A rising star in TV, Emilia Serrano is poised to make her mark on the big screen. The Latina writer just sold two scripts to Sony, Variety reports. The feature comedies are being developed by Sony’s Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions.
Serrano’s small screen credits include “Cristela,” “The Finder,” and “My Generation.” If the scripts move forward, the pics would mark her first work in feature films.
Currently untitled, the first script is a Columbia Pictures project produced by “Fargo” creator Noah Hawley’s 26 Keys and Amy Pascal’s Pascal Pictures. The coming-of-age story centers on “a career-driven Latina American during her ‘double quinceañera’ — celebrated at age 30 because she missed having her first quinceñera at 15. She invites her parents, best friends, and brazen married cousin to a work trip disguised as a double quince, inviting trouble that could jeopardize her job and her relationships.”
Hawley mentored Serrano when she was first breaking into the biz. They met when she participated in the NHMC Latino Writers Program after leaving a career in advertising.
The second script is “The Throwdown,” a Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions comedy. The story is about “gentrification and the culture clash around food when two Latina American cousins from the Bay Area find themselves fighting over an inherited rundown restaurant and the one thing that originally brought their families together — their late grandfather’s family recipes. The neighborhood will take sides, cousins will take jabs, and this family will take on the stories around a different kind of food fight.”
“I don’t have a crazy past, but I have a unique point of view,” Serrano has explained. “I describe myself as a first-generation, tomboy Mexican with pretty hair. My parents were auto workers and our Mexican culture was embedded in our everyday life even when we moved from the East Bay to the Midwest. We were the only Mexican family in our town. That was crazy. Only much later did I realize I had a great place to mine stories.”
When asked why she thinks it’s important for more Latinos to be in the writers room, Serrano has said, “It’s crucial that Latinos with diverse Latinos stories are a part of today’s storylines. If one gets hired for being Latino, but doesn’t pitch ideas that relate to or resonate with Latino American culture, then they’re not being a part of the change,” she observed.
Check out Serrano’s website for a hilarious timeline of her life and career.
