Latino Writers

Tanya Saracho is a playwright and television writer who most recently served as creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed series "Vida" on Starz, which earned 100% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes for all three seasons. The show, which aired its third and final season on Starz in May 2020, featured all Latine directors in season one, and all Latina directors in seasons two and three, including Saracho, who made her television directorial debut. The series had an all-Latine writers room for seasons one and two, and in season three, the room was composed of all Latina writers.

Saracho has multiple television projects in development as part of her overall deal with Universal Content Productions (UCP) and is adapting her Off-Broadway play "Mala Hierba" for Anonymous Content, for which she will make her feature film directorial debut.

Saracho co-founded the Untitled Latinx Project (ULP), whose mission is to increase Latine representation in television, broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms through content created by Latine writers, along with co-founding the Writers Access Support Staff Training Program, to help increase representation and opportunities for underrepresented communities. In addition, Saracho launched the Ojalá Ignition Lab in June, 2021, as part of her deal UCP, which is a lab and incubator program aimed to nurture, amplify, guide, and empower intersectional Latine voices. The fellows and finalists for Ojala's inaugural lab were announced in January 2022.

Saracho is the recipient of the Norman Lear Writers Award at the 36th Annual Imagen Awards, taking place October 2021. Named one of "TV Scribes to Watch" by Variety in 2018, Saracho was also honored by the LGBTQ California Legislative Caucus as their 2020 Pride Month Honoree. She received the Rising Star Award at the Outfest Legacy Awards and was awarded the New Voice Award by Final Draft. "Vida" won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2019, and was nominated for seasons two and three as well. The series was also honored by the National Hispanic Media Coalition with the 2019 Impact Award, won the Audience Award at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival, and made its season two premiere as an Official Selection of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival.

Saracho's television credits include "How to Get Away with Murder," HBO's "Looking," and "Devious Maids."

Saracho was named "Best New Playwright" by Chicago Magazine, and has had plays produced at New York City's Primary Stages and 2nd Stage, as well as Victory Gardens Theatre, The Denver Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf Theater, Teatro Vista, Teatro Luna, Fountain Theater, Clubbed Thumb, NEXT Theater and 16th Street Theater.

Saracho was also named one of nine national Latino "Luminarios" by Café Magazine, and received the first "Revolucionario" Award in Theater by the National Museum of Mexican Art. She is the founder of Teatro Luna (the first all-Latina Theatre Company in the nation, now defunct) as well as the founder of ALTA (Alliance of Latino Theatre Artists). She is currently in development with South Coast Repertory and Two River Theatre.

Saracho was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, México, and raised along the Texas border, spending the better part of her adult life in Chicago. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

Marco Ramirez is known for The Defenders (2017), Daredevil (2015) and Orange Is the New Black (2013).

Marcos Luevanos is a gay, Latinx, L.A. native, NYU alum, former Los Angeles Times Style Editor who was once dumped, fired, and slapped by different people all in the same day. He got his start in television lint-rolling Carson Kressley on Bravo's Queer Eye For The Straight Guy and assisting Kevin Williamson on The CW's The Vampire Diaries. He has participated in the NHMC's TV Writing Program ('09), NBC's Writers On The Verge ('10), and The CBS Writers Mentoring Program ('11). He has written on BET's The Game, NBC's Telenovela, CBS's Life In Pieces, The CW's Charmed, Hulu's Love, Victor, Peacock's Rutherford Falls, and is a Consulting Producer on Amazon's With Love. He can be found on Instagram as @beyoncesbestfriend, which has yet to be disproven.

John Herrera is known for The Handmaid's Tale (2017), Blood Drive (2017) and The Purge (2018).

Marvin Lemus is an award-winning director, co-creator, co-showrunner, and executive producer of Netflix's hit series, "Gentefied". The half-hour series was adapted from the digital series directed by Lemus, produced by Macro Studios and America Ferrera after premiering at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. "Gentefied" went on to be nominated for a prestigious Peabody Award and three Imagen Foundation Awards, including Best Comedy Series. Gentefied was listed as one of the 10 Best TV Shows of 2020 by the LA Times. Additionally, Hollywood Reporter listed "The Grapevine", written by Lemus, as one of TV Critics Top 10 Episodes of 2020. Lemus was named a Director to watch by Robert Rodriguez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Zoe Saldana as part of their "Latinxt List" in 2019 and 2020. He is an alum of the Sony Diverse Director's Program, Disney/ABC Directors Fellowship, and Film Independent's Project: Involve.

LUISA LESCHIN - short bio At age 5, Luisa was the Shirley Temple of Guatemala with her own TV show and she's been in the entertainment business ever since. In New York and L.A. she had a very successful acting career playing every Latino stereotype on most major television shows. Her frustration and desire to see more rounded Latino characters on TV led Luisa into a writing career, starting with co-founding and co-writing Latins Anonymous - a highly successful sketch comedy group and eponymous play which to date has received over 45 productions nationwide. As a writer, Luisa has worked on 485 produced episodes of television BOTH IN THE DRAMA AND COMEDY GENRES AND RUN A NUMBER OR WRITERS ROOMS FOR VARIOUS SHOWS; amongst them, three seasons on the award-winning series Just Add Magic (Amazon); three seasons on Mr. Iglesias, (Netflix) and on the Emmy and Humanitas nominated second season of Gentefied (Netflix). Other highlights are five seasons on the George Lopez show (122 episodes) where Luisa served as CO-EP and Everybody Hates Chris (CO-EP). With the same producers, she helped shepherd the TBS series Are We There Yet? through a 10-90 order - working on its 100 episodes. Luisa was honored to be selected to co-write the feature length series finale of Hulu's East Los High after working on the Emmy-nominated second season. A diverse writer - Luisa has also worked in hour-long DRAMA AND DRAMEDY- writing for Robert Rodriguez's series, From Dusk till Dawn. She sold The Black Veil - an original pilot for premium streaming to TNT, Dirty Girls pilot to NBC and has a deal with Uni-TV for Never too Late to be Happy, based on a South American format. In feature films, Luisa wrote the dance-driven Tropico, for Universal Family, co-wrote National Guard Wives for Showtime, Amigas-Sweet Fifteen Club for Disney Channel and the animated The Kid Who Saved Christmas for Warner Brother's Premiere Entertainment. Other sold television pilots include: Fox: Sherri, (a sitcom for Sherri Shepherd) Mambo Palace - one-hour dramedy. CBS/Paramount: Lorenzo's Wife - one-hour format. And currently, under her blind pilot deal at WB - Luisa wrote Pedro and Sons - a 1/2 hour single cam comedy.(Propagate). Under her banner, Tortuga Productions, Luisa served as Executive Producer on Time Pulse - a feature film about time-travel soon to be released.

