Amiga, meet these Latinas leading primetime television on the new NBC comedy, Lopez vs. Lopez, now streaming on Peacock! As the only Latine-led sitcom currently on primetime, Debby Wolfe, Mayan Lopez, and Selenis Leyva are the women in front and behind the camera doing the work to ensure more shows featuring our gente continue to get greenlit and renewed in Hollywood. Even as BIPOC make up half of all audiences, and 21% of Latines making up that demographic, there is still a gaping disparity in what is seen on screen, especially for Latinas. Cristina Escobar, Co-Founder of LatinaMedia.co, hosts this Amigahood exclusive conversation discussing the making of Lopez vs. Lopez, representation in primetime and in Hollywood, and how we as a collective can ensure that our stories continue to get shared on the screen.
About Debby Wolfe:
Debby Wolfe is the showrunner and an executive producer on the new NBC comedy “Lopez vs. Lopez.”Wolfe’s other credits include “The Conners” for ABC, “Primo” for Freevee, “Love, Victor” for Hulu and “One Day at a Time” for Netflix. She previously had development at Amazon, Disney+ and CBS. Her award-winning short films have screened in festivals worldwide, including Tribeca, NBC Universal Short Cuts, the BET Urbanworld Film Festival and the HBO NYC Latino Film Festival. Despite her many accomplishments in comedy, Wolfe’s Salvadorian mother still doesn’t think she’s funny. Her Jewish father says he could do her job better.
About Mayan Lopez:
Mayan Lopez plays Mayan Lopez on the new NBC comedy “Lopez vs. Lopez.” Lopez, who is an actress, producer and TikTok influencer, grew upon the set of the hit television series “George Lopez,” which started filming when she was 5 years old. To help launch her career, Lopez received extensive training at the Conservatory Program at Second City Chicago and Columbia College Chicago’s Comedy Writing and Performance Program. She honed her improv skills while performing with various improv troupes late at night at Second City after the Main Stage shows and also did voice over work for the local Chicago and regional Midwest market. Lopez left Chicago and returned to Los Angeles just as the pandemic struck. In quarantine and with no auditions, she started to do TikTok videos as a creative outlet and her account took off. Her other credits include “Handsome: A Netflix Murder Mystery,” “Other People,” “Jersey,” “Mr. Troop Mom” and “George Lopez.”
About Selenis Leyva:
Selenis Leyva is an American actress. She is known for her role as Gloria Mendoza in the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black, and also starred on the Disney+ comedy-drama series Diary of a Future President. She plays Rosie on the new NBC comedy Lopez vs. Lopez. About Cristina Escobar: A writer and activist, Cristina Escobar is the co-founder of latinamedia.co, uplifting Latina and gender non-conforming Latinx perspectives in media. A rehabilitated English major, she’s a member of the Latino Entertainment Journalists Association and writes at the intersection of race, gender, and pop culture. Her words can be found in Glamour, Roger Ebert, Latino Rebels, Remezcla, Shondaland, and lost grocery lists.
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