Matthew Taylor Zuniga to Star in the Indie Drama “Windows”

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Matthew Taylor Zuniga Is opening a new window to his career.

The 25-year-old Afro-Latino actor will star in Windows, an indie drama from filmmaker Andre Fuad Degas.

Taylor Zuniga is among new cast additions that includes Sarah Himadeh, Katya Martín and newcomer Shayan Hooshmand.

Currently in production, the film follows Nadene (Himadeh), a once-celebrated Syrian poet now working as a maid in New York, whose quiet life unravels when she agrees to let the FBI use her apartment window for surveillance, led by agent Emily Santiago (Martín). As her teenage son Zeezo (Hooshmand) is revealed to be involved with the very criminals being watched, Nadene is thrust into a moral and emotional crisis. Torn between survival, motherhood, and the desire for freedom, she embarks on a dangerous journey that blurs the lines between justice and self-sacrifice.

The film’s cast also includes David Mckittrick and Iliana Guibert.

Jodi Lahaye is producing, alongside Eloïse Descleves and Nubia Films, with the support of New York State Council on the Arts.

Zuniga’s previous credits include Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and New Amsterdam.

Julia Mayorga to Star in the Indie Drama “People Not Places”

Posted on July 18, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Julia Mayorga has found her people…

The Latina actress has landed in the indie drama People Not Places, hailing from director Brad Furman.

Mayorga is joined by Allegra Leguizamo as new cast additions to the film that will star Shirley MacLaine and Stephen Dorff.

Written by Ellen Brown Furman, the filmmaker’s mother, the film centers on Clare (MacLaine), an elderly widow living in Atlantic City who meets an erratic homeless man (Dorff) who sleeps in cars. Their shared loneliness causes them to bond, as they find the courage to face his regrettable past and her shortened future.

Mayorga plays Sarah, Clare’s stunning daughter-in-law with an artistic flair, who creates jewelry. Her husband Cole is torn between his need to support Sarah’s ambition and his mother’s need for more time with her son.

Leguizamo plays Allison, a young woman who asked for a gardener but got much more.

Furman and Jess Fuerst are producing the film under their Road Less Traveled Productions banner.

Currently, Mayorga can be seen opposite Jeff Daniels, Bill Camp and Maura Tierney on Showtime’s American Rust, which moved to Prime Video for its second season earlier this year.

She can also be seen leading the drama Rare Objects, marking the latest directorial outing of Katie Holmes.

Seen on series like The Equalizer and New Amsterdam, Leguizamo will next appear in Furman’s action thriller Tin Soldier, starring Jamie Foxx, Robert De Niro and Scott Eastwood, as well as Rachel Israel’s comedy The Floaters starring Jackie Tohn, Aya Cash, Jake Ryan and Seth Green.

Recently, she wrapped production on Flash Warning, a short film she stars in, which she also wrote and directed.

Melissa Navia Signs with Innovative Artists

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Melissa Navia has new representation…

The 39-year-old Latinx actor and writer has signed with Innovative Artists .

Navia can currently be seen starring in the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The series, a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery and a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, follows Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the USS Enterprise as they explore new worlds around the galaxy. Navia stars as ‘Lieutenant Erica Ortegas,’ the charismatic helmsman of the USS Enterprise. Season 2 premiered on June 15 and has already been renewed for a third season.

Additionally, Navia previously recurred on the CBS series Bull and AMC’s Dietland. She also guest starred on NBC’s New Amsterdam and Billions and Homeland for Showtime.

On the big screen, she has appeared in a variety of indie films and shorts.

In 2013, she won the award for Best Actress at the Wild Rose Independent Film Festival for her leading role as ‘Dawn’ in The Paragon Cortex.

Her additional film credits include Sleeping with the Fishes, Bel Canto, The Chosen, Hymns and What It Was.

In March 2020, she made her Off Broadway debut in the world premiere of Bundle of Sticks from J. Julian Christopher.

Ana Villafañe to Star as Fidel Castro’s Daughter Alina Fernandez in “Alina of Cuba: La Hija Rebelde”

Posted on March 21, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Ana Villafañe is ready to Rebel yell…

The 32-year-old Cuban American actress and singer will star in the indie feature Alina of Cuba: La Hija Rebelde.

Villafañe will portray Fidel Castro’s daughter and anti-communism activist, Alina Fernandez, in the film from Mankind Entertainment and Maven Pictures.

Alina of Cuba is based on the true-life story of Fernandez, a Cuban American immigrant and human rights advocate whose birth was the result of a passionate love affair between Castro and Natalia “Naty” Revuelta. Revuelta, a Cuban-born socialite, sacrificed her and her physician husband’s personal belongings and finances to help fund the revolution.

Fernandez learned of her connection to Castro at the age of 10: when after years of secret visits to her home, she was finally told by her mother that “El Comandante” was her biological father. Fernandez and her mother stayed in Cuba after the former’s stepfather and her sister fled to the U.S. after his medical clinic was shut down.