Awards: Luisa is the proud recipient of the 2019 Norman Lear Lifetime Achievement Writer's Award. She is also a Golden Eagle Award recipient for Writing, and the first New Voices, Humanitas winner. Luisa is the proud recipient of the 2019 Norman Lear Lifetime Achievement Writer's Award. She is also a Golden Eagle Award recipient for Writing, and the first New Voices, Humanitas winner.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was born on 15 November 1971 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Riverdale (2017), Carrie (2013) and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (2022).

Dailyn Rodriguez was born in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City to Cuban parents. She attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where she graduated with a BFA in Dramatic Writing. In 2001 she earned a spot in the ABC/Disney Studios Writing Fellowship and has been working as a TV writer ever since.

Gabe Fonseca was born in Iowa City, Iowa, USA. Gabe is a writer and producer, known for House of the Dragon (2022), Jessica Jones (2015) and The Night Shift (2014).

Nancy C. Mejía is a writer/director born and raised in Los Angeles. She has written for both television and feature projects. She has experience as an episodic director as well as a producing director. She is first-generation Salvadoran-American and a UCLA graduate. She is an AFI Directing Workshop for Women Fellow and proud recipient of the inaugural Outfest Fusion Spotlight Award.

Emmy Nominated Roberto Patino is the Creator and Showrunner on the HBO Max limited series "DMZ," starring Rosario Dawson and Benjamin Bratt, which he executive produced alongside Ava DuVernay. Prior to that, he was an Executive Producer the first two seasons of HBO's "Westworld." Previous TV credits include "Sons of Anarchy" and "Prime Suspect."

Gladys Rodriguez is known for Vida (2018), Sons of Anarchy (2008) and The Lincoln Lawyer (2022). Gladys has been married to Greg Lopez since 30 May 2008.

Joaquin F. Palma was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He got his first job in the entertainment industry as a production intern in 2007. This job led to others of the same variety in the independent film world but he eventually found himself writing a screenplay for his first feature Followed Home in 2010. He was also the director of the aforementioned no-budget horror film that went on to screen at film festivals. Produced on a budget of $900, Followed Home went on to be distributed on DVD and VOD by Vanguard Cinema. Soon after, Joaquin was in production for his second feature as writer/director, this time on dark comedy feature According to Plan. More recently, Joaquin finished production on his third feature Prayers in the Dark and was a staff writer on the HULU show, East Los High. Aside from film and television, Joaquin has also had short fiction showcased in various publications and has acted as volunteer in various programs such as No Child Left Behind, where he was an English tutor for underprivileged children.

Javier Grillo-Marxuach was born on 28 October 1969 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is a producer and writer, known for Lost (2004), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019) and Charmed (1998).

Moisés Zamora is a Mexican-American, award-winning writer and filmmaker. He's the Creator / Executive Producer / Co-Showrunner of Selena: The Series for Netflix. He has written for the Emmy-winning drama American Crime, and Star on Fox. He won the Binational Literary Prize for Young Novel Border of Words in Mexico for his Spanish-language novel. He was twenty-five years old. In 2011, he received the award for Best Documentary by a Mexican Director at the Oaxaca FilmFest. He's from El Limón, Jalisco, Mexico.

Julia Fontana is known for Inside the Box (2013), The InBetween (2019) and Lucifer (2016).

Peter Murrieta was born on 23 March 1966 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Primo (2023), Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta and Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009). He is married to Aliza Murrieta.

Valentina Garza was born on 30 March 1975 in the USA. Valentina is a producer and writer, known for Only Murders in the Building (2021), Jane the Virgin (2014) and The Baker and the Beauty (2020).

A native of Chicago's southeast side, Mark Valadez was born into a family of steelworkers, although his father later became a police officer. A graduate of Northern Illinois University, he found work writing for comic books and published four short novels in the now defunct "Fright Time" series for young readers. In 2009, he earned a spot in the ABC-Disney Television Writing Program.

Tatiana is a screenwriter, playwright, and former actress. She received a Master of Fine Arts from the acting program at the Actors Studio Drama School, and is a graduate of The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program.

She was born in South America and is fully bilingual (English/Spanish).

Armando Bo is known for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), The Last Elvis (2012) and Biutiful (2010).

Austin Guzman is known for The Sandman (2022), Grey's Anatomy (2005) and Why Women Kill (2019).

Carlo Bernard is known for The Great Wall (2016), The Uninvited (2009) and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010).

Esti Giordani is known for Vida (2018), Transparent (2014) and Room 104 (2017).

Julio Torres was born on 11 February 1987 in El Salvador. He is a writer and actor, known for Problemista (2023), Nimona (2023) and Fantasmas (2024).