Tag Archives: Lower Classy

Cristela Alonzo to Release New Netflix Comedy Special “Upper Classy” in Late September

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Cristela Alonzo is upp(er)ing her comedy game…

The 46-year-old Mexican American comedian, writer, actress and producer is set to globally release her new Netflix special, Upper Classy, on September 23rd.

Cristela AlonzoThe special, filmed at The Majestic theater in Dallas, finds Alonzo in pursuit of happiness.

Whether finding out she’s doing better than her high school bully, visiting a spa and getting too much self-care or taking her family on their first vacation ever, Alonzo teaches her family (and herself) how to enjoy life, whether they like it or not.

The special is Alonzo’s third original for Netflix, following Cristela Alonzo: Middle Classy in 2022, and Cristela Alonzo: Lower Classy six years before that.

In addition to writing and performing, she executive produced the special alongside Page Hurwitz and Wanda Sykes for Push It Productions, with Hurwitz also serving as director of the special.

Alonzo made history in 2014 as the first Latina to create, produce, write and star in her own network sitcom with Cristela on ABC, a semi-autobiographical series that drew on her working-class upbringing in Texas.

Starting to experiment with stand-up back when she was working as an office manager at the Addison Improv in Dallas, TX in the early 2000s, she was a semi-finalist on Last Comic Standing in 2010 and has also been seen on the likes of Conan, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Gabriel Iglesias Presents Stand Up Revolution, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Live at Gotham.

Alonzo has also voiced roles in projects like His Dark Materials and Cars 3 and released her memoir, Music to My Years: A Mixtape-Memoir of Growing Up and Standing Up, in 2019.

Cristela Alonzo Partnering with Dan Bucatinsky to Develop “She Gets It From Me” for CBS

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Cristela Alonzo gets it…

The 43-year-old Mexican American comedian, actress, writer and producer will partner with Dan Bucatinsky to develop the series She Gets It From Me for CBS.

Cristela AlonzoThe semi-autobiographical single-camera comedy is inspired by Bucatinsky’s journey as an adoptive parent.

Alonzo, the first Latina woman to create, produce, write and star in her own US primetime comedy, will star in, co-write and executive produce the project.

The intention is for Bucatinsky to also star, but there isn’t an acting deal for him at this time, according to Deadline. Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican and Ryan Seacrest Prods. are producing for ABC Signature.

She Gets It From Me centers on what happens when the teenaged, adopted daughter of two hyper-devoted, straight-laced, suburban gay dads seeks out a relationship with her uniquely bold, take-no-prisoners, Latin birth mom (Alonzo). The series examines a contemporary blended family, a poignant and hilarious exploration of the shotgun marriage of not only the birth mom and the adoptive parents, but also the complications and joys of blending both of their big, noisy, multiethnic and multigenerational families.

She Gets It From Me draws on parenthood experiences Bucatinsky chronicled in his 2012 bestselling comedic memoir Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight?: Confessions of a Gay Dad. He’s reuniting with Lopez on the CBS comedy after appearing opposite her in the romantic comedy film Second Act.

Alonzo broke ground in 2014 with her ABC comedy Cristela. Her other television credits include HBO’s His Dark Materials, and Nickelodeon’s The Casagrandes and Legends of the Hidden Temple.

Alonzo has done two stand-up comedy specials for Netflix: 2017’s Lower Classy and 2022’s Middle Classy.

Alonzo to Star in ABC’s Drama Pilot “The Gospel of Kevin”

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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.

Cristela Alonzo

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.