HBO Max Orders New Kids and Family Series ‘Gordita Chronicles’

HBO Max Orders Kids and Family Series ‘Gordita Chronicles’ from Sony Pictures Television, Zoe Saldana’s Cinestar Pictures and Osprey Productions

The family comedy is about a willful, 12-year-old Dominican girl who struggles to fit into hedonistic 1980s Miami as her family pursues the American dream.

HBO Max has given a series order to GORDITA CHRONICLES from Sony Pictures Television starring Diana Maria Riva, Juan Javier Cardenas and Olivia Goncalves.

· LOGLINE: A family comedy about a willful, 12-year-old Dominican girl who struggles to fit into hedonistic 1980s Miami as her family pursues the American dream.

· Eva Longoria directed the pilot and will serve as executive producer for UnbeliEVAble Entertainment.

· Claudia Forestieri wrote the pilot and will serve as executive producer.

· Credits: Josh Berman (“Drop Dead Diva,” “CSI”) executive produces alongside Jennifer Robinson and Chris King of Osprey Productions. Brigitte Munoz-Liebowitz will executive produce and showrun for Bons Mots Emporium. Zoe Saldana, Mariel Saldana and Cisely Saldana are executive producers for Cinestar Pictures.

· HBO Max Quotes: “We are thrilled to partner with Zoe, Eva, Josh and Sony Pictures Television to bring to life this beautiful coming-of-age story inspired by Claudia’s personal journey,” said Jennifer O’Connell, Executive Vice President, Non-Fiction and Live-Action Family Programming, HBO Max. “HBO Max is proud to work with the powerhouse Latinx talent in front of and behind the camera for this series, which we believe will resonate with all families,” added Sarah Aubrey, Head of Original Content, HBO Max.

· Sony Pictures Television Studios Quote: “From the minute we heard Claudia’s childhood story, we knew it was not only incredibly funny, but emotionally poignant and an important story to tell,” said Jason Clodfelter, Co-President, Sony Pictures Television Studios. “Cucu and the Castellis remind us of the iconic sitcom families we grew up watching, but none of those ever captured a Dominican family’s experience of coming to America. This show changes all of that, and we are thrilled and grateful to dive back in and make a wonderful series for our friends at HBO Max.”

· Cast includes:
· Olivia Goncalves as “Carlota ‘Cucu’ Castelli,” a willful, confident, reluctant Dominican immigrant with a heart of gold. Cucu is overzealous in her quest to regain the queen bee status in her new school, when her parents and older sister move to Miami for her dad’s new job.
· Diana Maria Riva (“Dead to Me,” “McFarland, USA”) as “Adela,” Cucu’s mom.
· Juan Javier Cardenas as “Victor Castelli,” Cucu’s dad.
· Savannah Nicole Ruiz as “Emilia,” Cucu’s older sister.
· Noah Rico (“High School Musical: The Musical”) as “Yosmel ‘Yoshy’ Hernandez,” a Cuban refugee and Cucu’s first friend in Miami.
· Cosette Hauer as “Ashley,” an optimistic go-getter desperate to fit in, but nevertheless always sticks out.

About Sony Pictures Television: Sony Pictures Television (SPT) is one of the television industry’s leading content providers, producing, distributing and carrying programming worldwide in every genre and for every platform. In addition to managing one of the industry’s largest libraries of award-winning feature films, television shows and formats, SPT is home to a thriving global content business, operating a robust portfolio of wholly-owned and joint-venture production companies across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, as well as linear and digital channels around the world. SPT is a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company.

About Cinestar Pictures: Cinestar Pictures was co-founded by sisters Mariel, Cisely and Zoe Saldana with a focus on broadening the American narrative and creating meaningful, character-driven content. Committed to honest portrayals of women and accurate representation of the America we live in, Cinestar produces contemporary, multi-cultural stories for everyone. In addition to THE GORDITA CHRONICLES, Cinestar is currently in production on the Netflix limited series FROM SCRATCH and Marco Perego’s directorial debut KEYHOLE GARDEN.

About Osprey Productions: Osprey recently signed a significant 5 year overall deal with the studio, the production company’s fifth consecutive overall deal with SonyTV. Berman began his career as a writer on the first season of CSI, rising to Executive Producer. He then produced Bones for four seasons while creating and showrunning the Lifetime hit series Drop Dead Diva, which ran for six seasons. Most recently, Osprey set up pilot scripts at all four broadcast networks as well as script to series Inheritance Games at Amazon TV, among other streaming series pilots in both the hour and half-hour space. Jennifer Robinson was named head of Osprey Prods in 2020 and Alec Durkheimer was promoted to Director of Development.

About UnbeliEVAble Entertainment: Eva Longoria directed the pilot and serves as executive producer for UnbeliEVAble Entertainment. This coupled with Longoria’s upcoming feature directing of Searchlight’s Flamin’ Hot, Universal’s 24/7 and Sony’s Spa Day come amid major advances for female directors. The DGA’s recent TV inclusion report, however, revealed that Latinos and women of color are still severely underrepresented.”