Nuestro Stories, the diverse-owned content, influencer, adtech, and production studio devoted to celebrating Latino storytellers, announced the launch of Nuestro Studios. Nuestro Studios marks a bold evolution for Nuestro Stories with storytelling capabilities that now span premium branded content, original films, series, documentaries, and podcasts.
“We innovated the Latino social media and influencer marketing industries with Hispanicize, and today we will apply that same tenacity and entrepreneurship to crack the code for Latinos in Hollywood,” said Nuestro Stories Co-Founder Manny Ruiz, who will oversee the Nuestro Studios productions team.“In collaboration with like-minded filmmakers, actors, producers, and media companies, Nuestro Studios will help unleash the bottled-up dreams and great stories of countless Latino storytellers.”
Nuestro Studio’s first productions
Nuestro Studios’ first slate of productions feature three original films, and podcasts highlighted by ‘Bistec: A Dissident’s Tale’. Written by Ruiz, the feature film and original audio series tells the quirky cat-and-mouse story of Cuba’s most prominent dissident, and the Communist neighborhood snitch who’s sworn to stop him. Six-time EMMY-winning conductor Alberto Bade will score ‘Bistec’, and Cuban filmmaker, writer, and documentarian Ernesto Fundora of ‘Cuba Suena’ is joining as associate producer, and head of photography.
Also in production is the short film ‘El Clavito’, which tells the dark tale of a young couple who make a strange compromise to buy their dream home for $1. ‘El Clavito’ was co-written by the late Mel Santiesteban and Ruiz. ‘Fantastic Fails’ is an entertaining, interview-style podcast devoted to showcasing entrepreneurs’ biggest business ideas that failed, and the lessons they learned from them.
As part of its commitment to collaborate with other Latino studios and production companies, Nuestro Studios is producing its five-part audio series for ‘Bistec’ and its serial podcast ‘Fantastic Fails’ with the award-winning team of Studio Ochenta led by Lory Martinez. The ‘Fantastic Fails’ podcast is being hosted and co-executive produced by Jesse Martinez, founder of the Latinx Startup Alliance.
As part of the company’s expansion, Nuestro Stories also promoted the multi-hyphenated producer, and senior editor, Efrain Gonzalez to partner and vice president of Nuestro Studios productions. Gonzalez’ talent can already be seen on many of Nuestro Stories’ premium snackable documentaries.
Amplifying news for Nuestro Studios content
Nuestro Studios’ approach will initially lean on commercial-friendly content that can be packaged for brand content partnerships that Nuestro Stories has cultivated. Nuestro Stories’ powerful capability in social media, adtech, influencers, and press release wire through Noticias Newswire, gives it strong leverage to solve for many of WOM and marketing-related hurdles Latino content platforms and producers typically face.
“We’re already on phase two, which is to ensure maximum amplification and views for the productions we’re creating or collaborating on,” said Gonzalez. “Aggressively solving for the distribution of content on streamers, online, and elsewhere is what we’re addressing for the marketplace and what excites us most.”
Latino storytellers under-represented in Hollywood
Based on the Hollywood Diversity Report 2023, the representation of people of color remained insufficient across various industry sectors in 2022, except for streaming film actors. This includes both on-screen and behind-the-scenes roles. Despite Latinos representing 19% of the total U.S. population and being enthusiastic moviegoers, their presence on the big screen remains disproportionately low. In 2022, white actors dominated 78.4% of leading roles in theatrical films, while Latinos were only given 2.3% of these opportunities. Similarly, on streaming platforms, while leads were predominantly white in 66.7% of films, Latinos were represented in only 6.1% of these roles.
Nuestro Stories Names Media and Brand Advertising Industry Veteran Alex Hernandez Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Brand Partnerships
Nuestro Stories has appointed broadcast and digital advertising veteran Alex Hernandez as Chief Revenue Officer / Head of Brand Partnerships and Senior Partner. Hernandez’s hire is timed with Nuestro Stories’ recent launch of Nuestro Studios, centered in Latino storytellers.
Hernandez was most recently Vice President of Multicultural at iHeartMedia. He comes to Nuestro Stories with more than 20 years of media and brand partnerships experience following senior sales marketing roles across NBCUniversal including Telemundo, Bravo, and E!, in addition to leadership roles at award winning agencies Macias Creative and RockOrange.
“Alex brings a rare triple mix of brand partnership experience, advertiser relationships, and creativity that we’ve patiently sought from a senior partner for this phase of Nuestro Stories,” said Angela Sustaita-Ruiz, Co-Founder and Chairwoman of Nuestro Stories. “His leadership and compelling creative range are especially vital for us as we cater to Nuestro Stories’ core with Latino heritage content but also expand with our Nuestro Studios offering across films, series, podcasts, etc…”
“It is an honor to work on and help build this platform that is dedicated to our culture and heritage,” said Hernandez. “We are a true representation of a thriving diaspora across the country and the impacts we have made. This foundation is what will help our brand partners create deeper and more authentic connections to such an important consumer group.”
Nuestro Stories also recently promoted producer, and senior editor, Efrain Gonzalez to partner and vice president of Nuestro Studios. Gonzalez’ talent can already be seen on many of Nuestro Stories’ premium snackable documentaries.
