Queer Latinx Heartthrob Roberta Colindrez Joins the Cast of ‘Vida’

Revving up for its second season, which has recently been extended from its first season’s six episodes to 10, Tanya Saracho’s Vida is adding out actor Roberta Colindrez (I Love Dick) to its cast as a series regular. Colindrez will portray Nico, a newly hired bartender at Vida, the recently renamed family bar.

Season one of the Starz series introduced sisters Emma and Lyn, who after their mother’s death, return to their hometown of Boyle Heights, a predominantly Latinx neighborhood in Los Angeles, to attend the funeral and settle her affairs. They find their stay unexpectedly extended by their late mother’s financial troubles, and revelations regarding her identity.

Colindrez, who has made several appearances in television and film, is best known for her work in Jill Soloway’s short-lived I Love Dick, where she played a playwright named Devon, and for her role in the Tony Award-winning show, Fun Home, a musical based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir of the same name. More recently, she can be heard in the popular Joseph Fink podcast, Alice Isn’t Dead, which follows a woman named Keisha on a road trip in search of answers regarding the disappearance of her wife. 

In an interview with Vanity Fair last year, regarding her role of Rosencrantz in a stage production of Hamlet, Colindrez discussed the importance of casting queer people of color, in light of experiences she’s had when revealing that she is an actor.

“I know what they’re thinking. ‘You’re clearly queer, you’re dressed like a child, you have tattoos.’ They have this impression that a person that looks like me . . . I try not to be like ‘You’re fucking racist!’ or whatever, but they’re probably thinking, ‘There’s no way you belong on the screen,'” she said. “And I’m so happy to shatter that forever.”

While no additional details of her character have been revealed yet, Roberta Colindrez is a welcome addition to the all-Latinx cast. Born in Mexico, she is Argentinian and Honduran. The show makes a point of hiring a writing staff and cast of mostly Latinx, queer folks in order to provide a more genuine portrait of the queer Latinx experience in 2018 America.

Season 2 of Vida is currently in pre-production.

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

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