Always Running
Hollywood showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett takes in applause on the set of the sitcom One Day At A Time.
Despite working on a string of hit television shows, Gloria Calderón Kellett dreams of doing much more. The co-creator of the acclaimed remake of One Day At A Time is now behind an effort to support Latino creatives
Hollywood today is evolving, with studios and executives pushing for more diversity both in front of and behind the camera.
There is much to do, and veteran showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett has gladly taken a prominent role in the effort. The award-winning Cuban American writer, director and actress has accepted an invitation to join a select group of media visionaries on the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 2021 executive committee. She’ll help guide the organization and share her perspective on issues that impact the Latino community.
“It’s lovely to just have a seat at the table. Seeing change in my lifetime is something that I really want to continue.”
The co-creator of the acclaimed remake of the comedy One Day at a Time likes the notion that change is possible -- one script at a time.
Last fall, Calderón Kellett joined nearly 300 writers, producers and creators in making a splash in the entertainment industry, signing a “Dear Hollywood” letter calling for systemic changes in the way the industry deals with Latinx writers and their projects. She is among the Latina showrunners who started the Untitled Latinx Project, the advocacy group that drafted the letter. The writers and the showrunners—those multi-tasking team leaders on television productions—want to make sure Latinx creatives are part of the conversation when stories about Latinos are developed, or as the letter states: “No more stories about us without us.”
The Untitled Latinx Project letter was a call to change things up for Latinos in Hollywood. “We really want to do this and there are a lot of us,” Calderón Kellett said. “So please hire us. Use us. How can we help you make this change?”
“(Latinos) have tremendous financial power,” she added. “So Hollywood started to notice and said, ‘Oh, we need to make more things with Latinos in them,’” Calderón Kellet said. “(But) they would do that without hiring anybody in that room that was Latino.”
A turning point
Imbalance in Hollywood was clear to Calderón Kellett when she reached her own turning point. The Oregon native moved away from acting—her original career focus—when she realized there were too few meaningful roles available to Latino actors. She started writing and directing after earning a master’s degree in Theatre from the University of London.
She wrote on shows like Devious Maids, Jane The Virgin, and How I Met Your Mother. Her big breakthrough came in 2017 when she emerged as co-creator and co-showrunner of the critically acclaimed remake of One Day At A Time. As showrunner, Calderón Kellett supervised all aspects of production from writing scripts to editing and sound-mixing. “It was my dream come true,” she said.
Unlike the original 1970s version, Calderón Kellett’s take on the classic sitcom featured Justina Machado and Rita Moreno and revolved around a Latino family, a rarity in English-language television. “That show was a love letter to my parents and grandparents and their deep, deep sacrifice,” Calderón Kellett said in an interview with palabra. Her mother and father immigrated to the United States shortly after the Cuban Revolution.
Gloria Calderón Kellett (middle) surrounded by her One Day At A Time cast: Todd Grinnell, director Pam Fryman, Ed Quinn, Isabella Gomez and Stephen Tobolowsky.
Despite a much-publicized campaign by fans, executives of the Netflix/Pop TV/CBS show ended production in 2020. “I have to dream bigger now,” Calderón Kellett said. She is proud of how the cast and crew, many of them Latino, created culturally authentic characters and assembled props that accurately represented an immigrant experience. “(I’m amazed at) the amount of people who reached out to me to say they started crying because never in their life did they think they would see that level of specificity.”
Calderón Kellett is moving forward with several other projects in development.
Imagining a brighter future
Gloria Calderón Kellett spoke with palabra. about Hollywood’s future, rolling out her thoughts like markers in a busy week of production on a future TV show.
Gloria Calderón Kellett
It’s Day One of pre-production of an upcoming series, post-pandemic of course. Calderón Kellett is meeting, at first probably via Zoom, with a team of writers. They’re “breaking story,” as the process is called. Although she and the show’s other producers already have an idea of how the season’s episodes will look and sound, they listen carefully to the staff.
“Television and entertainment are mirrors of society. I would love to see a Latino family show, a Latino comedy, a Latino drama. I need to see several at the same time,” Calderón Kellett interjected, musing on her goals for her work with the Television Academy and the Untitled Latinx Project.
“Television and entertainment are mirrors of society. I would love to see a Latino family show, a Latino comedy, a Latino drama. I need to see several at the same time.”
Back to the show in her mind’s eye, and fast-forward a few weeks: Production has started. Calderón Kellett and her crew are ready to start shooting episodes. It’s a Wednesday and the cast goes through a table read of their dialogue. On Thursday, as show runner, Calderón Kellett is on set while performers, scripts in hand, act out scenes. There are rewrites, and more rehearsal, so that by Friday, the actors review a revised script as Calderón Kellett continues to check and double-check all details of the production.
That same attention to detail is part of what drives her campaign to speak out about Hollywood’s obligation to “get it right,” when it comes to depictions of underrepresented communities. “These conversations are important in terms of healing our culture and in terms of making people feel seen and understood and showing our common humanity.”
Back on the imagined set, Calderón Kellett’s cast and crew winds down production for the weekend, while the editing and sound-mixing move into post-production.
Calderón Kellett ends the hypothetical week in her new Hollywood feeling upbeat. She says it’s because of the talent—the many Latino writers--she sees emerging and armed with a sense of unity.
“The generation that I am growing up with is really about supporting one another and talking about each other’s shows and praising each other’s wins.”
That desire to help has Calderón Kellett paying it forward. She’s working with the BuzzFeed/Pero Like collaboration on a free, 10-episode web series titled Hollywood 101. The goal is to offer aspiring writers information that they may not otherwise have access to.
“They can at least see that and it gives them a starting point to at least start thinking,” Calderón Kellett said.
“Maybe that attitude is newer, realizing that nobody is winning if we are divided among ourselves. That doesn’t make any sense. Now that we are united we are stronger.”
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Saida Pagán is an award-winning, Los Angeles-based journalist and television host. She has reported and produced for news organizations across the United States and appeared in nearly 100 films, prime-time television programs and other media projects. Pagán is currently producing a documentary chronicling the history of the city of Los Angeles.