Fernandez eventually became one of Castro’s most outspoken critics; she was arrested on more than one occasion for trying to leave and classified as a dissident forbidden to travel outside of Cuba. She defected to Spain in 1993 and later made Miami her permanent home.

The biopic will shoot in Cartagena, Colombia this summer with Goya Award-winner Miguel Bardem set as director.

Alina of Cuba, formerly known as Castro’s Daughter, is written by Academy Award nominee Jose Rivera, and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz.

Villafañe is best known for her breakout role in the Broadway musical On Your Feet portraying Gloria Estefan.

She later starred as Nina Rosario in the Kennedy Center’s 2018 production of In the Heights, and then made her off-Broadway debut in MCC’s critically acclaimed Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties that same year.

On television, Villafañe most recently portrayed Dr. Valentin Castro in NBC’s New Amsterdam and Diana Barea in Sunnyside for the network, as well as KT in the Paramount+ series Younger.

Jhené Aiko to Perform “America the Beautiful” at Super Bowl LVI

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Jhené Aiko is preparing for a beautiful moment…

The 33-year-old part-Spanish and Dominican American Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter will perform “America the Beautiful” before the start of the game at Super Bowl LVI on February 13.

Country star Mickey Guyton will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the game, while Sandra Mae Frank, who plays Dr. Wilder on NBC’s New Amsterdam, is set to perform both songs in American Sign Language on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf.

Also set to take the pregame stage is veteran gospel duo Mary Mary, who will accompanied by the LA Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles on “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Zedd will serve as the pregame DJ.

NBC will telecast the Big Game from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The NFL championship will pit the hometown Los Angeles Rams against the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals.

The game will also air on Telemundo and stream live on Peacock.

Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar will headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show. The quintet, which never have appeared together onstage, have 43 Grammys and 22 No. 1 albums among them.

Ana Villafañe to Star in Apple’s Drama “Bad Monkey”

Posted on January 11, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Ana Villafañe isn’t afraid to monkey around…

The 32-year-old Cuban and Salvadoran American actress/singer has joined the cast of Apple’s drama Bad Monkey, written and executive produced Bill Lawrence.

Villafañe, best known for her portrayal of Latina icon Gloria Estefan in the Broadway musical On Your Feet!, joins an ensemble cast that Rob Delaney, newcomer Ahmed Elhaj and Arturo Luis Soria as series regulars, joining Vince Vaughn, who also serves as executive producer, Michelle Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith and Meredith Hagner.

Based on Carl Hiaasen’s popular 2013 novel, Bad Monkey tells the story of Andrew Yancy (Vaughn), a one-time detective demoted to restaurant inspector in Southern Florida. A severed arm found by a tourist out fishing pulls Yancy into the world of greed and corruption that decimates the land and environment in both Florida and the Bahamas. And yes, there’s a monkey.

Villafañe plays Rosa, a Miami medical examiner who is starting to realize she may not be cut out for her job, so is happy to ditch work and help Yancy try to figure out the story of the severed arm he brings into her lab.

Soria portrays Rogelio, a good Key West police detective who comes to his best friend and ex-partner, Andrew Yancy, with a life-changing assignment. It further complicates things that Rogelio’s husband is also Yancy’s attorney.

Villafañe was most recently seen in a recurring role on the final season of Younger. Her other previous credits include a heavily recurring role on NBC’s New Amsterdam. She was most recently seen in a starring role in the Broadway production of Chicago.

Soria’s guest star/recurring roles include Insatiable and The Blacklist.

Diany Rodriguez to Appear on Season Nine of NBC’s “The Blacklist”

Posted on October 18, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Diany Rodriguez is makin’ the (Black)list…

The Latina actress has joined the cast of NBC’s long-running drama The Blacklist for its upcoming ninth season of the series.

Rodriguez, who has appeared on Law & Order: Organized Crime, will appear in a heavily recurring role.

Rodriguez will play Weecha Xiu. With a tough physical presence and a hardened demeanor, Weecha is more than capable of defending herself against anyone who might threaten her or her associates.

The Blacklist, starring James Spader, Diego Klattenhoff and Amir Arison, will jump forward two years in its season 9 return airing on October 21 (8/7c) on NBC.

In The Blacklist, in the two years following the death of Elizabeth Keen, Raymond Reddington (Spader) and the members of the FBI Task Force have disbanded – their lives now changed in unexpected ways and with Reddington’s whereabouts unknown. Finding themselves each at a crossroads, a common purpose compels them to renew their original mission: to take down dangerous, vicious and eccentric Blacklisters.

The Blacklist is produced by Sony Pictures Television Studios and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

Rodriguez is best known for her role as A.D.A. Maria Delgado on NBC’s Law & Order: Organized Crime. She will soon be seen opposite Eugenio Debrez in Hulu’s upcoming rom-com The Valet.

