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“Queen of the South” Premieres Tonight on the USA Network

Based on the international best selling novel La Reina Del Sur

 Starring Alice Braga, Justina Machado & Hemky Madera


Hollywood continues its obsession with Mexican drug lords.  This time, in Queen of the South, the head of the drug cartel is a beautiful and cunning woman by the name of Teresa Mendoza.  The uniqueness of this TV series, which premieres tonight on the USA Network at 10pm, is that it is based on a true life person chronicled in internationally-acclaimed author Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s best-selling novel La Reina Del Sur; and that Mendoza lives to see her life story on the screen once again.

The global literary page-turner was produced as a telenovela in 2011 at USA’s sister network, Telemundo, becoming the second highest budgeted telenovela in its history. The final episode of Reina Del Sur was the highest rated broadcast show in Telemundo’s 19-year history (4.2 million viewers), beating all of the English language American television networks to earn the number one slot in the 18-49 adult demographic.

Queen of the South tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza, a woman who is forced to run and seek refuge in America after her drug-dealing boyfriend is unexpectedly murdered in Mexico.  In the process, she teams with an unlikely figure from her past to bring down the leader of the very drug trafficking ring that has her on the run

Starring Alice Braga (City of God) as Teresa, Queen of the South also stars Veronica Falcón (Besos de Azúcar) as Camila Vargas, Justina Machado (Six Feet Under) as Brenda Parra, Peter Gadiot (Tut) as James Valdez, Hemky Madera (Weeds) as Pote Galvez and Gerardo Taracena (Apocalypto) as Cesar “Batman” Guemes.  Guest stars include Joaquim de Almeida (Our Brand is Crisis), Jon Ecker (Narcos) and James Martinez (Breaking Bad).

Hemky Madera and Justina Machado Teresa Mendoza's Inner Circle

Hemky Madera (Pote) and Justina Machado (Brenda) part of Teresa Mendoza’s Inner Circle


The drama is executive produced by David T. Friendly (Little Miss Sunshine, Courage Under Fire), along with M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller (The Final Girls).  Scott Rosenbaum (Gang Related) will serve as showrunner.  The pilot was written by Fortin and Miller, directed by Charlotte Sieling and executive produced by Pancho Mansfield (Damien).  Fox 21 Television Studios developed and produced the pilot and will run lead on the co-production with UCP.

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