According to The Hollywood Reporter, Charles D. King is teaming up with Superstore’s America Ferrera to create a dramatic comedy through his multiplatform media company. The web series will be called Gente-fied which the title itself is meant to be a pun for the word “gentrified.” Gente means people in Spanish. Gente-Fied features an all-Latino cast including Ferrera who will also serve as one of the executive producers. The series follows seven characters as they come across multiple changes occurring in their Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. Moreover, each episode of Gente-fied will be seen through the point of view of a different character. This includes the bi-cultural Latinos trying to celebrate their roots to the old-fashion small business owners trying to make sense of all the emerging changes that threaten their way of life.
In addition to Ferrera, the cast of Gente-fied includes Alicia Sixtos (East Los High), Art Bonilla, Edsson Morales, Rafael Sigler (The Bridge), Sal Velez, Victoria Ortiz, and Yareli Arizmendi (Like Water for Chocolate). Marvin Bryan Lemus created and directed the series and he also co-wrote it with Linda Yvette Chavez. King will assist Ferrera and Lemus as executive producer. Macro will finance seven episodes for the bilingual series. Macro was recently launched in early 2015 by King with the intention of working with multicultural filmmakers. The dramedy also marks Macro’s first digital series.
Watch the Gent-fied trailer below:
The teaser kicks off with a cook approaching a patron and asking “How’s the taco?” And the customer eagerly replies “Dude, it’s amazing, it feels like my family just got kidnapped by a cartel, like I’m in Mexico. It’s that authentic.” The cook proceeds to awkwardly walk away. Then there’s a scene where a mariachi singer is upset after reliving video footage of a guy grinding on him while he’s performing on stage. “I felt his balls on my leg!” the singer exclaims in Spanish. Then later there appears to be some racial tensions particularly between a cashier and a customer at a store and also some heated arguments between Latinxs. Towards the end, the comedic teaser declares that the series will have “No Cartels,” “No Guns,” and “No Drugs.” Which is interesting to see considering the show wants to steer clear from the typical depiction of Latinxs in TV/Film as thugs, gang-bangers, and drug dealers.
As of now, no release date has been confirmed for Gente-fied.