diverse and treacherous manicurists working at the Nail Artisan of Manatee County. In addition to Reyes and Nash, the series also stars Carrie Preston, Harold Perrineau, Jenn Lyon, Jack Kesy, Karrueche Tran, Kevin Rankin and Jason Antoon co-star.

“This is a show with great storytelling featuring empowered female characters and brought to life by a diverse group of incredibly talented individuals both in front of and behind the camera,” Sarah Aubrey, EVP Original Programming for TNT, said upon’s the show’s 10-episode pickup.

The series hails from executive producers Rashida Jones, Will McCormack and Janine Sherman Barrois, who serves as showrunner. Jones and McCormack’s Le Train Train produces in association with Warner Horizon Television and Turner’s Studio T.