By Justina Bonilla
Both Blumhouse Productions and Blumhouse Television are keeping busy with the release of a variety of projects, including two films (The Craft: Legacy and Freaky) and one miniseries (The Good Lord Bird).
Among the vast talents presented in the Blumhouse projects are Latino talents in prominent roles. Each actor shines in their role, adding to the appeal of the ensemble cast of each project.
The Good Lord Bird
Rafael Casal Photo: Jeff Vespa
Network/Streaming: Showtime and Hulu
Release Date: October 4 to November 15
The episode airing on October 25 of the miniseries The Good Lord Bird, titled Smells like Gorilla, features the introduction of the reoccurring character John Cook, played by actor Rafael Casal. Cook, is introduced during John Brown (Ethan Hawke)’s fundraising mission. He is a member of Brown’s band of misfit, yet loyal rebels.
Casal is a writer, performer, and producer originally from the San Francisco Bay area. Casal’s first television appearance was performing on three seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, and is a content creator online, with millions of YouTube/Facebook views for his music, poetry, web shorts, and political commentary. His theater-in-verse work has brought him around the country and the world both in the realm of activism and art performance at hundreds of colleges and venues. Casal is the co-founder and artistic director of the BARS workshop at the Public Theater in New York.
Casal and fellow actor/rapper Daveed Diggs collaborated on the film Blindspotting which released in 2018. The pair wrote, produced, and starred in the film that uses verse to tell the story of their hometown of Oakland. Casal is set to make his directorial debut in First Sight, a sci-fi romantic comedy about falling asleep to find the person of your dreams
The Craft: Legacy
Zoey Luna Photo: Sony Pictures
Streaming: Fandango Now, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, VUDU
Release Date: October 28
The sequel to the classic 1996 film The Craft, directed by writer, producer, and actor Zoe Lister-Jones (New Girl, Life in Pieces, and Whitney). The Craft: Legacy follows four high school girls who create their own witch’s coven. As their newfound powers grow, they grapple to control them. One of the members of this coven is Zoey Luna.
Luna is an up and coming actress and transgender activist, identifying as a transgender Latina. Transitioning at a young age, with support from her mother, Luna was able to share her story as a young TransLatina and the challenges she faced in school, to be respected as the gender she identified with, in the television documentaries The T Word and Raising Zoey.
Later, Luna was featured in the HBO documentary four-part series 15: A Quinceañera Story, documenting the journey to her Quinceañera and what it symbolized to her and her family. From her participation in documentaries, Luna has gone on to appear as an actress in the trailblazing award-winning television program Pose.
Melissa Collazo Photo: Mike Colletta
Freaky
Release: Limited theatrical release
Release Date: November 13
A unique teen horror comedy, where Freaky Friday meets 1980’s teen slasher. Shy high school student Millie (Kathryn Newton) accidentally through the supernatural switches bodies with a prolific seal killer (Vince Vaughn). Millie, with the help of her friends, must switch back bodies within 24-hours, or else the switch will be permanent. Among the supporting high school classmate roles is Ryler (Melissa Collazo).
Collazo first major acting role was as a recurring character in the popular horror fantasy Netflix series Stranger Things, as a middle school student and gamer. Collazo has also been featured in the CW series Swamp Thing, as the lead character Abby Acrane (Crystal Reed), when she was a teenager.
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