Other credits include HBO’s The Outsider, Showtime’s Ray Donovan and NBC’s New Amsterdam, among others.

Erica Hernandez to Star in CBS’ Drama Pilot “True Lies,” An Adaptation of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Action Comedy

Posted on October 1, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Erica Hernandez is living a Lie(s)…

The Latina actress has been cast as a series regular in CBS’ drama pilot True Lies, the television adaptation of James Cameron’s 1994 action comedy movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Hernandez will star opposite Omar Miller, Mike O’Gorman, Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga in the series.

Written by Matt Nix and to be directed by Anthony Hemingway, the pilot’s plot is true to its movie roots: Shocked to discover that her bland and unremarkable computer consultant husband (Howey) is a skilled international spy, an unfulfilled suburban housewife (Gonzaga) is propelled into a life of danger and adventure when she’s recruited to work alongside him to save the world as they try to revitalize their passionless marriage.

Hernandez will portray Maria, another of the operatives working with Harry (Howey). Tough and capable, she is a cool-headed, first class spy. But she never misses a chance to get in a dig at Luther’s expense, reminding him of something that went down between them while on a mission in Berlin.

20th Century Fox Television is the studio.

Hernandez can currently be seen as a series correspondent on the Emmy-nominated CBS show Mission Unstoppable, and in a recurring role on Epix series Bridge and Tunnel.

Her other television and film credits include NBC’s The Brave and New Amsterdam, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Brittany Runs a Marathon.

Ana Villafañe to Star in NBC’s Comedy Pilot “Night Court,” a Follow-Up to the Classic Legal Series

Posted on June 9, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Ana Villafañe is holding court…

The 32-year-old Cuban and Salvadoran American actress/singer has landed a series regular in NBC’s half-hour pilot Night Court.

The project is a follow-up to the classic legal comedy series headlined and executive produced by The Big Bang Theory’s Melissa Rauch, with the original series’ John Larroquette reprising his Emmy-winning role.

Written/executive produced by Dan Rubin based on the original series created by Reinhold Weege, the multi-camera Night Court centers on unapologetic optimist judge Abby Stone (Rauch), the daughter of the late Harry Stone, who follows in her father’s footsteps as she presides over the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court and tries to bring order to its crew of oddballs and cynics, most notably former night court prosecutor Dan Fielding (Larroquette).

Villafañe will play Monica, the court’s assistant district attorney. Type A, superficial and tightly wound. Monica sees the night court as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. She’s above this place and all the people in it, but it’s a good way to get some courtroom experience under her belt. It’s all part of her plan to land a job at one of the big firms. Thirty will be here before she knows it and if she’s not wildly successful by then…well it’s best not to think about it.

Villafañe is recurring on the final season of Younger, which streams on Paramount+.

She has also recurred on two NBC/Universal Television series, drama New Amsterdam and comedy Sunnyside.

On stage, Villafañe originated the role of Gloria Estefan in the Broadway production of On Your Feet and starred throughout the musical’s entire 2014-2017 run, winning the 2015 Theatre World Award for Best Actress.

She later starred as Nina Rosario in the Kennedy Center’s 2018 production of In the Heights and made her off-Broadway debut in MCC’s Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties in 2018. She is a two-time Drama League Award nominee for On Your Feet and Collective Rage.

Carlos Santos to Star Opposite Eugenio Derbez in English-Remake of “The Valet”

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Carlos Santos is preparing for Valet service…

The 35-year-old Puerto Rican actor and comedian will star in Lionsgate’s The Valet, the English-language remake of Francis Veber’s French film.

Santos joins a roster of new cast additions that includes Noemi Gonzalez (Selena: The Series, East Los High), Tiana Okoye (Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens, The Good Place), Diany Rodriguez (Law & Order: Organized Crime, New Amsterdam), Armando Hernandez (El César series on Prime Video, Disney+ series El Repatriado.

They join stars Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving in the film, which is being directed by Richard Wong.

The film, written by Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, follows Olivia (Weaving), a movie star who enlists Antonio (Derbez) – a parking valet – to pose as her lover to cover for a relationship with a married man. As a valet, the hard-working Antonio usually flies under the radar but his ruse with Olivia thrusts him into the spotlight and brings him to see himself more clearly than ever before.

Santos and Hernandez will play the valets who work with Antonio at a tony Beverly Hills restaurant.

Gonzalez will play Clara, Antonio’s sister and the wife of Benny, Antonio’s boss.

Okoye is Amanda, Olivia’s dedicated but jaded assistant.

Rodriguez will play Natalie, who works at Antonio’s neighborhood bike shop.

Derbez and Ben Odell are producing through their 3Pas Studios banner, while Meredith Wieck and Aaron Edmonds are overseeing the project for Lionsgate.

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